if you click in first and don't know, just use "who is Kevin Bacon?" and you are statistically more likely to get it correct.

[Edited on January 12, 2018 at 11:56 AM. Reason : "What is...Page 2?"]

1/12/2018 11:56:33 AM

Quote :

"Any idea how many shows they tape a day? Like if you win, what're the odds that they send to you the green room for an hour, and line you up again for another episode?"

They tape five shows a day. If you win, there is no "hour in the green room." You go to a changing room and switch clothes - they ask you to bring three total outfits - and come back out. It's very quick - I think the first taping begins at around 11:30, they do three episodes until 2:30, break for contestants to eat lunch, and then do two more episodes to get out a little after 4:00. Assuming everything goes well, I gather that each episode takes about 30-45 minutes to film - surprisingly close to real-time - but they build in some flexibility for technical or gameplay issues that might cause delays.

I should add that all of this information is available online, it's not some secret from the packet I received.

In short, it sounds like it's very fast-paced, with just enough time between shoots to change clothes, go to the bathroom, and maybe chug a coffee. With the result that even a really good player, a five-day champ who might dominate a week's worth of episodes for you, was only there for one day and only taping for five or six hours.

That's fine by me - the less time I have to sit and get into my own head, the better.

Whoever wins the last episode of the last taping day of the week - always a Wednesday - returns home. Jeopardy! then pays to fly them back out to LA on the next taping day, usually the following Tuesday. Obviously it's very rare that they have to fly the same person more than once, since this would indicate a tear of at least eleven wins.

I'm on the hook for my flight and hotel, but thanks to some good deals this trip should pay for itself even if I go down in ignominious defeat.

---

What has been funny is all the people around my office who say something along the lines of, "Guess if you win big we won't be seeing you around here anymore!" Which is laughable. Look, being on Jeopardy! is - I hate to use the phrase, but there is none more apt - a dream come true. Winning a game - even if I only won $1 because everybody else lost it all - would put me over the moon. And I like money as much as the next guy, so there's no sum that I would kick out of the proverbial bed in the morning. But Jeopardy! is not a game that allows 33 year olds to kick up their heels and retire.

1/12/2018 1:19:05 PM

damn. i want trebek's job

1/12/2018 1:25:21 PM

^^lol yes. Even if you do insanely well and win multiple days, you're still most likely looking at 5 figure winnings pre tax. HOT DAMN, $50,000 I'M SET FOR LIFE NOW.

1/12/2018 1:52:51 PM

Awesome, dude! Congrats

1/12/2018 3:03:52 PM

https://www.avclub.com/poor-sweet-good-hearted-jeopardy-contest-confuses-ja-1822029695

1/12/2018 3:09:22 PM

Yeah I don't see why that's so damn funny

1/12/2018 4:36:00 PM

Or you could be the next Ken Jennings and actually be set!

1/12/2018 4:36:09 PM

Congrats!! My wife and I watch every Jeopardy episode, make sure to keep us updated!

One of the things i've heard from past jeopardy winners is to practice with a fake answer button. One guy said he used the expandable toilet paper roll holder thing, and just walked around trying to push it as fast as possible.

1/13/2018 9:46:08 AM

hot damn

1/13/2018 6:34:28 PM

Quote :

"Or you could be the next Ken Jennings and actually be set!"

Nope. Jennings had, among other things, an encyclopedic knowledge of movies that I don't have and can't acquire in the time allotted. And as a Mormon, he refrained from boring holes in his brain with bourbon for most of his adult life. (I have no regrets on this second point)

My fiancee has been drilling me from old episodes that are up on J-Archive (which has basically every clue, response, and wager given on Jeopardy in its history). It's made me keenly aware of the disparity between "good episode" and "bad episode" vis a vis GrumpyGOP. One had categories about Dinosaurs, World War II, Geography, and French all in one round. I knew 100% of those responses and just seeing the categories filled me with confidence.

