Sports Jeopardy

[TomSegi]

More to post later (minus details of the test, which we aren't allowed to discuss for obvious reasons), but I did pass the test and play the mock game. 17 out of roughly 90-100 passed. More to come when I get home.

[psgola]

Saw on Twitter (sorry, don't know how to embed a tweet) that former Stump the Schwab star, Howie Schwab will be on Sports Jeopardy:

https://twitter.com/JimMiller/status/488810100426301440

[jeff6286]

Saw on Twitter (sorry, don't know how to embed a tweet) that former Stump the Schwab star, Howie Schwab will be on Sports Jeopardy:

https://twitter.com/JimMiller/status/488810100426301440

That says he is "joining Sports Jeopardy", which I don't think is the same thing as being "on Sports Jeopardy". My assumption would be that he'd be working in research and/or clue writing, though they could certainly use him in some on-air role, as presumably much of the audience for this show would be familiar with Stump the Schwab.

[thejeopardyfan]

If I may: I talk about my audition experience here.

[TomSegi]

Jeanie, were you in the 9am group or the 4pm group? (I was in the 1pm group).

There were, I believe, four people in our testing group who had previously appeared on Jeopardy. None of them passed the test. Three women in the audition group and none of them passed either. The passing group was 17 males, mostly in the exact same demographic. Maggie is very good at breaking the ice and making everyone feel comfortable. She remembered me from previous auditions for Jeopardy. The audition was basically the exact same as regular Jeopardy back in the day - large group of people, explanation of testing procedure, take the test, grade test, announce passers, mock game. I was the last name called of those who passed. It was intense!

Taping starts soon so hopefully the phone rings!

[happybooker]

If I may: I talk about my audition experience here.

Referring to the blog, I'm the person from Guelph. I was overmatched, but got two of my missing answers on my way back to the car. Age is catching up with me and slowing me down, even without touching 'the signalling' device'

[thejeopardyfan]

Jeanie, were you in the 9am group or the 4pm group? (I was in the 1pm group).

I was in the 9 a.m. group.

Referring to the blog, I'm the person from Guelph.

Somebody helped me figure that out after the audition, but I wasn't sure if you'd want to be identified! I was hoping you'd come forward here!

[MrMichael]

I posted my experience at the Sunday 4pm Chciago audition in the comments section of Jeanie's post. Please be aware it is lengthy!

[TheyCallMeMrKid]

I was in the 4:00 group in Chicago on Saturday. 20 of us from a group of around 100 passed the written test. Based on other comments, it looks like it was probably 15-20 for each audition session. If the other cities were set up like Chicago, there were 6 audition sessions for each of the 5 cities, which means the contestant pool would be somewhere between 450-600 for ~150 spots this season, so around a 30% chance. Sound about right?

[Turd Ferguson]

If I may: I talk about my audition experience here.

Referring to the blog, I'm the person from Guelph. I was overmatched, but got two of my missing answers on my way back to the car. Age is catching up with me and slowing me down, even without touching 'the signalling' device'

I was in the 4:00 group... started out great, getting the first 5 or 6 in a row (including one about a guy whose wikipedia page I had read that AM), but then started falling apart a bit. I believe I got in the low 20s, but it wasn't enough.

I'm still a bit annoyed, because I got most of the questions people were talking afterwards about not getting, but missed a number of easy ones. If it were me marking the test, I'd say missing the last question alone should have disqualified someone, and I somehow "over-thought" it and did that (giving a horribly incorrect answer to boot!)

My "takehome" for the "next time" is that it all seemed really quick, and I need to learn to write faster. I can type much faster than I can (legibly) write, so the online tests seem extremely slow in comparison. Even on the ones I knew cold, it seemed I had barely (if at all) finished writing before the next question came up (so I had no time to "reset"), and writing on a piece of cardboard on my lap wasn't something I found at all comfortable. (I don't mean to "complain" and hope it isn't coming out that way)

Anyways, it was a fun experience, it was great to see Maggie again, and the trip wasn't at all a waste as I also did manage to take in a Cubs walkoff win the day after seeing a crazy Brewers bullpen implosion, and got to take an At Bat on the "Field Of Dreams", too.

[LeFlaneur]

First of all to Jeanie, I really enjoyed your blog re: your auditioning experiance in Chicago. It sounds pretty much what mine was like in Dallas on Sunday, June 29th.
Being as I am recently retired; just bought a brand new Mazda Miata; and have a brother currently in the Jeopardy pool living in Dallas, I answered the e-mail and was invited to audition @2:30 PM CDT. Got to the hotel @ 2:00 and the lobby started filling up. I overheard a booming Texas voice telling someone about having been on Jeopardy and I thought to myself,"Is that the guy who when told by Alex that he had a good radio/TV voice replied, 'I want Johnnie Gilbert's job.' ?" It sure as hell was and we had a nice little chat with some of the others about our 30 minutes of fame. Jimmy, from the clue crew came in next, followed by the irrepressable Maggie; and the show was on.
About 80 of us, (2 women I think) hustled into the room and were given the rundown. Maggie asked if any of us had been on the show before to which 4 of us replied in the affirmative. I got to talk with all 3 of the others and remembered their faces but more so, we all remembered the FJs that we missed. Ah, there's somethings you'll never forget. 30 question test on which I know I did poorly but when they called of the names of those who passed, low and behold there was your humble narrator moving on to the mock up version of the game along with 20 others, including 2 of the other former J contestants. The mock up version went well for all I think, although I wouldn't say there was anyone who blew the rest of us out of the water. We're all in the pool for a year and I believe taping will be in late August, January, and April.
All in all, once again, the whole experiance was an absolute riot! I got to mention 3 times to Maggie that my younger, smarter brother Mycroft, is in the pool for the 3rd time so don't forget about him. "Yeah, yeah, yeah," replied the always effervescent producer. But the most enjoyable part of the whole time was just getting to hang out with other nervous trivia loving Jeopardy geeks like myself. Good luck to all.

