11/13/23 "Who is
Emily Sands?"
(Diamonds CWC winner) (51:32)
Sarah & Michael Davies host with no Buzzy
Hearts has finished taping and S39 SCC will be taped before holiday break and then taping of S39 CWC.
The writers are back and the ToC will have largest field ever. 16-17 weeks of regular play will end the season.
Michael was in New York on Hudson St. and by chance saw Matt Amodio coming the other way. Matt had moved the day before from Cambridge. Outside eaters were surprised to see the chance encounter.
Michael mentioned the cultural barriers thread on Reddit about how not so many international versions of J! compared to Millionaire. Michael said besides the UK & Australia versions of J! there will be Scandinavia in Sweden, Denmark & Norway as well as Spanish and perhaps German.
The taping for Celeb J! finals is completed and Michael teased it's tremendous.
9:35 This Week in J! History from 11/17/21 and Amy's first win against Andrew He.
12:00 The 11/6 week of games:
Jilana went from SCC to CWC for Finals again. Brian was a good sport about "Repubic".
F1 was Jilana's best game yet worst loss and Aaron Craig went to Reddit to congratulate Emily & Jilana.
Michael would love to have players like Jilana and other champs back on J! while also wanting new players to compete to find next great player.
Michael would like a J! index to rank all players.
A postgame chat was played and Jilana (due early Dec.) could feel kicking on stage and Ken was complimenting her.
In the Clubs QF if all finished with zero then there would have been a 3-way tiebreaker. Beginning of Clubs was first day back on set for Billy and Michele. Clubs QF2 had 7 lead changes in DJ! Round.
Sarah did receive a picture of Dennis' Alex Trebek memorial cellar doors.
19:55 Ask the host and does Ken go to pub trivia? It's awkward now for Ken to do that now whether he wins or loses. Ken jokes about wearing disguises to play trivia.
20:55 Chat with
Emily Sands
[CWC Diamonds winner] solo with Sarah as Michael had to leave podcast.
Emily finds J! both fun to watch and fun to play and she tries to have fun and just grin is part of it.
In Minnesota J! used to be on at 11 a.m. and Emily would try to stay home to see J! if someone like David Duchovny was on.
Emily took online test while missing the scheduled tests on some years. Emily got an invite for an in-person audition and had to turn it down because of a commitment to attend a wedding.
Emily got an audition invite as part of a J! Fan Fest and met Jimmy November 2019. Emily was noticed for taking a guess during mock game and she thinks that helped her get the call which finally came in Feb. 2021.
Emily played with Anderson Cooper than Bill Whittaker as guest hosts and as a journalism major in college it was awesome to play with them hosting.
After her games of three wins Emily kept an eye on the ToC Tracker and would cheer for long streaker winners. When Emily saw Buzzy hosting ToC she had FOMO.
For returning to J! in 2023 Emily was able to bring her husband and son (age 5) along after getting permission (from Sarah) for son when rule is usually age 8 and up to be in the audience. Dad had snacks to help son behave.
For original playing Emily did not know who host(s) would be and did not try to practice the buzzer timing. For knowing ken would host Emily did try to get used to his timing of reading clues.
Emily had multiple instances of her wardrobe not being approved to comply with no whites/stripes rules. She did not pack enough as did not expect to play four games. Emily had to place an online order at Macy's and then do curbside pickup with an Uber.
At first CWC rehearsal Emily feared Dave Pai with great buzzer timing and Jilana who had the prior tourney experience.
Emily admires Jilana's skill at playing while so pregnant as Emily felt she lost 10 IQ points when she was pregnant.
Jilana showed up at the taping with her practice buzzer (toilet roll holder) and a bunch of books.
Emily got emotional when realizing she had a runaway in her semis match.
For lunch Emily had salads & proteins when playing while having the poke bowl when not playing and had no issues with it. Sarah says Ken says he has never gotten sick eating the poke bowl. The three finalists ate lunch sequestered but could talk to each other.
Emily loves Mitch the sound guy and on original run after Emily's first game, he said to her, "Way to go, champ".
For the scoring change on corpus callosum there was a long delay. J! staffers were in the library researching, J! staffers on stage heard audio replays as well as trying to read lips as those in the booth handling the replays.
Emily would have saved them time if they asked her because she had learned it wrong as "coloskum" and would have said so. During the delay Emily asked Ken if he knew it and he said yes.
Emily knows she has months to prepare for the ToC and study weak areas after taking a break after the CWC. Emily will keep watching J! and has seen every ep. since she got a DVR in 2005.
Emily gives a mention about John Focht and his site.
Emily knows she does not have to ring in on every clue while also feeling bad for the host when there are TS clues.
Emily's proud stat in Ken calling her ToC caliber when Emily had 49 buzzer attempts in CWC game. Another proud moment is being in the red in the DJ! round in her last regular game but getting out of the hole to make FJ! round and get that clue right.
The Diamonds have a group chat called "The Botches" in nod to the NON -NAUGHTY WORDS category. In the group Heath Ledger gets a mention everyday in recalling T.J. trying more than once to guess him in the JOKERS category.
Emily's quote, "The real Daily Double is the friends we met along the way" was mentioned to close the chat.[/spoiler]
Next week: The 11/13 week of games as well as Celeb J! on the 15th with Culkin, Dratch and Lynch. The chat will be with Jilana.