Another round had Sports Stats, Female Authors, and Opera. With those topics, the best thing I can say is that my buzzing thumb will be well-rested.

1/13/2018 10:14:12 PM

Make sure to raise the buzzer in your hand dramatically while frantically clicking away.

1/13/2018 11:14:25 PM

This might be a stupid question, but do they repeat questions? If not, it seems like studying previous questions would not be really helpful...

1/14/2018 1:03:18 AM

Probably not, but the answers follow certain patterns.

1/14/2018 2:00:07 AM

Quote :

"This might be a stupid question, but do they repeat questions? If not, it seems like studying previous questions would not be really helpful..."

I think it's helpful. Each clue provides at least 2 ways to get the answer. There is always the direct answer and then the secondary clue in the wording to give you a different path to the answer.

Geography and art/painters are where I would struggle the most.

1/14/2018 10:30:23 AM

Quote :

"This might be a stupid question, but do they repeat questions? If not, it seems like studying previous questions would not be really helpful..."

They don't repeat entire questions, but it's still by far the most helpful thing according to past winners' accounts and my experience watching the show.

First of all, going through old shows has already shown me that certain concepts and responses come up with disproportionate frequency. The Bronte sisters, for example; I didn't know anything about them, and probably wouldn't have learned anything through studying trivia more or less at random. But I notice they show up a lot in these past games, so now I've gone out of my way to learn the basics about them and their work. (Except for Anne. Nobody cares about Anne.)

Second, you learn the idiosyncracies of how Jeopardy words things and get used to them so you're not trying to figure out, "What did they just ask?"

Third, it's the best way to practice the wordplay categories they do sometimes - "Before and After," that type of thing.

Fourth, and more broadly speaking, what the hell else would I do? I've got 3.5 weeks to prepare myself as much as I can. It's a little late in the game to watch the top 100 movies on AFI's list, learn everything about opera, and become an art critic. There's also not a lot to be gained by reading trivia books and sites, which in my experience are generally a mix of "things I already know" and "things which are factually inaccurate," and where neither of those applies, they focus on trivia that is weird, amusing, or little known, rather than the material Jeopardy! looks for, which is generally more pure trivia mixed with a little mental flexibility.

When I'm not studying old games directly, I'm doing it at a meta-level - reading about wagering strategies based on past experience and game theory, or reading about observable trends in Jeopardy! questions. My favorites are the so-called Pavlovs - words that appear in a clue that almost invariably point to the same response. For example, any time the words "Norwegian playwright" appear in a Jeopardy! clue, the answer is almost certainly "Ibsen." "British sculptor" means "Henry Moore." There are certainly other Norwegian writers and British sculptors, but based on observing the 30-odd years of Trebek's Jeopardy! people have established that these are the go-to answers. So now, rather than having to learn a great deal about Moore's art - which, looking at it, I do not understand at all - I just have to memorize "British sculptor."

1/14/2018 5:34:18 PM

awesome. congrats!

1/15/2018 8:08:59 PM

I know another State guy who was on Jeopardy recently.

Just don't fall in to any kind of NC State shit.

1/15/2018 8:19:33 PM

Winner tonight is a teacher at Broughton. Thought for a second it might be this but it's way too early. Raleigh must be a hot spot

1/17/2018 11:22:48 PM

^ he must have been a history teacher b/c he CRUSHED the Presidents Burial State category and another history type category that I can't remember. I did pretty good tonight, probably knew about 70% of the answers but hey, I wouldn't expect anything less from a 10 year professional trivia host

1/17/2018 11:29:02 PM

Being in early 40s and married, my wife and I DVR Jeopardy... we're about 30 episodes behind, but we watch each weeknight at dinner. I know- we're really fun.

To the OP- try to find the Alex Trebek interview on Howard Stern a few years ago... lots of insight on the show. I was shocked how much I liked Trebek.

