Inside Jeopardy podcast

[MarkBarrett]

7/24/23 "Who is Andrew He?" (38:53)

Sarah & Buzzy host
In the coming weeks the podcast will share changes for Season 40.

1:44 July 17 week of games:

Spoiler

the Oppenheimer category was a drop-in, meaning it was always scheduled for the Monday game. Sarah the staff had been working on it for a year. Sarah went to Brooklyn to record it where Matt Damon and Emily Blunt were on a photo shoot.

The stars were very nice and at first read the clues in too serious a manner. Sarah got them to loosen up and they understood it was for a game show.

Around the time of Good Will Hunting Matt had visited the J! set and met Alex.

Christopher Nolan's wife is a fan of J! and wanted the category to happen.

There won't be a same-type Barbie category.

Player Jerry tried out over 50 years and was a good sport for how J! went for him in 2023.

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Sarah was dancing in her seat for the Max Martin clues and he signed on for using the music.

The bumper for the 7/19 game (quick glimpse between DJ! Round and FJ! Round) showed Buzzy going over to visit with Sarah:

Spoiler

There were studio flies on tape day and some caused some shots to have to be redone. No surprise, a Mike Pence joke was made. Ken caught about five flies with his bare hands.

David got the Route 66 DD only because of having attended a wedding the week prior to taping and staying in Chicago on the named place.

Liz got the hang of the buzzer due to switching from lights to keying on Ken's last word in clue. That is Buzzy's method as well while James & Fritz are lights.

Nik was calm as nothing is tougher than facing a room of 9th graders.

Sarah said math would have been allowed for the Friday FJ! clue so working it out on screen would have been fine. Taylor joked about almost taking off shoes and socks to work it out.

Over at 16:15 and no Fan Questions

16:23 talk with Andrew He:
Everett is now 3-4 months old
Andrew for now is trying to forget about Masters and not thinking about JiT yet.

Masters taping began in March and when Andrew saw text at lunch break about early labor he read the text aloud. It was unanimous he needed to fly home and he made it time for the birth.

Once taping of Masters began the alternate, Cris Pannullo, was not going to play.

Later when taping began after other delays Andrew was now a dad of a 6 wk-yr-old.

Andrew was aware tiebreaker for clues correct was in play. Andrew impressed Ken with gets on high value clues. Andrew proud he plays J! well-rounded.

Masters shared meals & coffees to get along well.

James gave Andrew parenting advice of nobody knows what they're doing.

Andrew sent Sarah 3 pictures of Everett with three different facial expressions and Andrew label them as looks of Andrew in Masters from QFs to Semis to eliminated.

For lunch in the ToC Andrew emulated James with pizza and Coke Zero while Masters he went Matt's way with vegan option.

For the JIT has long list of players he would like to play including Buzzy, Sam K. Brad, Colby, Larissa, and Roger Craig. Andrew then brought up Eric Ahasic and Chuck Forrest.

Andrew will try to balance being a dad vs. staying sharp for J! Andrew is not "a dark horse" anymore. Each time he's played it's been more games with 6 for regular, 8 for ToC and 10 for Masters.

Andrew's proud moment on J! was defeating Amy & Matt in Masters with Ken hosting in being there with winners of 74, 40 and 38 games.

Andrew was doing chat with megaboard J! blanket.

Next week: 7/24 week to conclude the season and talk with Matt Amodio.

[Game Girl]

in this episode back to back runaways (labelled because I sometimes post them after new episodes come out) The New Jersey quizzing was a nice added touch. also tell it like it is , if you have to deal with the cold weather make sure to have handwarmers if you have a pocket. my family literally got the big box semi bulk (basically bulk before the consumer level there has to keep in their residence, it was about a medium box size package in size) for school season during the winter since you kinda have to be next to the heater to feel the heat (still love my school though) and it was worth it. this is probably around the best advice you can give in terms of cold weather.

in the Sam episode the no more shoving the check story from the interview was funny. honestly I am on the side of mat paying But they might be more details I do not know.

in terms of him being part of the Masters, I kind of also thought the same thing that he was there for kind of "comic relief" (maybe not to that extent but at least for a lighter personality) when it was announced he was coming on the show. he had a really bad record on the tournament of champions and I liked watching him. granted I knew he must of had a serious side, you do not end up in the naval Academy being funny but that was the TV personality.

anyhow I guess we are going to see him next Big tournament.

I have not finished the Amy episode yet, but I did not know our host Sarah edits the games (or at least masters) too. usually I finish the episodes but I just have to say it right away because I know how hard is it can be ,requiring some skill.

