I did that once. The category was US Presidents and I immediately said, “Grover Cleveland”. The answer was something like: “He was the only President elected twice without being consecutive.”
It was only about a month ago, so no fair if you remember it.
Category: Alliterative Athletes.Who are Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire?
I haven’t watched Jeopardy in years but I used to watch in religiously with my college housemates in the late 80’s. We’d always try to guess the Final by just the category and one of us would get it every few weeks.
A lot of contestants seem to guess the phrase after only 1 or 2 letters. Usually they keep spinning and bank a wad of money.
Seems counterproductive to solve it with only $900 in the bank.
Except, as other people have noted, it was a prize puzzle. So she was guaranteed several thousand dollars worth of prize money if she solved it then, vs. running the risk of a bankrupt, or a lose a turn taking control away from her.
I’ve gotten the Final Jeopardy answer once with just the category, but I was helped by the fact that it was Christmastime, so when the category was Music I pre-guessed Handel’s Messiah.
Well, I was in the right sport: I guessed Barry Bonds.
I’m not familiar with the show. Do they get given a clue, or do they go into the guessing blind?
Also, what’s with all the applauding?
The contestant who isn’t spinning applauds when the woman spinning the wheel spins it, who immediately starts applauding after she’s spun it. The host is applauding the whole time anyway. Then she guesses a letter and when the host says “one L” she begins applauding again. Is she applauding the letter or the host’s ability to repeat it? Then when she guesses, the hostess in the '70s dress starts applauding, then when she realises she’s got the answer right she applauds herself again! Their hands must be raw.
I knew what this thread was about before I even clicked on it.
They’re given a vague category. I think for this one it would have been “Phrase.”
It’s just part of the culture of the show. Wheel of Fortune is probably the longest-running game show in the US, and has had plenty of time to build up its own distinct character that way.
To the extent that they’re applauding anything in particular, the active player is applauding that she matched a letter (that’s how you get money), and everyone else is applauding that a player is doing well. But mostly, yeah, they’re just applauding because that’s what you do on Wheel.
By the way, the host and hostess are Pat Sajak and Vanna White, respectively. It’s a bit eye-opening for me to realize that not everybody in the world knows who they are. They’ve both been on the show forever. And while Vanna’s job is primarily to look pretty and show off a different evening gown every night, it used to be that the letters were mounted on rotating panels, and it was her job to actually turn the panels around.
And when she realized all that, she probably had a good feeling about this.
I’ve been on the lighting crew for WoF for more than a decade now whenever they tape in Las Vegas, and I can tell you that this was, no question in my mind, legit. I know firsthand what the security measures are, and short of actual mind reading or a huge conspiracy involving about 40 people, there’s no way this anything other than a terrific bit of puzzle solving.
Plus, it’s not the first time a contestant has solved a puzzle this way. Between tapings, they always run a montage of clips from the show, and there’s always a few with “impossible” solves. The crowds love to see them; it’s the equivalent of meeting someone who won the lottery, i.e. “this could be you (with a lotta luck)”.
Correct. They coach the contestants prior to their taping. They don’t want people sulking, or making crude noises, etc. They want people who are enthusiastic and happy to be there, and they want that to be conveyed to the viewers at home.
Correct again. Now it’s her job to touch the screens, which changes them from a blank to the letter. And IRL, she’s wearing a new dress every 50 minutes or so. Last summer we taped more remote episodes here in Vegas than they had ever done in one place & time before (28 shows in 6 days of taping, I think it was). So Vanna wore 4-5 new outfits per day. Sometimes that means new makeup as well.
And to win only $53,000? Not enough for you?
Are they actually touch sensitive screens, or is there an intern somewhere who presses a button to light them up just as she touches them? I always thought the latter.
I have a vision of WoF 20-30 years in the future. Vanna will be sitting in an easy chair, cigarette butt hanging out of her mouth, “turning” the letters with a remote.
I **love **Jeopardy, as much as it frustrates me. My husband & I play a game where we shout out the first thing that pops into our heads while the categories are being revealed, and then award each other “points” if our shout ends up being a correct response to one of the questions in that category.
It doesn’t take much to amuse us.
I miss the days when Vanna actually did stuff. 
Yes they are (touch panels that is). I read that the producers considered remote control screens (apparently they’re cheaper), but went with the touch panels because the audience loves Vanna.