But his biggest piece of advice for players is to not randomly choose answers. Instead, go from top to bottom.

1/18/2018 9:58:06 AM

Quote :

"Winner tonight is a teacher at Broughton. Thought for a second it might be this but it's way too early."

Sadly Jeopardy! requires that you be identified as coming from your town of current residence, so I will be introduced as "A Trade Specialist from Washington, DC."

Quote :

"he must have been a history teacher b/c he CRUSHED the Presidents Burial State category and another history type category that I can't remember."

The other category he killed at looked for the year in which different things happened, which hurt me. I'm great for history in almost every respect - I know who did what and where, and I know when they did it relative to other stuff - but I'm garbage for more specific dates.

Quote :

"To the OP- try to find the Alex Trebek interview on Howard Stern a few years ago... lots of insight on the show."

I've listened to some of his longer interviews but not that one. I'll look for it, thanks.

Quote :

"But his biggest piece of advice for players is to not randomly choose answers. Instead, go from top to bottom."

This is a subject of intense and heated debate on the internet. You think you're "really fun" for DVRing Jeopardy? There are some psychopaths on the internet who have devoted their lives to critiquing players and strategies, usually through the liberal application of ethnic slurs and misogyny. I stumbled into some discussions about it on 4chan and had to take a shower and pray afterwards. People are messed up.

But among more normal Jeopardy! strategists, "randomly choosing answers" is otherwise known as the "Forrest Bounce," and is intended to confuse and throw off opponents. It is not a strategy I anticipate using, because I think it is more likely to confuse and throw off me. To the extent that I will have any control over the board, I intend to go top-to-bottom, starting with whichever appears to be my strongest category. Having exhausted my strengths, I will fish for Daily Doubles. Towards the end of Double Jeopardy, it may become necessary to go bottom-to-top, for example if I am behind and high-value clues are the only way to close the gap. These strategies are simple enough that I believe I will be able to follow them even under stressful and mentally taxing circumstances.

1/18/2018 10:53:00 AM

if you have an amazon echo, you can play Jeopardy on that. they do 6 new questions every weekday, and 6 more if you have amazon prime

[Edited on January 18, 2018 at 3:31 PM. Reason : oh man i'm horrible at this]

1/18/2018 3:27:33 PM

My wife was on Jeopardy a couple years ago. Might be able to answer any questions you might have, but reading through the thread it looks like you got it figured out.

Best of luck to you. Here's hoping you get matched up against the dumb ones.

If it's your kind of thing, there is a whole community of Jeopardy contestants that stay in the "trivia" scene or otherwise stay connected online. My wife has made some friends that way and seem to enjoy it.

1/18/2018 7:25:19 PM

The Lee guy was killin it these past 2 nights. I noticed how he tended to do what you said, stick to the categories you know and then go double jeopardy hunting.

He's so nonchalant, that seemed to help.

1/18/2018 7:45:40 PM

That's awesome, GrumpyGOP.

My wife and I joke that we'd be awesome on Team Jeopardy (like they do on WOF).

My superpowers are geography, music, tech, and other guy shit. But literature and word origins would quickly show how dumb I am.

1/19/2018 9:43:20 AM

Lee Quinn is a humanities and history teacher at Broughton as well as IB magnet corrdinator assistant...and a super nice guy to boot. [I teach at BHS now]

Good luck GrumpyGOP.

Also, HI TWW. I finally got my password back after like 7 years.

[Edited on January 19, 2018 at 10:49 AM. Reason : Add GL Grumpy]

1/19/2018 10:48:20 AM

WELCOME BACK!!!

That's cool that you teach with him, I've been rooting for him hard. He does very well in the 2nd round and gets a big lead that way.

1/19/2018 2:22:49 PM

WELCOME BACK!!!

That's cool that you teach with him, I've been rooting for him hard. He does very well in the 2nd round and gets a big lead that way.

