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Jeopardy!
1984 · TV series · 22 min episodes · 43 seasons
Created by Merv Griffin
America's favorite quiz show where contestants are presented with general knowledge clues in the form of answers, and must phrase their responses in question form.
1 positive3 negative15 neutralfrom 19 commenters
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20 comments on Hacker News
Not the person you were responding to but I work at a TV station here in the US. What kind of shows do you like? My husband and I are getting into "The Rise and Fall of Reggie Dinkins" if you want a new show. If new episodes of a long running show is fine, I still relax to Jeopardy when I can. If you don't stream anything, you can usually still find golf on the weekends which we use for our cats. :)
> So your definition falls apart.
I did not share any definitions, only vague opinions. Not that I'd know what it means for a definition to "fall apart".
And the specific bit you cite is barely even a vague opinion; it is my interpretation of the show "Jeopardy!" based on the Wiki article (I've never seen a single episode, wasn't really a thing where I'm from):
> Specifically because it reads like it's about (...) knowledge: it tests for association and recall (...)
Also:
> By that definition humans doing chess aren't as intelligent as a computer doing chess, since high level chess is heavily reliant on memory and recall of moves and progressions.
Yes, I did find this really quite disappointing and disillusioning when I first learned about it. A colleague of mine even straight up quit competitive chess over it.
“I’m a lawyer for Sony Pictures Television, producers of the hit syndicated television show “Jeopardy.” While we appreciate our fans, we cannot allow this to continue. You must cease and desist” arriving in your inbox in 3…2…
Author makes a good point. "1700s" is both more intuitive and more concise than "18th century". The very first episode of Alex Trebeck's Jeopardy in 1984 illustrates how confusing this can be:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDTxS9_CwZA
The "Final Jeopardy" question simply asked on what date did the 20th century begin, and all three contestants got it wrong, leading to a 3-way tie.
There will probably always be more shows you don’t like than shows you do. They aren’t all for you / me / that guy.
Every show gets canceled eventually, except Jeopardy and The Simpsons I guess. The studio still owns the IP and can re-release, reboot for as long as human life exists.
Industry never wants to raise wages for anyone! A handful of companies own all TV & film media, meaning it’s even harder for folks to negotiate. That’s why unions and strikes are necessary.
No one is setting an alarm to binge watch Jeopardy - they just put off all the things they should be doing instead.
It’s a much more passive involvement but still just as problematic as described above.
I don't think its healthy because he changed his lifestyle around it. He said he would wake up early, go to sleep late and put off work.
Americans watch a lot of TV, but no one is setting an alarm to binge watch Jeopardy.
> a poignant example in television, where episodes of Jeopardy! are intertwined with their shilling quackery like Prevagen to an audience using the fear of aging.
Episodes of Jeopardy, now temporarily hosted by Dr. Oz.
I think it's a common sentiment here, but I'm turning into a more extreme anti-advertising zealot every day.
Even the large ad networks show paid content that violates what I would consider widespread ethical norms - presenting everything from hyperbolic claims to straight fraud to people with little repercussion. I'm reminded of a poignant example in television, where episodes of Jeopardy! are intertwined with their shilling quackery like Prevagen to an audience using the fear of aging. Perhaps I'm growing increasingly blind to any positive impacts of the discipline, but ethically I find it hard to separate the fraudsters from the engineers that enable them.
I guess advertising is saving me a lot of money in the end by cultivating this hatred, and though I can't change the world this screed was therapeutic.
That's funny, I agree with a lot of the article because I've been experimenting with creating different types of video conferencing.
I created:
https://drinkingclass.com
To host these experiments. For instance, if you want to chat with people around tables organized by pubs in the golden mile (from the movie The World's End), go to:
https://drinkingclass.com/go/goldenmile.cfm
If you want to watch random questions from jeopardy with others:
https://drinkingclass.com/go/jeopardy.cfm
I am looking for creative and interesting uses for video conferencing technologies. Also interested if you find any issues.
The saddest part of this is facing the harsh reality that Jeopardy cannot exist without Alex Trebek. The only hope for future episodes is an AI reproduction of Alex Trebek that's been well trained on his past shows.
Turn on a movie or TV show.
I actually stop work every day at 7pm because that is when Jeopardy comes on.
The app typically shows 350k - 500k participants in their nightly shows. They're giving away usually $5000.
Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune have around 10 million viewers each with over 30 years of history. Jeopardy gives away around $23k each day, I believe WoF rings in a little higher. They air 5 days a week and clock in around 200-230 episodes per season. Back of the napkin math puts that at $0.53 per viewer per year.
HQ is still at $4.29 per viewer per year. At their current rate they still need about 10x growth to match J! or WoF. But HQ is also only 2 years old on a somewhat new media format (live interactive entertainment).
Those numbers are just for the prize money. Pat Sajak and Alex Trebek each earn north of $10 million per year (and Vanna White somewhat less, but still in the millions), and the shows almost certainly have larger staffs. The actual value difference is probably closer to a 3-4x multiplier rather than 10x.
That said, since HQ is phone based there's a good chance the viewers are more valuable to advertisers since they can collect more information than on broadcast television.
I don't think HQ would/could have a path to profitability (setting aside internal business politics), but it's a matter of 1) convincing businesses that a new media format is worth their advertising dollars, 2) keeping players long-term, 3) finding effective ways to advertise in the more limited format that the game affords.
Less interesting than you'd expect, as it was for a rapid mobile app prototyping class.
We had a telesync'd demo that let you play along with a Jeopardy episode by yelling answers at your phone. The app knew the timing markers for when the question was asked + when a contestant answered, so would only give you credit if you beat the contestant with the correct answer.
Our model user was "people who yell answers at the screen when Jeopardy is on."
Still think it would have made a decent companion app to the show though...
Trebek's elocution is just something you pick up on after rewatching an episode enough times. He has really interesting ways of emphasizing things, but they seem normal if you're just listening to them once through.
I feel your pain. I once watched a single episode of Jeopardy 50+ times in pursuit of timings for a prototype app demo.
I could have a good half-hour conversion about the nuances of Alex Trebek's vocal inflections... shudders
Random tidbit: The "1" digit on a telephone has no letters associated with it; "2" is assigned "ABC".
(This was burned into my brain years and years ago while watching a "Jeopardy!" episode, in which this mistake caused all three contestants to lose the final round.)
I don't think so. I would hope the clue writers were purposefully made unaware which clues were being written for the Watson episodes. I don't think they seemed unfair, either. They seemed like normal modern Jeopardy! clues.
Also, I am highly confident that if you simply had Ken, Brad, and Watson fill out a worksheet with all the clues written on it (thus bypassing the central game dynamic of buzzer reflexes), Watson would get the lowest score.
Normally, Jeopardy shows new shows on Weeknights.
Popular shows are reshown on weekends. Also, around holidays and other non-normal weeks of broadcasting, older shows are re-aired.
I don't believe episodes are available legally online.
I doubt they are skewing the questions. That kind of defeats the point. I suspect Jeopardy is constantly adding to a pool of questions. My hope is that they simply grab from that pool just like any other episode.
Note, the hardest questions for Watson are short questions -- the reduced time hurts Watson more than most human competitors.
I can definitely follow along with this or any game of Jeopardy!, but my problem is that I just don't know all the answers. To me this is part of the appeal.
This is definitely faster-paced than regular episodes of Jeopardy!, but I don't think it's prohibitively fast for native speakers.
It's too bad that Jeopardy! doesn't fit in with international pop culture better. I think it's a perfect fit for a lot of AI problems.