Inside Jeopardy podcast

[AndyTheQuizzer]

Just listened to today's episode
Did I misunderstand or did they say 16 weeks of regular play at the end of the season?
So 30 weeks of...not that?
They're flipping what already seemed unsustainable (30 weeks of regular play following 16 weeks of whatever)?
What the actual?

That's what was said—and it matches what some of us have been saying for weeks. It is not a surprise—the strike forced the show's hand.

There's going to be significantly less regular play going forward—and we're going to have to live with it.

[Carpe Diem]

There's going to be significantly less regular play going forward—and we're going to have to live with it.

But how could it possibly be sustainable

[Golf]

There's going to be significantly less regular play going forward—and we're going to have to live with it.

Perhaps. But why not try to do something about it? When an entity makes what a decent segment of their audience thinks as a mistake, sometimes this segment's actions results in a change. New Coke, cancellation of Cagney and Lacey, etc. There's no reason why this board couldn't work together to enact a possible change. We already know TPTB pay attention to the goings on here which is a good start.

[AndyTheQuizzer]

There's going to be significantly less regular play going forward—and we're going to have to live with it.

Perhaps. But why not try to do something about it? When an entity makes what a decent segment of their audience thinks as a mistake, sometimes this segment's actions results in a change. New Coke, cancellation of Cagney and Lacey, etc. There's no reason why this board couldn't work together to enact a possible change. We already know TPTB pay attention to the goings on here which is a good start.

You can do what you like, but I think you'd essentially be sacrificing the viability of the show in 2028 for another 2-3 years of the Jeopardy of 2018.

Pray tell, what's going to happen to Jeopardy when linear broadcast television dies? What MD & Sony are doing is pivoting to a more viable long-term solution so it can still sell the show in a format that a streaming service is willing to buy in the future—because, quite frankly, syndicated TV is dying very quickly and there's no replacement for it under a streaming-only paradigm.

And that solution has significantly less regular play. The Jeopardy of 2018 is essentially dead and is not coming back. If that's a bridge too far for you, then so be it—it may well be for many. But the Jeopardy of 2018 isn't a viable production model for Netflix/Disney+/Amazon Prime/etc.—and so the show needs to fit into that model in order to ensure we still have something into the 2030s.

[Carpe Diem]

Pray tell, what's going to happen to Jeopardy when linear broadcast television dies? What MD & Sony are doing is pivoting to a more viable long-term solution so it can still sell the show in a format that a streaming service is willing to buy in the future—because, quite frankly, syndicated TV is dying very quickly and there's no replacement for it under a streaming-only paradigm.

And that solution has significantly less regular play. The Jeopardy of 2018 is essentially dead and is not coming back. If that's a bridge too far for you, then so be it—it may well be for many. But the Jeopardy of 2018 isn't a viable production model for Netflix/Disney+/Amazon Prime/etc.—and so the show needs to fit into that model in order to ensure we still have something into the 2030s.

So syndicated game shows won't survive the transition from broadcast to streaming unless they're turned into reality shows?
Just what streamers need more of

[MarkBarrett]

10/2/23 "What is the Debut of Celebrity Jeopardy!?" (23:00)

Michael D. & Sarah host and taped the podcast on afternoon of 9/27.

The writers are coming back and Sarah is planning party for J! staff including yellow ribbons

Season 40 will continue with CWC for S37 & S38, then SCC for S39, CWC for S39, the ToC (with biggest field ever), the JIT and regular play for about 16 weeks at end of season depending on how long the ToC finals goes.

Michael wants original material as soon as possible and Sarah will be happy to have Billy Wisse as judge next to her at tapings.

This week in J! history is 10/4/85 with Chuck Forrest winning game 5 for $72,800 total. The Forrest Bounce with credit to it being Rubin Bounce is mentioned. Alex did not like board jumping. That allowed Michael to briefly talk about the new shot sequence being tried out on Celebrity J!

8:00 9/25 week of games:

Spoiler

The Overheard was played for 9/25 game and Jilana got the call when at the doctor's office for ultrasound. Elaine joked about wanting third chance. Ken used the term "big push" about Jilana winning and perhaps not best thing to say about pregnant lady on the stage.

Michalle was happy to be back to get makeup done after having to do it herself first time around.

Michael D. loves Barb. With 2 librarians in final it reminded Michael that he has advocated for a tournament of librarians. Still could happen at some point.

Jiliana locked up the spot in the CWC and no mention was made that she potentially could have blown the spot with her F2 wager.

Postgame chat and Jilana said Barb was great TV and Barb said her students say she is "a lot".

