Fun with NBC's "The Weakest Link"

[MarkBarrett]

Jane Lynch will be hosting and I read in TV Guide that the hour will have nearly 130 questions.

In the West it will be on after the debate and in the East it's the warm-up act.

If you spot J! alums then share in a post so that it can added to their archive bio.

Yeah, yeah, I know, we hate it when the "smart" person gets voted off early.

[triviawayne]

Jane Lynch will be hosting and I read in TV Guide that the hour will have nearly 130 questions.

In the West it will be on after the debate and in the East it's the warm-up act.

If you spot J! alums then share in a post so that it can added to their archive bio.

Yeah, yeah, I know, we hate it when the "smart" person gets voted off early.

While I haven't seen anything to confirm it, I've heard the strongest link in each round gets immunity to prevent this, or prevent people from sandbagging.

[LucarioSnooperVixey]

J! Alums, let alone J! Champions getting eliminated early won't surprise me as on the original UK version, Eggheads Chris Hughes and CJ De Mooi as well as Chaser Shaun Wallace have all been voted off on an episode, before the days of Eggheads and The Chase. In fact, the two eventual Eggheads were both the strongest link in the round they were voted off on.

[Bamaman]

Jane Lynch will be hosting and I read in TV Guide that the hour will have nearly 130 questions.

In the West it will be on after the debate and in the East it's the warm-up act.

If you spot J! alums then share in a post so that it can added to their archive bio.

Yeah, yeah, I know, we hate it when the "smart" person gets voted off early.

While I haven't seen anything to confirm it, I've heard the strongest link in each round gets immunity to prevent this, or prevent people from sandbagging.

How do they determine the strongest link? If two people both go 3/3 in their questions and neither banks money, who is stronger?

[LucarioSnooperVixey]

How do they determine the strongest link? If two people both go 3/3 in their questions and neither banks money, who is stronger?

Depends on which contestant answered faster or whether the contestant hesitated on their questions.

[triviawayne]

How do they determine the strongest link? If two people both go 3/3 in their questions and neither banks money, who is stronger?

Depends on which contestant answered faster or whether the contestant hesitated on their questions.

We don’t know the criteria or if this is even true. Either way there’s the possibility someone goes 4/4 while someone else goes 3/3; now what. Not fair to penalize someone for having less opportunity.

[Bamaman]

Lynch should be moderating the debate.

[SBurrus]

Jane Lynch is too nice to be host of this version of "The Weakest Link". That's why Anne Robinson was so good during the show's original run; she came across as cold and uncaring, which made her "You are the weakest link...GOODBYE" so effective.

[econgator]

Jane Lynch is too nice to be host of this version of "The Weakest Link". That's why Anne Robinson was so good during the show's original run; she came across as cold and uncaring, which made her "You are the weakest link...GOODBYE" so effective.

I would like to see her become a bit more like Anne, but I liked her. I am surprised that

Spoiler

Jay kept Angel on instead of Reanna, as I think he would have had an easier time with her.

[Bamaman]

Jane came across as more of a teasing big sister than the bitch from Hell Anne was. My problem with Anne is that I had difficulty understanding her accent at times.

I thought she did a good job as host overall. I started thinking she would be a good replacement for Alex but then I looked her up and she is 60 years old.

They promote you could win $1,000,000 but that is borderline impossible. Maybe if you had Ken, Brad, James, Roger, Austin, and three other superchamps.

A lot of luck in succeeding on the show. If you know 21/24 questions but the three you don’t are the ones you are asked, it sucks to be you.

[econgator]

A lot of luck in succeeding on the show. If you know 21/24 questions but the three you don’t are the ones you are asked, it sucks to be you.

Also, a bunch of cowards banking every 3 questions.

[TenPoundHammer]

Jane Lynch is too nice to be host of this version of "The Weakest Link". That's why Anne Robinson was so good during the show's original run; she came across as cold and uncaring, which made her "You are the weakest link...GOODBYE" so effective.

Honestly, Anne Robinson made me want to smash my TV with a ten pound hammer. I LOATHE the concept of this show. I LOATHE the concept of insults being treated as entertainment. Why is this hate-mongering garbage getting a reboot?

[Bamaman]

Jane Lynch is too nice to be host of this version of "The Weakest Link". That's why Anne Robinson was so good during the show's original run; she came across as cold and uncaring, which made her "You are the weakest link...GOODBYE" so effective.

Honestly, Anne Robinson made me want to smash my TV with a ten pound hammer. I LOATHE the concept of this show. I LOATHE the concept of insults being treated as entertainment. Why is this hate-mongering garbage getting a reboot?

If that bothers you I hope you didn’t watch the debate.

[jeff6286]

old.

