Trivia about Trivia: Obscure Record Holders

[Vanya]

This blogger comments on this (see #3):
http://fbeuks.blogspot.com/2009/04/jeop ... ourri.html

I think the incident may have been mentioned in one or more of the many books about the show.

Interesting... I've never read any of the books on Jeopardy! (amazingly, considering how big a fan I am), and I guess Google doesn't find blog content very well, if at all...

I know Ms. Lowe won on Jeopardy! and Bullseye under the same name, several years apart... Guess I didn't happen to watch whatever other show she appeared on that got her in trouble. She was an awesome player, and our pick to win the ToC that year... She brought it on herself, though.

I do remember that she looked like she had a wig on, and that she also didn't look the picture of health; We thought at the time that she had maybe had recent surgery or something, and never dreamed that she may have been disguising herself to avoid detection.

Google Barbara Lowe Jeopardy.

At least she didn't wear the same outfit.

[cheezguyty]

Here are two more obscure record holders: George Yates and Susan Poliniak answered the most and fewest clues correctly by a nonwinner and winner, respectively (of games in the Archive, at least).

[ahirbhairav]

Some players lose their quarterfinal game simply by not making what would be a proper wager because they feel they have enough to get a wild card spot.

Sample scenario, please?

[econgator]

Some players lose their quarterfinal game simply by not making what would be a proper wager because they feel they have enough to get a wild card spot.

Sample scenario, please?

Betting $0 because you already have a 2nd place score of $18,500.

[hanzz]

Some players lose their quarterfinal game simply by not making what would be a proper wager because they feel they have enough to get a wild card spot.

Sample scenario, please?

Betting $0 because you already have a 2nd place score of $18,500.

I probably would have stayed pat if betting for the win.

[Bamaman]

Some players lose their quarterfinal game simply by not making what would be a proper wager because they feel they have enough to get a wild card spot.

Sample scenario, please?

Betting $0 because you already have a 2nd place score of $18,500.

I was thinking of betting zero from the lead with a huge total.

[kristinsausville]

Some players lose their quarterfinal game simply by not making what would be a proper wager because they feel they have enough to get a wild card spot.

Sample scenario, please?

Justin's quarterfinal game played out like this. He was in the lead, but only wagered enough so that if he got Final wrong, he'd still likely have enough for a Wild Card. Mark wagered more, so Mark won the game, and Justin got a Wild Card. Had it been any other situation, Justin would have wagered to cover Mark, and would have won the game.

[seaborgium]

Here are two more obscure record holders: George Yates and Susan Poliniak answered the most and fewest clues correctly by a nonwinner and winner, respectively (of games in the Archive, at least).

I remember those games without even having to click those links! George hit a late DD and wagered a pittance on it, despite having a huge lead and the lock in reach. I thought, "He may well regret that," and then the outcome gave him reason to! (I hold that record for season 26, and since it was in the premiere, no one else ever did!) As for Susan, she won on a sole get when Andrea Saenz wagered to catch up to first, which was over her maximum to keep Susan locked out.

Mary Tuohy probably has a record for only ringing in twice throughout the course of the game. Both were correct responses, first and second were very close going into FJ, and second bet it all, so had FJ been a triple stumper or a sole get for Mary, she'd be the record holder instead of Susan. (Second place had a sole miss, so Mary at least pulled out the $2,000 prize.)

I think one or two of Ken Jennings's opponents gave just one correct response all game. I'm sure the female challenger in his 74th game did. (She gave two incorrect responses as well, but the one right was enough to keep her out of the red. The other person it happened to, if there was one, was not so lucky.)

Edit: Yes, there was another "one correct response" player in KJ's run, in his seventh game. There are a few more besides (including Hans!), which can be found by doing a J! Archive-specific google search for the phrase "1 R." There's even a "1 R, 1 W" in Sharon Wing, which means that if two ring-ins is a record, there's a tie for it.

[JyV92]

Bob Harris claims to have lost quite a few games.i think he was a wildcard in a tournee or two, so lose prelim, counts... would have to go to j-archive.

or maybe someone else will check.

