”Jeopardy!” – It’s a Different Game
Sun., July 25, 12:04 PM
As you know, I’ve always liked games and quiz shows. And during those years when I was just at home caring for babies, I needed some kind of mental stimulation. Oh, yes, I read all my Time Nature Library and my Time Science Library, which wasn’t altogether a bad thing. When kids asked, “What’s a ___?” I could always say, “Let’s find a picture.” I knew I had plenty of pictures.
Watching “Jeopardy!” became very important to me. I know that the mental exercise of recalling information kept me from forgetting how to use my brain. It was still my favorite quiz show in that respect.
More recently, I had been watching “Jeopardy!” less, in part because it seems to me that the questions are getting easier. (Are they gonna dumb down everything?) But then changes in the television schedules brought me back, just as they were getting into the new rules – champions don’t have to quit after five wins – and Ken Jennings began his extended stay. This is new, and suddenly I’ve had company watching it. Not only U.D., but JM and even Husband have been joining me. As the items hit the newspapers, I realize that an awful lot of people don’t know what they’re talking about.
For example, “he’s going to bankrupt them.” No, he isn’t. He averages about $30,000 a day, an amount they’re budgeted to pay the winner on any given day. It just sounds like more when one person is winning it all.
Or, “he’s so smart that the others can’t beat him.” Sorry, the questions aren’t that hard. I can answer most of them. (Ken is ahead of me on movies and comic books, though.) Furthermore, the other contestants can usually answer them as well, if they can manage to ring in.
There is Ken’s special ability: exquisite timing. A player who rings in too soon is locked out; they must wait until the complete question is read. But if they wait too long, someone else will ring in first. It was my aging reflexes that made me decide not to try out for the show. It’s not about knowledge any more; now it’s about reflexes. I never was much good at video games either.
“Jeopardy!” is now going into reruns. That is not because there is any kind of “investigation” going on. They always do six weeks or so of reruns before the beginning of a new season. (I told you, the comments come from newbies who don’t know anything about the show.) Ken Jennings will be back in September. I wonder, will he lose his timing over the hiatus? And I also wonder, if there needs to be any kind of change to keep this kind of good player from squeezing out the others, maybe they ought to require interruptions in his appearances.
But I refuse to see this as some kind of sinister plot to increase ratings. I’ll just enjoy the show.