[MarkBarrett]

7/31/23 - "Who is Matt Amodio?" (41:37)
Buzzy & Sarah host

Podcast has been going for one year
2:13 - July 24 week of games:

Spoiler

Taylor bet $100 on DDs twice and it could have been $5 wagers

MUSICAL WORKS and MYWOULD-BE VP were not 9/10 Triple Stumpers as hosts said since two of the misses were DDs for one player. Still, 7/8 TS was not good for those categories.

Jimmy led audience in singing "Happy Birthday" to player Ian.

Andrew's tongue trick got a mention and Sarah & Ken can touch their nose with tongue though not elbow.

Julie's good luck Scrabble tile had company with Ken Jennings trading card which he signed with adding that Julie is a fellow J! champion.

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Lucas had a jacket that matched his hair color ala Rowan Ward. Lucas ending season as champ means he will not be part of CWC in Season 40.

The hosts gave some S39 stats:
445 players with 381 in regular play and 64 from tourneys and such
Prize money include 2nd/3rd place = $5,930,842

Chat with Matt Amodio at 12:50 done after Masters:

Spoiler

Matt played with 7 different hosts and Ken is as talented as host as he was as a player
Matt is 1 of 5 J! millionaires and Matt had a higher per victory average than Ken

Matt's feeling was if you know 50.1% of FJ! clues than bet as much as you can.

Matt is fine with ToC seeding as it guaranteed him an extra $5,000. He came in cold and one exhibition game was not enough time to get a rhythm.

Matt often pays for bar tab when with friends and some do not Venmo him back later and it can feel tough to hound them for payment.

Matt likes learning and does not like non-school. Matt gets recognized in public to take selfies.

ToC was a reunion for Matt with Jessica & Jonathan and their regular play game was first for Matt after two-week taping break. Matt is not a morning person. Mayim as host of that game was his 6th host.

Matt and his dad like comics so missing Venom clue stung.

When Robin Roberts hosted she could feel the presence of Alex Trebek on stage.

Matt's loss came on Michael Davies' first day on set as EP.

Matt was aware of criticism going into Masters but likes format both as fan and participant. Matt went into Masters on streak of 3 losses in a row from regular play, exhibition and ToC.

Matt's favorite moment in Masters was beating James. Buzzer timing in Masters varied on opponents and did better on timing not going up against James.

Finals was tough with double digit triple stumpers/stand-and-stares. It was not double-digits in Finals 2 as Matt thought.

In regular play Matt would ring in and then figure out correct response in the 5-6 seconds. It's harder to do that in Masters not knowing all of the clues. Lose it all on DD and try to make up ground quickly can lead to more mistakes in taking stabs.

Masters was never hearing of "blah".

Coming back for next Masters Matt joked his strategy is to distract the Holzhauer family with stray pizza orders.

Matt will take break from trivia as regular work & life keep him busy. He will rest then ramp back up for trivia next year closer to Masters.

Matt's lunch food is Impossible Burger as he is a vegetarian. Matt does not care for black bean burgers or veggie style burgers.

Matt likes stats and is keen on his Average Coryat being higher than Ken's, although well below James.

The camaraderie with the Masters was there for everyone and Matt gets along especially with Sam who like to riff off each other.

Chat with Matt ends at 38:15

Next week: Chat with Mattea and Michael Davies talks about plans for Season 40.

[Game Girl]

I mentioned editing things previously. wow I cannot believe he is missname the contestants during tapings because of Masters. (as in the sticks to you more then expected way) though to be fair I think we all had masters fever after the whole series. hosts please do not give any ideas please do not. (he would definitely do some Beetlejuice thing mentioned at this point)

I guess this what do you like for lunch thing is going to be a pattern. I am definitely interested in see how this goes. I am definitely excited to see the next episode. like I mentioned earlier we did not hear a lot about Andrew throughout this whole process since and all of his interviews were about events with the other contestants. now we finally get to see him in the spotlight for once. though if I did not delay posting this comment I would have forgotten about it because it not on audible. The episode after the one above is math which is why the next review is on mat's episode.

[Game Girl]

in the mat interview episode the tongue stuff was funny definitely when the host said approximately you know we were there are topics if we are doing this. of course the top moment was the signed my baseball card story definitely with that possible 'eBay wondering'.

but what makes this episode with mentioning is now they said it out loud that they have A little under 400 contestants since I am not excusing second chance and the tournament champions each season. in these people want to make a contest where every champion comes back. now onto the interview. to be honest in terms of having Ken host your game , it would probably improve the experience if that game tonight involved a certain James having a personal conversation with said host. not for anything they did separately or their talents to do their jobs but just how everything fell. I imagine it will be the same as having your mother on the telephone hosting a game at the same time. (I did not get (at least up to it ask that I could remember it months later) that when I was watching the show but we all know they have post production) I feel you cannot talk about this episode without this particular portion of the 'worst 2 host are the one they choose' buzzy's words not mine question. of course ignoring that those two games were with champions. The biggest problem with this is that it was not really a question but a statement disguised as a question. probably obvious because someone else to go for for the questions right after.

