Thanks for the clarification with citation. Apparently, they DO take it more seriously than I had thought.
In this Jeopardy highlight youtube video, the contestant didn’t write “What is…” and got the question wrong. It is an early season, Alex didn’t even realize the error.
The first highlight is a contestant who faints during FJ
The 2nd highlight , at about 1 min 35 seconds is the failed “What is…”
Will the daily syndicated version be aired during the new prime-time tourney?
I don’t know for sure, but I expect them to continue to air the daily syndicated show. And by the way, Thursday, January 2, ABC is broadcasting a one-hour special on Jeopardy! and Alex Trebek, hosted by Michael Strahan (who is on one of ABC’s morning shows). The big tournament itself starts in a week, on January 7.
My Xfinity grid shows new daytime episodes during the prime time GOAT Tournament.
Thanks for the tip on the special. I probably would have missed it otherwise.
According to Reddit the GOAT tournament will be airing on ABC, which, depending on your TV market, may not be where you usually watch it. The regular daily episodes will also run during that timeframe.
Same. Record timer set!
Alex’s latest comments, from the ABC special, about retiring, his replacement, and his illness.
Regarding his cancer treatments, he says,
Still talking about his final show in the future tense, huh? Guess the GOAT isn’t going to be his swan song, after all.
Seems that he would be happier in retirement but maybe he is sort of a workaholic .
And surely, even if he doesn’t have a say in his choice of replacement, he knows who it’ll be? Or at least, when he gives that goodbye, he will know by then. It seems a bit odd that he’d be saying “my replacement, whoever that might be”.
Most likely he will announce his retirement and his replacement will be announced at the same time. He will know the person’s name before it is made public unless there is a leak. Pretty sure when Bob Barker retired from TPIR they announced Drew Carey taking over at the same time.
And I’m not sure it’s entirely true that he had (or will have) “no say whatsoever” in selecting his replacement. At the very least, his opinions would be seriously taken into consideration.
I suppose it’s possible that the showrunners have begun the search process without involving Alex or even letting him know they’ve started. You know, to keep him from thinking that they expect him to kick the bucket any day or that they’re trying to push him out.
Rather than start a new thread, I’m asking here:
What Network owns Jeopardy? My whole life it’s only been on NBC and research says that it originated there, but further digging says CBS owns it now.
I was severely thrown off by the upcoming ABC special airing next week. How’s all this work?
It’s a syndicated show, so it might air on any station, regardless of network affiliation. For various reasons, though, in many of the major markets, it airs on ABC stations (I think on all eight of the owned-and-operated ABC stations, which are generally the largest market stations in the country). The program is owned by Sony Pictures Television, but distributed by CBS Television Distribution (one part of which was the old King World Productions). I’m sure that clears everything up.
Anyone watch the special on Thursday night? I enjoyed it, particularly some of the vintage footage from the Art Fleming era and the first decade or so of the Trebek era. It was interesting to see all the old sets.
I also loved seeing that two staffers who were there when I was on, back in 1991, are still on the job: contestant coordinator Suzanne Thurber and stage manager John Lauderdale. Suzanne and other members of her staff were fantastic: even though they handle 450 contestants per season, they made us feel like we were the only contestants they’d ever dealt with. We all felt like very special guests. And I’ll never forget John’s advice just as the break before Final Jeopardy ended: “If you can’t come up with an answer, go for funny.”
I have the show on my DVR and may watch it again with my finger on the pause button to look closely at some of the scenes in the control room and on the set. As a former audio-video tech, I’m interested in the production gear.
Here’s one piece of evidence I noticed that proves Alex is not the genius a lot of people assume he is. There was a scene in his garage workshop that included a quick shot of some nut and bolt drawers. The handwritten labels on several of them referred to “course” (vs. fine) threaded hardware. Ha!
What should they actually be called? I don’t think being unaware of this kind of blue collar nomenclature is disproof of erudition. I myself have no idea, even though I frequently know Jeopardy clues even when all three contestants are stumped (in fact, I can’t be sure but I think I may even have a higher percentage on those than on the majority that someone does know).
“coarse”. And while you may not know, a self-styled fix-it-guy should.
I personally wonder if it isn’t an inside joke of some kind. I.e., Alex told someone “label that one ‘coarse’”, they wrote “course” and Alex left it that way because he thought it was funny.
Either way, I thought Alex came off as charming, his wife is a doll (and they are obviously still very much in love), and Michael is a much better interviewer than I would have given him credit for.
With all the talk of Trebek’s retirement, I’d like to ask a question that I’ve thought about over the last few years: should the term “signalling device”, and the phrase “command of the board”, be retired along with him? Alex. Dude. I love you. But we all know it’s a “buzzer”. And, “command of the board”?! The contestants aren’t standing at the helm of a nuclear-powered battleship, getting ready to navigate dangerous waters while seeking to find and destroy the enemy. They just get to choose then next answer. 
There was always a certain low-level pretentiousness to Trebek, which used to annoy me. Best exemplified by Jason Alexander on one of the celebrity tournaments, that when he got the question wrong, Alex gave him an “oh, noooooo!” sort of response, to which Alexander annoying replied, “yeah, but you’ve got the answers right in front of you!” But I’ve gotten so used to it over the years that I don’t really even notice it anymore. In fact, it’s part of why now I love the guy so much. He is what he is.
While I’m talking about Trebek, I have this thing I do while watching where I try to note his responses to let the contestants know if they are correct or not. He has certain stock replies. A succinct “Good!” is my favorite. Followed closely by a simple “That’s right!” Then he has the “comment” reply, where he will mention something about the answer. There are of course others. Inevitably, I will become so engrossed in the game that I forget to do this. But I have seriously thought about listing these replies, and tallying up the rate that each is used.
Anyway, I think the answer to my original question is an unequivocal “yes”. Retire those things. As simple, and quite frankly insignificant as they are, no one else could pull them off quite like Trebek.
The object in question does not buzz. The sound engineer does not add a buzz. Similarly, I wouldn’t call it a clicker. Some people might call it a button or switch. Personally, I don’t care what they call it.
I like that Trebek varies his responses; it makes him human. My favorite is when it’s a person and he says, “She’s / he’s the one.”