1/19/2018 2:52:02 PM

WELCOME BACK!!!

That's cool that you teach with him, I've been rooting for him hard. He does very well in the 2nd round and gets a big lead that way.

1/19/2018 4:33:28 PM

WELCOME BACK!!!

That's cool that you teach with him, I've been rooting for him hard. He does very well in the 2nd round and gets a big lead that way.

1/19/2018 4:35:38 PM

WELCOME BACK!!!

That's cool that you teach with him, I've been rooting for him hard. He does very well in the 2nd round and gets a big lead that way.

1/19/2018 5:01:15 PM

Haha! Oh, tdub..you never disappoint. Thanks all

Broughton is a cool place to teach. I’m not surprised he did as well as he did...there’s so many smart folks walking around me each day. I’m fortunate.

GrumpyGOP - when did you first start trying to get on Jeopardy?

1/19/2018 9:25:57 PM

I tried when I was at NCSU and they did the college tournament there, back in 2005. I made it to the last round of tryouts.

I tried again in 2012, and made it to the DC tryouts, but I didn't actually go because I found out I was leaving for Africa at about the same time.

Took the online test for this bout around a year ago, live tryouts in DC last April, got this call last week.

1/19/2018 11:00:46 PM

https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/7umvms/this_just_happened_on_jeopardy/

2/2/2018 8:03:41 AM

Yeah, that was pretty embarrassing.

I mean, sports in general represent a big weak spot for me, but even I got 3 of those right.

Fly out Tuesday, tape my show (shows, maybe, hopefully?) Wednesday, fly back that night.

If you want to mildly impress young people and/or blow away elderly people, tell them you're going to be on Jeopardy! The median age of the viewship is supposedly like 65, and it shows.

[Edited on February 3, 2018 at 4:38 PM. Reason : ]

2/3/2018 4:35:24 PM

When do you find out the air date?

2/3/2018 5:32:33 PM

I'm not sure exactly. They already have an estimated air date for the episodes that will tape that day - the week of May 28-June 1. Assuming nothing fucks with that schedule, I'll know the date based on which episode I start that day. I don't think they send out a verified, for-sure date until a couple of weeks prior.

It's a little awkward because I get married on May 27, so I might not actually be around for any of the viewing parties. (We're not doing the real, tropical honeymoon until July but we're still going to disappear for a couple of days to calm down)

[Edited on February 3, 2018 at 10:31 PM. Reason : ]

2/3/2018 10:30:55 PM

to calm down

2/3/2018 11:48:10 PM

As a 31 year old, I'm very impressed that you're going to be on Jeopardy!

2/4/2018 8:26:00 AM

I fly out tomorrow.

I will return either a champion, or a broken husk of the man you see before you today.

2/5/2018 9:40:30 PM

good luck dude. invite trebek to the wedding

2/5/2018 9:47:36 PM

Quote :

"RETURN A CHAMPION"

2/6/2018 12:23:09 PM

If you get on a hot streak, tell them about your favorite message board for people in their 30's, during the interview portion.

2/6/2018 1:27:55 PM

draw the TWW logo next to your bid in Final Jeopardy (assuming you're not in the negative)

[Edited on February 7, 2018 at 11:19 AM. Reason : Question....if you are in the negative, do you owe Jeopardy money?]

2/7/2018 11:18:36 AM

you have to wash Trebek if you don’t have the money on you

2/7/2018 11:32:47 AM

^^nah, second place gets $2000 and 3rd place gets $1000 regardless of what their dollar totals are before final jeopardy

[Edited on February 7, 2018 at 11:40 AM. Reason : arrows]

2/7/2018 11:33:50 AM

I assume that is in pre-tax american money?

2/7/2018 11:37:06 AM

it's after tax canadian dollars, i think. just because trebek is from canada.

2/7/2018 11:41:47 AM

howd it go? can you tell us if it was worth watching?

2/7/2018 9:59:20 PM