I love how they projected about Mat beading horsehower. (I use voice dictation for everything including names) I would say he is definitely the first 'non-gambling heavy contestant to beat him'. this is something I do not really think gone into listening to this interview. granted saying everything about it is based on gambling rather than strategy is oversimplifying.

I will admit I never watched his original run since I got into jeopardy around the time of the goat tournament which was the first time I saw him play but what I have a gathered from the Wikis she was a very special contestant. One of the best female players of the generation being the highest score for a female. I would say Mat is more of a traditional player and it proves that he could be beat in a traditional way. but really that game was also a flash of lightning with the tie into final and stuff ken's reaction was like the top clip for all the commercials for a reason. I loved how did he explains that he actually knows everything and that's why he over presses the button during the trigger happy exhibition game. it makes everything make more sense. I have seen someone mention the strategy not for j but for wheel in a news article. to ended off is nice to hear that he is a vegetarian. I grew up and was raised as a vegetarian so it is a soft spot for me.

[MarkBarrett]

8/7/23 "Who is Mattea Roach?" (48:12)

Sarah & Michael Davies

Michael reads everything online about J! on social media. He admires & misses the writers as they are beloved & valued.

The hosts talk about the original plan for Season 40 which was going to be about 10.5 weeks of postseason games the SCC, CWC, and ToC before regular play began. Feb. would be JiT and May would be high school or college tournament.

It would work out 15-16 weeks of special play and 30-31 weeks of regular play and Michael is fine with that split.

One change coming for S40 anyway is $2,000 for 3rd place and $3,000 for 2nd place. Celeb. J! will air late Sept and the Masters is expected for 2024.

With the writers strike J! is in holding pattern and the postseason is postponed until the strike ends.

It's not fair to have new players with non-original material.

S40 will now begin with a SCC using S37 players who did not win a game. That will feed into a CWC (players who won at least one game and did not make ToC) of S37 & S38 winners.

The contestant pool eligibility will now be two years.

The clues for S40 will be a combination of clues written before the strike and clues from multiple seasons in the past.

The clues for Celeb J! were already written before the strike and Triple J! will return.

Michael gave a quick mention to bar network and book club which he has previously talked about.

Sarah and Michael are looking at post-production ways to have the category on screen with the clue or a different way of presenting the shot sequences to help viewers keep track of the board. It will be talked about in an upcoming podcast ep.

The hosts would like to hear ideas about awards for J! Honors like some new category ideas. Jean Trebek will be there to present the Alex Trebek Award. It would happen around timing of ToC again. This portion ended around 16:45 and led into an ad.

Sarah and Buzzy (no Michael) chatted with Mattea at 17:15 and it went until 45:00

The audio for Mattea was not the clearest and Mattea tends to talk a little fast in spots for me to pick up on everything said.

Mattea is ready for break from J! stuff and they are not the biggest fan for being recognized in public. Mattea enjoys podcasting and is the first Gen Z superchamp.

Mattea likes that they were age 23 and won 23 games for initial run. Mattea is not on Tik Tok.

Buzzy mistakenly added an expletive to a quote from Mattea about it being over if they ever study for J!

Returning for Masters 2 will be a great way to supplement income and Mattea's proud stat is being most successful Canadian on J! other than Alex.

In Masters knowing that there are more games to play makes competing a little different.

In the Green Room Sam is the class clown and knew how to rib Matt about showing up with a bunch of Yale merchandise.

Mattea has a "selfie" on their phone with the other five Masters taken on day their father died.

Mattea's parents and one brother were at March taping and brother enjoyed visiting a skate park. Mattea's mom enjoyed meeting J! staff and other audience members.

Mattea's lunch was some rice and potatoes from several options at original games and later tapings it was fried chicken salad for balance and something caffeinated + sparkling water for hydration.

James had opinions about Mattea's lunch choices.

Mattea has twin brothers who have not attended a taping due to school obligations. Mattea will get asked if they are triplets sometimes when mentioning they have twin brothers.

Buzzy will talk to Mattea about flashcards as he has 30,000 on his phone.