[zakharov]

Howie Schwab is joining the show as a consultant and writer.

http://awfulannouncing.com/2014/howie-s ... s-jeopardy

This just got real.

[TheyCallMeMrKid]

Howie Schwab is joining the show as a consultant and writer.

http://awfulannouncing.com/2014/howie-s ... s-jeopardy

This just got real.

I think this is a great move, and will be VERY popular with the sports trivia fans.

Knew the answer to neither question in the video. Hope that's not reflective of the level of difficulty on a normal basis! Both questions seemed to me to be "either you know it or you don't" type questions, with nothing significant to even be able to tease out the answer.

Assuming that Sports Jeopardy degree of difficulty will have to be a level easier than most "Stump the Schwab" questions just because of the amount of time you have to answer most questions. I always thought that "Stump the Schwab" had a level of difficulty that would frustrate/turn off any but the nerdiest of the sports nerds. Hoping that Sports Jeopardy is shooting for a little bit of a broader appeal.

[amorris525]

Wish they could have come a little closer to dc. Can't make it to New York. Would have loved to just have taken the test

[Bamaman]

I wonder how the taping and broadcast schedules will work. Are they going to tape all 50 of the shows before they start airing them or will they do it like the regular show and tape a few in advance and then keep taping as the season goes on.

If it is the latter, it would be a huge advantage to be on the last show as you would have seen many of the shows and would have an idea of how much you needed to make the finals.

I think if I got on the show, I'd probably be going all in in FJ no matter what the score is. The weekly prize is only $5,000 and getting to the finals where you could win $50,000 would be my main goal. Now, If I had already seen some shows and knew that even my doubled score wouldn't make it, I'd play FJ like a regular game.

[happybooker]

I think the format rewards aggression. There's minimal differential money at risk in a given game and there's no "I want to play tomorrow" wagering. The only goal that makes sense is getting into the season ending tourney. That means all in on FJ and probably three true daily doubles is the ideal strategy, regardless of the single game score.

[TheyCallMeMrKid]

I wonder how the taping and broadcast schedules will work. Are they going to tape all 50 of the shows before they start airing them or will they do it like the regular show and tape a few in advance and then keep taping as the season goes on.

If it is the latter, it would be a huge advantage to be on the last show as you would have seen many of the shows and would have an idea of how much you needed to make the finals.

I think if I got on the show, I'd probably be going all in in FJ no matter what the score is. The weekly prize is only $5,000 and getting to the finals where you could win $50,000 would be my main goal. Now, If I had already seen some shows and knew that even my doubled score wouldn't make it, I'd play FJ like a regular game.

They told us they thought there would be 3 taping sessions, I believe fall, winter and spring, but air dates were not set. I would hope that we are not waiting until spring to see the first episodes! I agree that it seems to be an advantage to be later in the season. Seems like it might work better to tape 1/3 of the episodes in each group, and then take the high score from each taping group, although that still gives a little advantage to those taping later in the day, unless they are sequestered.

The flip side of this is that a lock game won't necessarily be a lock if the leader is trying to max out, and a low score coming out of DJ could end up winning just by playing conservatively in FJ, if the leader goes for broke and misses.

[Bamaman]

I think taking the top score from each taping session would be the fair way to go, assuming you don't get to watch any of the earlier games getting played. But since it would take three or four days to tape 17 shows, I don't know how they could keep someone on the last day from knowing the first two days score.

I would want to tape in the spring just to be able to have seen some of the shows and have a feel of the format and difficulty of the material.

I just watched the video and did not know either of the samples he gave. I think the first one is gettable even if you did not know it already, but the second one is impossible for most people.

[zakharov]

Just got back from my NYC audition. Was anyone else there? I was Jake in the blue checkered jacket.

A few thoughts:

-I was definitely overdressed in a sweater, sport coat, and jeans. I must have missed the "dress casual" memo.

-Jimmy was there getting everyone pumped up, along with Maggie, Corinna, and others.

-Obviously not going to say anything about the test other than that it is definitely easier than Stump the Schwab, and that it pays to have a great breadth of knowledge about sports.

-About 25 of us passed, and I was one of them! I was near the end of the list, so I was starting to get nervous. I really felt bad for people who had traveled a long way.

-They told us that the game board may not have a bottom row, giving time for "Dan to be Dan." The set's also going to be more like a sports bar. Curious to see what it looks like. They'll do taping sessions in August, January, and April.

-I felt like my mock game went well. There were more clues that I didn't know than in my standard J! mock games, but I attribute that to getting stuck with a tennis category. I got complimented on my nice loud voice. I think I had a better interview than any of my previous auditions.

And now, another waiting game. I present a picture of my dorky self with Jimmy. I hope my smile looked better in my headshot.

[Bamaman]

If they wipe out 1/6 of the board so "Dan can be Dan", I am less excited about the show.

Any females make the cut at your audition?