[teapot37]

Bob Harris claims to have lost quite a few games.i think he was a wildcard in a tournee or two, so lose prelim, counts... would have to go to j-archive.

or maybe someone else will check.

Bob was one of the people I might be tied with. He won all his original games and lost in the finals of his ToC (so that's at most two losses by my reckoning - his ToC isn't archived).
Then he won his QF but lost in the semis of the M$M tournament, and lost in the UToC, for a maximum of four losses.

[MarkBarrett]

Bob Harris claims to have lost quite a few games.i think he was a wildcard in a tournee or two, so lose prelim, counts... would have to go to j-archive.

or maybe someone else will check.

Bob was one of the people I might be tied with. He won all his original games and lost in the finals of his ToC (so that's at most two losses by my reckoning - his ToC isn't archived).
Then he won his QF but lost in the semis of the M$M tournament, and lost in the UToC, for a maximum of four losses.

All the TOC games are archived, aren't they? For Bob it's February of '98.

[teapot37]

Bob Harris claims to have lost quite a few games.i think he was a wildcard in a tournee or two, so lose prelim, counts... would have to go to j-archive.

or maybe someone else will check.

Bob was one of the people I might be tied with. He won all his original games and lost in the finals of his ToC (so that's at most two losses by my reckoning - his ToC isn't archived).
Then he won his QF but lost in the semis of the M$M tournament, and lost in the UToC, for a maximum of four losses.

All the TOC games are archived, aren't they? For Bob it's February of '98.

So it is. I didn't see it linked from the player profile page I was on. Bob lost his ToC QF game, so he has four losses as well.

[seaborgium]

I came up with another: lowest single-day (winning) total in a regular game by a future UToC participant. Except for a handful of ToC winners, all UToC players who first appeared in a regular game were 5x champs (or better) who averaged at least $9,680 per game (in pre-doubled dollars). So I'm looking for people who managed to make up for low totals. The lowest I know of is $2,800 for Michael Arnone. Actually, he's also got the second-lowest I've found: $3,300. (He made $6,100 in his first and fifth games, and $48,399 in between those, including $24,999 in his third game.) Michelle Clum is third with $3,799 in her first game (she made up for that with $18,000 in her third).

Since not all UToC contestants' original appearances are archived, there may be more that I can't know about. If we include the 5xers (and better) since then with comparable averages, Paul Glaser probably has the record with $800. And if we lose the averages angle and just go for the lowest winning total for any eventual ToC participant, we've got Dan Pawson's $200, and the unarchived $100 J! Archive says Stephen Lebowitz earned in his fourth game. (Mark posted about that here.) (Would that he could have won his fifth game; a fifth win plus the $50,900 he'd already earned would have gotten him into the UToC and made him the recordholder in the above paragraph!)

[benjamincuningham]

These are some great questions that could be easily answers by querying the archive. Does anyone know how to download all of the data from the J! Archive?

[alietr]

Along similar lines ... does anyone know what the shortest (in number of words) and longest FJ's were?

[TreehugginCowgirl]

Am I actually the alphabetically last Jeopardy champion?

[econgator]

Along similar lines ... does anyone know what the shortest (in number of words) and longest FJ's were?

Game 1 was 8 words: The third Monday of January starting in 1986.

No idea if that's the shortest or not.

[econgator]

Am I actually the alphabetically last Jeopardy champion?

Probably so. I found a Sharla Zwirek, but she wasn't a champ.

[cheezguyty]

Am I actually the alphabetically last Jeopardy champion?

Nope. There was a 4-time champ in Season 15 named Melizza Zygmunt.

Along similar lines ... does anyone know what the shortest (in number of words) and longest FJ's were?

Game 1 was 8 words: The third Monday of January starting in 1986.

No idea if that's the shortest or not.

I found one that's just six letters words: "Westernmost national capital in the Americas".

ETA: Oops, thanks for catching that alietr.

[econgator]

I found one that's just six letters: "Westernmost national capital in the Americas".

Good find. I have it in the back of my head that there was a visual one that was only two or three words, but ... *shrug*