Mattea's highlight on J! was winning first game to become a J! champ. Amy's games were airing leading up to Mattea's taping and Mattea wondered if Amy (or some other long-running champ) would still be there. It turned out Mattea was the problem for other contestants.

Mattea encourages anyone to take the test.

Mattea may return to the studio to watch the ToC.

Next week: Chat with Ben Chan

[Austin Powers]

1/3 of the season special play? He’s an idiot.

[Trevor807]

1/3 of the season special play? He’s an idiot.

Bingo. If he still refuses to learn any of the lessons he should have when he screwed up Millionaire, then I actually find it adorable how he still thinks he has any right to run a knowledge-based quiz. Given the chance to meet him before I realized how competent he truly is (i.e. not competent at all), I would've happily shaken his hand. Now, I'd just walk away. I know I'm being a little blunt, but you know what they say: play stupid games, win stupid prizes. At least expanding the consolation prize amounts was something even he could do right.

Okay, now that's enough rambling for one day. I hope.

[Bamaman]

1/3 of the season special play? He’s an idiot.

Bingo. If he still refuses to learn any of the lessons he should have when he screwed up Millionaire, then I actually find it adorable how he still thinks he has any right to run a knowledge-based quiz. Given the chance to meet him before I realized how competent he truly is (i.e. not competent at all), I would've happily shaken his hand. Now, I'd just walk away. I know I'm being a little blunt, but you know what they say: play stupid games, win stupid prizes. At least expanding the consolation prize amounts was something even he could do right.

Okay, now that's enough rambling for one day. I hope.

Reminds me of a guy, forgot his name, who got involved in the USFL. They had a nice thing going as a spring league. Then this guy said they should go up against the NFL. They never even played one game in the fall.

Hopefully nobody ever put him in charge of anything important again.

[Trevor807]

Per Wikipedia, Chicago franchise owner Eddie Einhorn and Generals franchise owner Donald Trump were key proponents of the plan.

[jev15]

I find the choice to bring back previous contestants who lost diabolical. Potential first-time contestants could theoretically pass on crossing the picket line and rationalize that they have the rest of their lives to be on. The former losing contestants are being given a second chance, but only on the condition that they help Sony circumvent the strike.

It honestly made me a little sick listening to Davies talk in high-minded words about keeping the show going as best they can. This decision has only solidified my belief that A. the show should not produce new episodes until the strike is over and B. someone other than Michael Davies should be in charge when it is.

[AndyTheQuizzer]

No producer in America right now would act any differently than Michael Davies is. Relieving him of his duties would not be the answer. I am going to find it very difficult to cheer for anyone this fall, but it’s the fault of those above Davies, not Davies.

[alietr]

It would work out 15-16 weeks of special play and 30-31 weeks of regular play and Michael is fine with that split.

I'm glad somebody is fine with that.

Mattea tends to talk a little fast

Gee, ya think?

[Bamaman]

It's not fair to have new players with non-original material.

(From the podcast)

So why is it fair to have recycled clues for this CWC from S37/38 they are throwing together? And what if the strike isn’t settled when this tournament is over?

So how is this new tournament going to be structured? Do they only invite those who won a certain number of games or is just one win enough? They had 65 people win 1-3 games in S39. Sure, S38 had a bunch of long runs but S37 seemed to be fairly normal. How big will the field be? Will the ultimate winner get in the TOC?

It’s a bit much to expect Sony to shut production down completely during the strike and forfeit the ad revenue and syndication fees they get. But just run regular games and let any potential boycotters come back after the strike. I doubt the average person could tell the difference between a game with fresh clues and one with a board lifted directly from Season 28.

[Robert K S]

I doubt the average person could tell the difference between a game with fresh clues and one with a board lifted directly from Season 28.

I don't mean this to be a dis of the writers, but from my perspective the 2008 strike games were amazingly indistinguishable from completely fresh games (in their perception of "freshness"). Even those who engage with past material on a daily basis had to have the benefit of the Archive search to suss out the recycled clues.

I think Andy is right that any producer in Davies' shoes would be doing the same thing, trying to make the show go on as best it could under trying circumstances.

The writers deserve everything they are asking for and I hope the AMPTP comes to its senses, goes off-playbook, and starts to understand the writers' perspective. In the meantime, there are also families relying on the paychecks of non-writer Jeopardy! employees, and keeping the show going even under trying circumstances makes the most sense. It's not going to do the writers any favors to have a hobbled show, or no show, to return to.

[Anachronism]

Reminds me of a guy, forgot his name, who got involved in the USFL. They had a nice thing going as a spring league. Then this guy said they should go up against the NFL. They never even played one game in the fall.

