Alex Trebek/Jeopardy Tribute Thread

And just think, had he not hosted, and become the front-runner for hosting, none of his past would have come out, and none of this would be happening at all.

 

what is the monkeys paw

 

“Who is Icarus?”

 

I believe Burton could grow into the job, too. But he certainly isn't the best option, at least not based solely on the "audition" runs.

I think a lot of people are, frankly, wanting somebody besides just another white guy to do the job, no matter what. Burton, as someone who is likeable, passionate about Jeopardy, and probably, seen as a positive, unifying force, I guess, would be considered a great choice under those parameters, even despite his comparatively poor initial showings.

Personally, I thought Robin Roberts was best. I also liked Buzzy Cohen, Sanjay Gupta, Bill Whitaker and Joe Buck a lot, all for different reasons. There are plenty of good options among those who have already hosted, and I'm sure more could be uncovered if the show wants to continue rotating new people in.

 

I agree completely with you. And, heck - Continuing to rotate people isn't the worst thing ever, either. Have they had anyone young host yet? That could be interesting, and one of the few demos they haven't really hit yet. I do find it weird they haven't managed to have Laura Coates or Alex Faust on, the two people Trebek named as possible candidates. It would be awesome to see Will Ferrell do a week, but by most accounts he's a legitimately nice guy, so maybe he thinks that would be inappropriate. (They absolutely need to bring him in for a week of Celebrity Jeopardy at some point, though.)

 

When comedians do game shows, they screw up the game. Martin Short was on some show -- might have been "Hollywood Game Night" -- and he gave some ridiculous answer that was supposed to be funny but wasn't. Cost his contestant thousands of dollars and cost her the game. "Password," "Match Game" etc. Not everybody can be Betty White or Nipsey Russell or Bill Cullen.

 

Trebek has a cameo in the Ryan Reynolds movie Free Guy.

 

Since this has kind of become the running "Jeopardy!" thread... One of tonight's contestants was Samit Sarkar, a journalist some of y'all might recognize from Polygon and other video game / tech spots. He live-tweeted about his experience:



This was also the last Mike Richards episode. It'll be interesting to see how they address it on Monday's show. For the five that aired this week, some of the beginning and ending show transitions seemed odd, as if they might have trimmed some of what he said.

 

“See you Monday!”

“No, we won’t!” - all six adults in my house tonight independently and unplanned in unison as we watched.

 

I'm gonna give current 28-game winner Matt Amodio a little love. I'm a bit surprised at the relative lack of attention he has garnered. Ken Jennings became a draw just because he was on so long that people started watching just to see how long he'd last, and if/when he'd lose. The attraction to James Holzhauer was his consistently bold, big-money, gambler's style of play, coupled with enough personal touches/shout-outs to surprise people and make them take notice of that.

Amodio has been different than either Jennings or Holzhauer in that he has been dominating, well...quietly. His gentle, sort of aww-shucks humility has made me respect and like him, and his games have included some good, if temporary challenges by other contestants. He is obviously well-read, well-rounded and well-prepared, but he hasn't been perfect, which I think has made him relatable. And his board choices and bets have been a genuine mix of the conservative and the bold.

It has made things interesting and fun to follow, and has resulted in Amodio becoming the third Jeopardy contestant to surpass $1,000,000 in winnings, behind Jennings (74 games) and Holzhauer (32 games). If he wins five more games, Amodio will overtake Holzhauer in that respect, at least. I, for one, am rooting for him.

 

I didn't like him at first, because he mumbled. But I think the second half of his run has been really nice. I think he watched himself on TV and realized he looked a little dour and wasn't very personable. He smiles more and he's dressing better. I think he's been more human and relatable here in the later episodes. I don't really think he's been conservative at all, except on final beds if he can be caught. He does the thousand point squares first so when he hits the daily double he has money. He almost always goes for a true daily double. He bets big to get a huge lead as quickly as possible.