I could have sworn we covered this in a fairly recent thread.
My wife and I have watched Jeopardy forever, and have managed to enjoy it in spite of Trebek.
We can’t stand him. Hated him from the get-go, and over the years he’s only gotten more smug, condescending, patronizing, sexist, and braggy.
Other quibbles with the show:
Meet the contestants (1). A waste of time to begin with, made worse by AT. Supposedly a little something about the players, but Trebek always makes the mini-interviews about himself, never failing to mention (or suggest) how much he knows about their field of expertise, how he’s also been wherever they’ve been, also has/had does/did whatever they have. I assume he thinks he’s being subtle and gracious.
Meet the contestants (2). If they’re going to have the segment, turn off the damn music and applause sign before AT starts in on the first contestant.
The Clue Crew. The dumbing down part of the game. The momentum of the game is destroyed as everything screeches to a near halt. Overly contrived, verbose clues that take three or four times longer to present than plain old regular clues. Small wonder there are clues and sometimes even entire categories left at the buzzer. Worse still when it’s celebrity Clue Crew (Oprah, Newspaper Journalists, etc.), or Trebek/Clue Crew in Jerusalem or the Galapagos, or shilling for some sponsored event.
What is it with Jeopardy and Europoean (especially British) Royalty categories? Enough already.
I once tried to think up what would be the lamest interview anecdote ever, and came up with: “When i get my mail, I always look to see if there are any upside down stamps”. Soon after a contestant said something alarmingly similar
I usually do something else when Trebek’s talking with the contestants. Do something on my computer, or go to the bathroom, etc.
I also don’t see what the problem with Trebek is. He does his job well enough as far as I can see. And as for the Jeopardy! questions, I don’t find them especially easy, but of course 1) I’m dumber than the rest of you and 2) I’m not American, or even an native English speaker, so some of them fall somewhat outside of my cultural scope. If I ever wanted to go on the show, there are a few categories I’d have to study.
My tenant and I usually watch Jeopardy together, and we frequently insult Trebek for pretending to know the answer to all the questions the contestants did not. Also for the introductory chit-chat with the contestants. It never occurred to me before now that it might be even more annoying if he read the correct answers in a tone of voice that suggested he didn’t always know.
I think the same thing. And a part of me can’t wait, Jennings is awesome.
But as for people saying Jeopardy is too easy nowadays, go back to some of the earliest shows on J! Archive. The questions don’t look harder and, in fact, a lot of them seem pretty easy.
And you think it goes slow today? In the first episode, seven questions were left on the board in the first round and six in the second.
You might get lucky, though, or you might get buried. Some nights I just rip off 20 answers in a row without trying, and then the next night I’m stumped over and over and feel like a moron.
If I get the call I don’t think I can study enough about art, poetry or music to stand a chance in hell if it’s a night heavy on those categories. I’d get smushed.
I have no clear memories of Stars on Ice, but I did enjoy watching a pre-J Trebek in High Rollers.
And, no, I never felt compelled to throw insults at him.
And I have a great-aunt and -uncle who were on The Mad Dash. Decades later, long after the uncle had died and the aunt moved to an assisted-living facility, I found one of their prizes - a never-used waterpick. I used it for a while, but I guess being stored away for 30 years wasn’t good for the seals, and it soon started leaking everywhere.
The $200 clue is “This region of North Africa is hot and dry”
None of the contestants ring in.
Trebek doesn’t say “Sahara Desert”
Instead he says “the famous Sahara Desert” <brief pause> “Beautiful place.”
Telling the players that they should have known it, and that he’s been there. He comes that close to saying “Sahara Desert, obviously.”
Most of the questions are fairly easy, although it’s funny how often they have some absurd one that few people would ever know. I struggle on categories that have to do with Broadway and Opera, but otherwise I find that the real challenge of Jeopardy is to guess the answers just by knowing the categories.
and 2) I’m not American, or even an native English speaker, so some of them fall somewhat outside of my cultural scope. If I ever wanted to go on the show, there are a few categories I’d have to study.