Hopefully nobody ever put him in charge of anything important again.

It wasn't working as a spring league (six of the 14 teams from 1985 failed during the off-season, down from 18 in 1984 - with four of that remaining 14 in new cities), but they had a decent case for their lawsuit against the NFL for interfering with access to broadcast television contracts. And you can blame the other team owners for not standing up to the newcomer - one man shouldn't be able to buy his way into a league and run it.

He was the one who insisted on filing in New York rather than one of the few cities where the USFL was popular, then playing in the fall instead of the spring. They ended up "winning" that lawsuit, but essentially losing it as an unfriendly jury awarded them $1 in compensation (damages tripled to $3).

The decision to move to fall games was probably not a good one, however, the league folded because it was wasn't working and the lawsuit was their "Hail Mary". I don't think the USFL would have survived very long regardless of the suit (the WFL failed a decade earlier, though it played fall games), but the decision to file the suit in New York was what killed it so quickly.

[MarkBarrett]

8/14/23 "Who is Ben Chan?" (34:44)

Sarah and Ben chat with no Buzzy other than ad breaks. (Spoiler tags to cut down size of post)

Spoiler

Ben cycles in Wisconsin and can wear out dogs Ruthie & Chester. Ben joked about being most famous man in Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers gone. Ben went to NYC to see his mom & sister and Ben was recognized by plane pilot.

Ben tried to get on J! through scheduled test (back when it was once a year) and only did Anytime Test once about a year ago. Audition to Call to Stage came together quickly.

Ben listened to J! on TuneIn for prep and studied English monarchs, presidents and world capitals as well as J! Archive. He considered himself a regular but casual viewer of J!

Ad break 7:25-10:00

The most surprising thing for Ben was winning. He went on wanting to have prepared well and to play with joy while winning was unexpected.

After 3 wins and during tape break is when Ben tested positive for COVID. He was mad at himself for getting it.

Being a J! contestant involves a lot of waiting and gives a person time to think.

The first game is the hardest since it involves playing a returning champ. Ben knew he would be in first game when he returned but had no way of knowing it would be against an 8-time champ. Ben had been chatting with other contestants in the day's taping pool about his having won 3 games while not knowing until later that Hannah had won 8 games.

Ben is a competitive person and that gave him extra motivation. He likened it to K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider in super pursuit mode.

Later Ben met up with Hannah in Chicago and hung out with her.

Ben has played at all three contestant spots on stage and likes the #1 spot at the champ's podium the most.

Ben is the first to win first 9 games in runaways and he was good at finding DDs.

Ben does not like to talk about Benedick vs. Benedict so don't bring it up if you meet him in public. He did not realize how upset the internet would get about that game 10 defeat and the ruling.

Looking to ToC Ben talked about a woodworking class and how he pays more attention to details and how he can no longer be a news avoider like he's been in the past.

Ben went with everybody for who he's afraid of in ToC and did not name any one player. Ben's ToC class is a deeper field because more players than in 2022 have a Coryat Avg. over 20,000 and more of the upcoming field have a chance to win it all than the previous ToC.

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Ben wants to be prepared and to have fun at ToC and knows it (and the whole postseason) have been pushed back. It gives him (and the others) more time to prepare. There is extra pressure in knowing the ToC winner gets a spot in Masters. Making Masters has the benefit of getting to play more than one game of J!

With Buzzy on vacation Sarah asked the lunch question for him. Ben liked to eat on the lighter side with a salad that included protein. For the ToC Ben might have more caffeine.

Ben's proudest stat gave a mention to Andy and The Jeopardy! Fan for the 300 club. Ben has 288 correct clues and wants 300+

The chat was over at 30:00 to conclude the podcast episode other than Sarah saying next week will be a chat with Ray Lalonde.

[LucarioSnooperVixey]

No mention about Season 40. From what I heard, taping starts tomorrow.

[MarkBarrett]

No mention about Season 40. From what I heard, taping starts tomorrow.

Right, no mention about S40 other than ToC pushed. Reddit tomorrow will cover whatever happens or doesn't happen as far as J! tapings.

Vanna missed a week's worth of WoF games when she was sick during those tapings for the new season.

[Robert K S]

No mention about Season 40. From what I heard, taping starts tomorrow.

Right, no mention about S40 other than ToC pushed. Reddit tomorrow will cover whatever happens or doesn't happen as far as J! tapings.

Vanna missed a week's worth of WoF games when she was sick during those tapings for the new season.

A clickbait article headline made it seem like it was due to a contract renegotiation, but I've learned better than to trust those.