# The Jeopardy thread \[was James Holzhauer\]\[contains spoilers\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** reality-or-game-show\ **Created:** [April 17, 2019, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696 "2019-04-17T21:53:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 116
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/2302 "2021-07-07T16:35:46Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > Anybody else thinking the current 5-time champ, Courtney Shah, isn’t really typical 5-time champ material? She’s just gotten lucky in having such weak challengers. Is she the first 5-time champ in the post-Trebeck era? ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/2303 "2021-07-07T16:50:33Z")
Common knowledge among football (especially college football) fans. Pretty obscure for everyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/2304 "2021-07-07T18:42:50Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Common knowledge among football (especially college football) fans. Pretty obscure for everyone else And yet all three contestants got it right. Frankly, none of them struck me as college football fans, so I was surprised that they all answered it correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/2305 "2021-07-07T18:48:28Z")
I couldn’t possibly be less interested in college football and have never watched five seconds of a college football game in my life, and I knew it. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/2306 "2021-07-07T20:12:23Z")
I call it “An Ohio state university” (something I learned right here on SDMB). After all, there are other state universities in Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/2307 "2021-07-07T21:49:39Z")
[No.](https://j-archive.com/showseason.php?season=37) Brian Chang won eight games in Ken Jennings’ second week, and Zach Newkirk, who had started with Alex pre-COVID, returned, beating Brian to win his fifth, sixth, and seventh games. [Nitpick: Trebek, not Trebeck.] ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/2308 "2021-07-07T22:57:38Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I noticed the player in the middle last night had a strategy that backfired three times. He’d get one of the easy clues at the top of a category, then select one of the tougher clues at the bottom. I think he got them wrong every time. The third time was a Daily Double, and that ended any chance he had. > > I know there’s a debate over the best method to select clues when you have control of the board, but what this guy was doing clearly didn’t work for him. Yeah, I wish these people who don’t got the James Holzhauer goods would stop trying the James Holzhauer strategy. If there were a really strong player on it would be different, but nobody in the past few weeks has benefited from bouncing all over the board. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/2309 "2021-07-07T23:37:29Z")
Is there any wall in Jerusalem that’s more world-famous than the Wailing Wall? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/2310 "2021-07-07T23:47:51Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > I couldn’t possibly be less interested in college football and have never watched five seconds of a college football game in my life… Tread lightly here. There are people who will jump on you like a DDS going after an anti-Dentite! ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/2311 "2021-07-07T23:51:54Z")
> [@Arcite](#): > > I couldn’t possibly be less interested in college football and have never watched five seconds of a college football game in my life, and I knew it. I actually went to Ohio State, and never watched one second of a football game; never even stepped foot inside the stadium. And BTW, nobody there actually calls it anything but Ohio State. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2021, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/2312 "2021-07-07T23:57:25Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Is there any wall in Jerusalem that’s more world-famous than the Wailing Wall? I can’t believe no one got “FDR”! 😲 ---
**Author:** ![Arcite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/67e7ee/32.png) [@Arcite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arcite)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2021, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/2313 "2021-07-08T02:21:15Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > I can’t believe no one got “FDR”! 😲 I actually didn’t know that one, but in general there have been many triple-stumpers lately that I couldn’t believe were triple-stumpers. Like last night’s clue about NoDoz, or the one two nights ago about fern leaves being called fronds. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2021, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/2314 "2021-07-08T03:26:54Z")
It never occurred to me that NoDoz was based on caffeine. If you want to stay awake, why not just have an espresso or two? ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2021, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/2315 "2021-07-08T04:00:41Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Is there any wall in Jerusalem that’s more world-famous than the Wailing Wall? To be fair, the clue didn’t say “wall.” It said the only remaining structure. (I knew it was the Wailing Wall though.) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2021, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/2316 "2021-07-08T04:12:22Z")
Yes, but the category was “Wall-to-Wall.” Everything else in the category was a wall. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2021, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/2317 "2021-07-08T04:15:26Z")
Ah, I see. I don’t always catch the categories. In that case, it should have been easy. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2021, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/2318 "2021-07-08T15:34:31Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > I don’t always catch the categories. A lot of times, I just answer the question from what I know, Then I miss one with something like “vestibule” and my wife is all “the answer is supposed to have four letters!” And I’m like, “huh, and so it should!” Never even noticed! If I were even on the game, I’d be damn sure to look at the category first! ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2021, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/2319 "2021-07-08T15:51:49Z")
It’s a bit easier for the contestants with the category names right there. We don’t have that. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2021, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/2320 "2021-07-08T19:17:53Z")
But I’m sure there’s a lot of pressure felt. You’re RIGHT THERE, under the lights, in front of the audience and knowing this is for real. I shudder to think what stupid mistakes I would probably make. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2021, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696/2321 "2021-07-08T19:21:50Z")
Oh, I’m sure the pressure is immense. You’ve probably already told your family and friends that you’re going to be on Jeopardy!, perhaps after years of being the biggest know-it-all they know, so they’re all going to be watching your episode. So to fall flat after all of that, would be embarrassing. It’s one reason I never tried out for the show (although now I regret not having made the attempt while Alex Trebek was still alive). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696.md?page=115) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-jeopardy-thread-was-james-holzhauer-contains-spoilers/832696.md?page=117)