Chat with Jilana at 12:50 and unbelievable to be going to CWC. She played first game with different name and married earlier in 2023 and baby due this Dec. When J! called Jilana thought it might be something about the podcast as she thought SCC might be only for those that player superchamps.

Jilana studied weak area like Best Picture winners and will study other weak spots. Jilana can now consider herself a 3x champ.

15:30 Celebrity J! 9/27 -

Spoiler

All 9 QF games will air and then the semis. Utkarsh was trailing and made up ground in Triple Jeopardy! Round. The celebs took a while to understand the Animal Sounds category.

J! had to contact musician(s) of rap for permission for Emily to perform some of presidents rap and later got to attend a J! taping though not the game with Emily.

18:00 Host question asking Ken his favorite movie?
Singin' in the Rain he thinks of when on the lot. Others are 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Hard Day's Night and for more current a Korean movie Past Lives.

Next week the CWC week of 10/2, Celebrity J! from 10/4 with Brian Baumgartner, Lisa Ann Walter & Timothy Simons and chat with David Maybury

[AntmanB]

That would mean the first week of reg play wouldnt be until april 8th - Yikes. Im guessing the Wildcard for S39 will take up the 2 months of time we are missing.

if you dont like it, then hope that theres never a writers strike ever again.

JIT should have been Primetime, maybe give the winner a Masters Invitation or something.

[AndyTheQuizzer]

maybe give the winner a Masters Invitation or something.

JIT winner will get a Masters invite.

Bold assumption for you to start doing network scheduling though.

[cf1140]

10/2/23 "What is the Debut of Celebrity Jeopardy!?" (23:00)

Season 40 will continue with CWC for S37 & S38, then SCC for S39, CWC for S39, the ToC (with biggest field ever), the JIT and regular play for about 16 weeks at end of season depending on how long the ToC finals goes.

really starting to feel like Mayim is out of the show with so little regular jeopardy and ken hosting this picket-crossing Celebrity J.

[2GD2DBLJ]

30 weeks!? I gave up on reality TV and now J! is becoming a trivia version of "The Challenge".

I don't know, part of the reason I started to dig Jeopardy so much around late 2020 was because of how consistent it was. Maybe we're in the minority here.

If we had to estimate, how many weeks of "post-season" would a non-strike S40 have had?

[Bamaman]

With only 16 weeks of regular Jeopardy, there won’t be much of a S40 Second Chance or CWC to choose from. A couple of superchamps of 15-20 games will really narrow the field.

Just me, but I’m not interested in an annual tournament where all roads lead to James and Amy.

[Trevor807]

If we had to estimate, how many weeks of "post-season" would a non-strike S40 have had?

According to the JeoparDAY! episode, we would've had just the SCC, CWC, and the TOC in terms of postseason before going to regular play, so about 10 weeks.

[Carpe Diem]

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.

[Ironhorse]

I would more readily buy the notion that the tournaments save money upfront than that they increase ratings. (The fact that it's 5 Eastern Time and that the Reddit game thread for today's game has four posts suggests ratings are probably not higher than usual). Don't sleep on budget concerns; during one episode of Inside Jeopardy last season, Davies let slip that Cris Pannullo's run had put the show over budget.

[MarkBarrett]

I would more readily buy the notion that the tournaments save money upfront than that they increase ratings. (The fact that it's 5 Eastern Time and that the Reddit game thread for today's game has four posts suggests ratings are probably not higher than usual). Don't sleep on budget concerns; during one episode of Inside Jeopardy last season, Davies let slip that Cris Pannullo's run had put the show over budget.

The Reddit inaction is probably about the combo of games taped before the strike settled and some recycled clues. Solidarity protests probably have little affect on ratings. MNF messing up normal time viewing may be another story.

[AntmanB]

With only 16 weeks of regular Jeopardy, there won’t be much of a S40 Second Chance or CWC to choose from. A couple of superchamps of 15-20 games will really narrow the field.

Just me, but I’m not interested in an annual tournament where all roads lead to James and Amy.

i doubt there will be a S41 TOC imo. i think it will be pushed to S42.

[2GD2DBLJ]

Still kind of wish production didn't blow their load of returning players so soon with Masters and JIT. A UToC II was really shaping up to have a lot of potential with any ToC qualifying player since the last one making the cut.

I don't think the pre-strike S40 plans were an unreasonable amount of post-season either. All this situation means is, as mentioned above, we probably don't get a ToC in S41 and thus a larger than usual amount of regular play then. So be it.

[cf1140]

In case anyone cares, ratings for the second week of the season were down 0.3 compared to last year.

While that could be "bad news" for the Davies tournies, syndication ratings have many factors. The ratings could be seen as better than the previous year by the fact that Jeopardy's ratings gap over WoF increased by 0.1.

