Also, when he makes comments like “You’re thinking of his father,” it’s during the daily doubles and final jeopardy. It wouldn’t surprise me if the producers put notes for those questions saying what some common wrong answers are.
I’m cool with that, as long as it is someone who is at least as good at the knowledge stuff as the average second place contestant. Anything less than that, no.
The new head writer on Jeopardy! says players should find a style that works for them and not use Holzhauer’s method, because he was a “one-in-a-million” player.
She and Alex think the games flow better from top to bottom.
I disagree, and I think the example of Jason shows that people not quite as smart as James can do well with his technique. Time will tell how popular and successful it will be.
I still say, this new guy they got isn’t as good as Art Fleming, and soon they’ll realize it and replace this upstart.
I watched yesterday’s game and it seemed like they were trying to use Holzhauer’s technique of starting with the $1000/$2000 clues and jumping around the board. Unfortunately, none of them had Holzhauer’s depth of trivia knowledge to really control the board. It was painful to watch them all struggle like that.
I haven’t had time to watch much since Jason left, but in the few games I saw after that I found the straight-down-the-categories play that most players were doing to be pretty boring.
I guess it’s a question of what you want from the game: two or three closely matched, but not outstandingly brilliant, players who go back and forth for the lead, or one really smart player who quickly builds and holds a commanding lead for most of the game. The former describes about 98% of the games played in the last 35 years, and the latter is Jennings, Holzhauer, and a few other top champions.
Personally, I find the latter type more interesting, and worth tuning in to watch. The former is not so compelling to me that I’d normally spend 30 minutes on it instead of some other more novel show I would watch on Netflix, Amazon, etc. There are too many other options out there to spend half an hour on an ordinary Jeopardy! game.
If you like the ordinary play, more power to you. Enjoy! And of course, they can’t all be extraordinary, by definition. So although I’ve been predicting that more people will try Holzhauer’s technique, obviously only a few will do very well with it, and almost no one will do as well as James did. I’m curious to find out how many people will attempt it and make it work better than the standard method.
FYI, here’s an interview with Alex from about a year ago that I hadn’t noticed at the time, and came across yesterday when I saw the story about the interview with the new head writer.
Very interesting! Thanks for sharing. Doesn’t this strengthen my hypothesis that they may change the rules to require that kind of play?
I hope not! Might as well just forgo categories and just have the host read questions (excuse me, answers) in order. We already have that show. it’s called Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
I will say again what I said about this last time. How can it be true that requiring people to play the game the way everyone has played it in at least 99% of all episodes makes it just the same as “Millionaire”? 
And of coarse “Millionaire” does not involve wagering, does not have three contestants trying to ring in first, and just has many fewer questions and no categories or wordplay that I can recall. Conversely, Jeopardy does not allow people to phone a friend or eliminate all but one answer. This is a rather specious comparison overall. They are both trivia game shows, but that’s about where it ends, with or without my putative rule change.
Not at all. ISTM that if TPTB thought that jumping around really hurt the game and wanted to change the rules, they would have done so after Chuck Forrest’s or Arthur Chu’s appearances. Alex and Michelle Loud say they prefer players to take clues in order, and offer reasons why they should, but both seem to accept the fact that not everyone will.
And at this point, 35+ years in, the freedom players have to choose any clue on the board is too deeply ingrained into the nature of the game to meddle with. A rule change that attempted to restrict that freedom would be cumbersome, open to interpretation, and might provoke a backlash from viewers. And IMHO, it would serve no good purpose.
Most players tend, most of the time, to take clues in ascending order, so if it’s not broke, don’t fix it.
With all the clues being read by Alexa lately, I pretty much expect Trebek to be replaced with an Amazon robot when the time comes.
The key word there is “require”. No one has every required the clues to be taken in order. Alex &co can whine all they like about jumping around, they can whine that people don’t bet enough in DDs, but the bottom line is, the game is being played the way the players want within the rules.
So I picked the wrong game show reference, but removing the ability to jump around would make Jeopardy! just another quiz show.
Do you want to remove the forward pass from American football because someone in 1919 thought the game shouldn’t be played that way?
The problem is that DD’s are seeded in rows 3 and 4 90% of the time. Should just have it totally random. Probably already suggested… seems obvious.
Other approaches would gimmick up a elegant simple game.
Another problem with the idea of changing the rules is that at the very least it would stop the flow of play whenever players picked an ineligible clue and had to choose another one. Should there be a penalty for picking a “wrong” clue?
One of the reasons they are not often in the top two rows is that the DD has the same level of difficulty as the row it’s in, and they want the DDs to have a certain degree of challenge. Being able to make a big bet on an easy clue doesn’t seem right.
However, that doesn’t explain why the DDs appear on the left side of the board more often, or why Col. 1, Row 4 should have significantly more DDs than any other spot on the board.
It could be that if they assume people will work top-to-bottom and left-to-right, putting DDs on the left side will tend to expose them earlier, thereby reducing the number of big payouts, and saving them some prize money.
It would speed play up because players wouldn’t have to specify the dollar amount. Players would pick the category and the lowest available dollar amount would be the next clue. Not that I’m advocating for this rule change.
Good point. I hadn’t thought of that.
Still don’t like the idea, and don’t think it should (or will) happen. 
Does anyone happen to have a link to James Holzhauer on The Chase? There’s a 2ish minute video of his bank section of the program, but nothing for how he fared in the next two segments.
Another reason not to make going in order a formal rule: even the producers recognize that there are times when it’s a legitimate strategy to go out of order.
Let’s say it’s late in the game. You’re behind by a significant amount, though not insurmountable. You answer correctly, so you now have control, and Alex gives you the “Less than a minute to go” warning. There’s one complete category still to be played.
In that situation, you sure as hell pick the $2000 clue first. If you’re going to have any hope of catching up in the time you’ve got left, you need high value clues, and you need them now. Having to start at the top and work your way up to a $2000 clue that you might never reach would really hamstring your ability to get back into the game.
This is advice that the producer actually gave us in the contestant briefing prior to taping–it it’s late and you’re behind, go for the bottom clues first. So even if taking the clues in order is generally the best approach, they realize that occasionally circumstances make starting at the bottom a better strategy. It’s higher risk, but also higher reward. Contestants deciding that the higher risk is worth it is part of the game, and always has been. Plus, someone who’s been trailing for most of the game making a comeback in the last minute or two is exciting TV, and they wouldn’t want to make it impossible for that to happen.
Jeopardy! is now in its 36th season. Chuck Forrest used the “Forrest Bounce” during Season 2, and various players have used it since then. If they haven’t changed the rules by now, they’re not going to.
Where I live (Chicago), Jeopardy is on at 3:30 PM. Who can watch it at that time? My wife & I record it on our DVR and watch it during dinner.