They promote you could win $1,000,000 but that is borderline impossible. Maybe if you had Ken, Brad, James, Roger, Austin, and three other superchamps.

This is an absurd overstatement. They clearly were not trying to cast top tier trivia players, not sure if they were even interested in trivia players at all based on the first show. The vast majority of these questions were very easy and few of them even approached medium difficulty, in my opinion. A team of all C or D Rundle Learned League players should have no problem putting up multiple strings of 7-8 right on these questions. As in reasonably competent Jeopardy players, not the ridicuous hyperbole of needing the best players in the history of the show.

[MarkBarrett]

George Gray showed a lot of skill when he hosted and does not get to demonstrate the same talent on TPiR, unfortunately.

Jane's hosting style is on par with what she does on Hollywood Game Night which is fine while I would not mind her going more towards Sue Sylvester. Anyone expecting an Anne Robinson is not getting her.

I'll admit to laughing at more than half a dozen of the one-liners that zinged the players and I'm guilty as charged for the AOL one.

My preference would be for the pace of the question reading to speed up a bit while I understand for the general viewing public the speed as it was is acceptable.

Jay looked familiar so I suspect he's been on something else.

With this being the first episode shown (may not have been first recorded?) I expected this to be one with the "strong" players going to the end and not one with the "best" player(s) gets bounced too early out of spite.

$62,000+ for knowing a basic acronym? America, what a country.

My homework after watching?

#7523, aired 2017-05-03 ACCESSORIES $1000: A signature color for this luxury company's Birkin bag is called "Orange H"
#6222, aired 2011-10-11 PURSE-ONALITIES $1000: The Birkin bag, named for actress Jane Birkin, is a status symbol from this French company
#5656, aired 2009-03-23 FASHION FORWARD & BACKWARD $800: Too bad you didn't buy a Birkin one of these in the '80s; now the waiting list can take years

[MDCSWildcats86]

How do they determine the strongest link? If two people both go 3/3 in their questions and neither banks money, who is stronger?
[/quote]


On the original series, # of questions correct, ties broken by how much could conceivably have been banked.

[MinnesotaMyron]

Jay looked familiar so I suspect he's been on something else.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm5013848/

I know him from the Movie Trivia Schmoedown.

[talkingaway]

The trivia component was obviously much lighter than J!, but that's to be expected, and it's not necessarily bad. You have to give home viewers an entry point into trivia. If J! is college, then this is freshman year of high school.

I had enough stumbles, mainly in pop culture, which is typically my forte. I had no idea the floss was invented/popularized on SNL by a Katy Perry dancer, for example, and I had no other good modern dance craze besides twerking, which I associate with Miley Cyrus, not Katy. I did have 3 perfect rounds, though, which shows how easy the questions are.

A quick peek at the Wikipedia article says the best strategy is to never bank (except for the end, naturally), with second-best being to bank after every question. Of course, that was for the old chain values. I can see that being reasonable - for example, if I aced the first round, and I think Jane said there were 25 questions. Even at 20 questions, that's $20,000 out of $25,000 - a decent percentage of the max. But that chain is very slow - for speedier chains, I can see waiting for 3 or 4 questions to bank.

I thought Jane Lynch was fine. I don't need an Anne Robinson insult-fest, and, frankly, I'm not sure that the world needs that now, either. Besides, the NBC-style of game show (The Wall, Game of Games, Hollywood Game Night) is very family-friendly/good-times. The "older sister teasing" is the perfect description of Jane's performance, and just the right amount of "mean". I figured she could pull it off, as she had a cloak of mean for years on Glee. She's a little more humble than Anne - partly because I think Anne can pull off the "I would know the answer even if it weren't in front of me" bit. The "stupid answers" that Jane tends to point out are more brain farts than anything. For example, I said "3no5" all as one word for the number of states on the Pacific - the question was designed to trip a speedster up. And the generic one-liner insults to the group ("Who thinks a blahblah is a blahblah") aren't mean-spirited...just sitcom-style dad jokes.

All in all, a fun show. I'll watch it.

[LucarioSnooperVixey]

Angel looked very familiar to me. His name, his mustache, and his shirt as well. I want to say he appeared on Common Knowledge but I'm most likely wrong as it has been a while since the show had new episodes. Probably I'm thinking of someone who looked a lot like him.

So apparently, the contestants are from all across America and not just from California.

We have identified Jay Washington in the group. There was also a contestant named Brandon who said he was a former professional basketball player.

Great set of questions in today's show. I only recall missing a few questions in the episode. The browed basketball player, the celebrity sisters whose name sounds like Fanny, and was one off with BTS with 8.

[trainman]

So apparently, the contestants are from all across America and not just from California.

It's entirely possible that they were saying where they were originally from, rather than the California location where they live now.