[AndyTheQuizzer]

In case anyone cares, ratings for the second week of the season were down 0.3 compared to last year.

While that could be "bad news" for the Davies tournies, syndication ratings have many factors. The ratings could be seen as better than the previous year by the fact that Jeopardy's ratings gap over WoF increased by 0.1.

Yeah, the last sentence tells me that J!'s issue is cord-cutters, not anything else.

[MarkBarrett]

10/9/23 "Who is David Maybury?" (54:28)

Sarah & Buzzy host. Sarah & Ken went to Texas State Fair and Sarah ate a pickle wrapped in a Fruit Roll-Up and sprinkled with Fruity Pebbles.

J! is trying out having contestants say full category name each time selecting. Sarah likes it and it helps game board operator Michele.

Sarah shared story about a dragonfly buzzing around the stage and taping had to be stopped before the insect was released outside.

7:25 This week in J! history from 10/8/04 Ken and "What's a hoe?" Ken still jokes that the show owes him $200.

9:35 Champions Wildcard from 10/2 week:

Spoiler

Lawrence the "funcle" still has style and was 3/3 on DDs. Ken wanted to be part of Emily's pyramid while Sarah thought Ken would just stand to the side for the moment.

John is kicking himself for bad wager that cost him the chance to win with sole solve.

Thursday's game in post chat was Joe saying he had a Slumdog Millionaire moment as he been on that ridge a week earlier.

Daniel winning with $0 wager could have been influenced by players being able to watch prior games and have an idea about how FJ! Round is going.

Of course, Matt and the SWORDS (S-Words) got a mention.

18:30 10/4 Celebrity J!

Spoiler

and Ken seeing the contestants mentioned that The Office, Abbott Elementary and Veep could be considered three of the best shows of the century.

Lisa Ann was touching in her remarks about crediting mom. Buzzy chimed in about knowing Lisa Ann from watching The Parent Trap.

Buzzy watched from home but would have wanted to be in the studio if he had known the game would have Brian, Lisa Ann and Timothy.

Sarah mentioned again about the Celeb J! shows written before writers strike. Stars can play for charity but can't promote their own projects.

Lisa Ann had 25-25-19 buzz attempts.

Ads 22:05-24:45
Chat with David Maybury 24:50-49:25

Spoiler

David sent from contestant to champion and was alternate at first taping which was last for Alex. When David played in 2021 the game goes by so fast. He stayed in audience to watch other games and it was lonely without family guests there.

SCC was better with family in audience and getting the regular green room experience. David worked with Rowan Ward when they were prepping for SCC (and ToC) and David also knows Mattea. David helped prepare special boards for Rowan and their worst LL categories to prep some material. Goal was to get about $0 on worst categories on J!

Before call for SCC David bombed an audition for Wheel of Fortune. When J! call came in David was working on car and took call from car's phone system.

Prep also included buzzer practice and it's about rhythm and not speed.

David was mindful of energy level on set to take it down between games.

Ad for Amy's book 34:35-35:05

After SCC call David worked on blog but saved posting to share later. In tracking Coryat David was low 40,000s to high 30,000 at times of first taping to time of SCC call. David was not big on flashcards but ended up using Rowan's deck with more than 150,000 in addition to using the Archive and game over Zoom.

David credits flashcards for helping him get Andersonville on first DD he played in SCC.

For J! tapings David has tried both sleeping at home and sleeping in hotel. Hard to sleep and up early either way. David has attended other J! tapings as audience member.

On SCC tape day David took a nap in champ's dressing room from 8:30-9.

Green room has been redecorated and includes pictures on walls from more current J! champs.

Buzzy asked David about lunch and it was cheeseburger with ketchup & sweet potato fries. David's likes spicy food though not on tape day as he wants to be full without an upset stomach.

David's proudest J! stat is 44.67 average buzzer attempts for three games of SCC.

David feels he made the right bet on Finals 1 in World Capitals, but not his kind of clue even though a strong category. A different category and he may have bet $0 to sit on his Day 1 total.

If David, Hari and Jill played a dozen times David thinks he might have won a plurality of the matches. David is happy he had fun and made good decisions.

David's best moment of J! career is winning his first SCC game to become a J! champ

Host question is CWC Lawrence asking Ken if he ever dreams about J! Yes, though dreams are not traumatic. Ken remembers dreaming about J! in Times Square and set up like Hollywood Squares board. Buzzy also has J! dreams sometimes.

Next week: CWC for 10/9 week with first semifinal also and CJ! for 10/11 (Christopher Meloni, Sherri Shepherd, Katie Nolan). Sarah will chat with Buzzy.