Did he say “What is Ball”?
Yes, he did.
I’m glad I didn’t watch it, because that would have irked the shit out of me.
… And she would have to say “Be even more specific.”
Which would have been difficult, as John Adams (the father) had no middle name. The only way to be more specific would have been to say “Who is John (not Quincy) Adams?”
How about “John, just John, Adams” or “John No Middle Name Adams”?
“John Adams, Senior” would work too.
My dad had no middle name, and his Army records were all marked “NMI” for “No Middle Initial.”
No, he didn’t! He said “what’s Ball.” Get it straight, people! Saying the word “is” takes up precious time!
I don’t begrudge him using contractions; plenty of other contestants have done that at least some of the time. But I do begrudge him the other practices I’ve already complained about in this thread. He could say “who’s Schwarzenegger” and “what’re the Alps” instead of “what’s Schwarzenegger” and “what’s Alps.”
Actually, that would be incorrect. The first President Adams, the one without the Quincy, was officially John Adams, Jr. Talk about a trick question!
Just as a sidebar, in NAQT (National Academic Quiz Tournaments), which is more serious/academic than the dumbed-down latter-day College Bowl, there is a specific John Adams rule, which says that “John Adams” means the elder and no “more specific” prompt if we happen to be looking for JQA. “Adams” generally gets a “more specific” regardless of whom.
On Saturday here in the Phoenix market, the same channel that carries Jeopardy! during the week shows a rerun in the same time slot. Usually they are not quite a year old, so we’ve usually forgotten everything (including the contestants!). We can watch it again for the first time.
But right now they are showing the ones with Mayim Bialik hosting. I fear that soon, maybe even today, we’ll have Matt on Saturday, too. Sheesh.
A fun way to watch Jepardy - every Friday my brothers and I have a Zoom call and we watch 3-4 shows. We do this thing where it the answer is fairly obvious, we have to come up with something to add to our response. An example from a show that aired a few months ago, the clue was about someone who invented a now discredited brain surgery. My response - “I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.”
Got a bottle in front of me now, watching old shows.
“Moops”?
Huh. I do not know that!
You learn something new every day! 
Wouldn’t have surprised me, even though this was long before Seinfeld! 
That’s pretty much the way it works in the history books as well. When you say “John Adams,” you’re talking about the 2nd President. His son, the 6th President, is always “John Quincy Adams.” Nobody would be likely to say “John Adams” if they were talking about the son.
Which is all well and good, but Matt’s response was simply “what’s Adams”–not “what’s John Adams”–and they didn’t ask him to be more specific.
With Matt being an AI researcher, I’m envisioning a scenario out of a science fiction movie, wherein a rogue AI simulation of Matt gets out of control and keeps replicating itself, a la Smith in the Matrix trilogy. Jeopardy in 30 years…
Announcer: This… is… Jeopardy! Here are today’s contestants. A Ph.D. student from New Haven, Connecticut, Matt Amodio. A Ph.D. student from New Haven, Connecticut, Matt Amodio. And, our returning champion–a Ph.D. student from New Haven, Connecticut, Matt Amodio, whose six thousand, nine hundred thirty-eight day cash winnings total two hundred seventy-five million, seven hundred fort-five thousand, nine hundred seventy-one dollars! And now, here is the host of Jeopardy, Matt Amodio!
Matt: Thank you, Matt Amodio; thank you, Matts and Matts. Well, our champion, Matt, turned in quite the performance in yesterday’s game, winning over fifty-thousand dollars. Will he continue his streak tonight, or will our newcomers, Matt and Matt, have something to say about that? Let’s find out as we begin the Jeopardy round, where we will deal with these categories. We start off with Famous Matts. Followed by, Famous Amodios…
I see he’s still got that $1. Come on MattPrime - bet 9 dollars! That ‘one’ is just hanging out there.
I look forward to having the “What’s Adams?” discussion on here again when the category is “Pulitzer-Winning Composers.”
“And here’s our Double Jeopardy answers:”
“Interrogative pronouns”
“Guaranteed botched responses that make your lie wounded and silent during the next question”
“People surnamed Adams (full responses, please)”
Matt Amodio has not only been eliminated, he came in third when all three contestants were within striking distance of each other and he answered incorrectly.
If this is for real, it’s a complete dick fucking move. It’s not even 5:30 on the East Coast.