Jeopardy! question

White people's problems.

OP, why not try going outside for a bit?

Jeopardy tapes 5 episodes in a single day, so even a long streak of winning is not that many days of actual filming.

What would that accomplish, r2?

Nobody just walks on to Jeopardy! There's an application process and test tapings, and I'm sure you have to agree to stay and film for the entire run before they let you on.

I was a contestant on Password many years ago. There were 5 shows taped at a time( Saturday),and we were told to bring seven changes of clothes ( actually just shirts ), There were 3 shows taped, then they changes audiences for the final two tapings to get fresh audience response. Each show took about one hour before the next one began. I left SoCal and moved, but they flew me back for the championships. The show was by audition: written vocabulary test and sample game ( not unlike Dorothy 's Jeopardy audition). They categorized each contestant by day, according to how they thought you were going to do: weaker contestants were on Mondays, stronger ones toward the end of the week, so the audience would tune in the following week to see the stronger contestant plow through to build excitement toward the end, when the tougher people would appear. But hey, the parting gifts were real. I got a year's supply of Mary Kay cosmetics, a rug shampooer, stainless steel flatware,and, of course, several home versions of the game. Good times.

I'll take "Stupid Questions for $200, Alex."

Knock it off with the asshole responses, R7 and others. There's nothing wrong with asking. I think OP's questions are rather interesting, in fact. Sorry I can't help to answer them.

I’ll take “Worse than Hitler” for $800, Alex.

Jeopardy! normally tapes 5 shows a day for 2 days, then 12 days off, so contestants have time to travel back home between taping days. And as R5 says, contestants first have to qualify to get on the show. Their initial appearance is scheduled in advance.

Hey, r8, moron! In ANY event someone wishes to partake in, one USUALLY accounts for one's ability to SPEND the time necessary.

I was ON Jeopardy. (You'll be pleased to know I lost.) A wannabe first goes through a quiz (mine was 10 questions) and is scored. These first-round tries are at various locales; I went to Atlantic City. After scoring, the wheat is separated from the chaff.

THEN the more serious and high-scoring wannabes must, on a different day, take a longer, televised quiz (mine was 100 questions), in a group.

Step 3, once THOSE quizzes are scored, the remaining hopefuls are interviewed (still in the group room), and then take part in a mock game (think the SNL set-up), to test how well one can obey the rules, be quick on the buzzer, and can phrase the answers correctly.

THEN, and ONLY then, can one hope for an invitation to be an actual contestant in LA. Those phone calls come later.

When I was called---and here is the specific pertinence---I had to get permission for absence from my employer (I had available "personal days," but still, one needed to ask); I had to arrange my flight (from Pennsylvania); and I had to arrange for a hotel room (no, the show doesn't pay anyone's expenses). And I needed "TV" clothes; contestants are told to bring three changes of wardrobe TO the studio, in case they win! They get a half-hour to change and be ready for the next filming, with the same studio audience (ever wonder why we never see them on camera?!).

IOW, NOBODY just gets on the show "while on vacation" without participating in and knowing of all the above.

But even without my TL;DR, it's simple common sense.

[quote] I had to arrange my flight (from Pennsylvania); and I had to arrange for a hotel room (no, the show doesn't pay anyone's expenses).

Wait, Jeopardy seriously makes contestants pay for their own flights and hotels?! That's insanity.

Guess poor people can't bother to try their hand.

I was on Jeopardy and we got a discount on our hotel. Had to pay full price for the flight, though.

If contestants have to pay their way, second and third place finishers should get paid their winnings (with a $1,000 minimum), not just the consolation prizes ($2,000 and $1,000). Cheapskates.

Get back on your meds, R11. The voices in your head are posting on DL again!

If there are such strict tests to show that contestants have a broad knowledge base, then why every so often is there a contestant who seems to know almost nothing?

r16, it's not just a matter of knowing everything - you also have to ring in before the others.

r15, My episode was filmed in a December, shown the next Easter Monday. Though it hasn't been preserved on video anywhere that I can find (except in my house, haha), I'm not mentioning the year.

My "parting gifts" were an olive oil/vinegar cruet set, a Jeopardy board game, and a table-top stereo set that I had sent to me. A contestant signs a form saying they cannot sell any prizes while using the Jeopardy! name. I still have that stereo.

r16, r17 is spot on. I knew the very first answer, was all ready to buzz in, but nope; the reigning champ beat me to it. I knew right then I was doomed!

FYI: A contestant cannot buzz in (the device will not work) until red lights unseen by the home audience, on either side of the big board light up, which they do as soon as Alex finishes reading the board choice.

Final Jeopardy was insanely easy for anyone remotely familiar with American literature but two contestants missed it. Where are they digging up these people?

Oops—I thought I was responding to the main Jeopardy thread.

OP, I have wondered the same exact thing, in fact, what about the cost of the hotel? California hotels are not cheap! I would be living out of my car just to save my winnings.

There was a guy living down the street, with his parents, in a small bungalow. The family was somewhat friendly as the father had previously worked for my father, but we never really had much to do with them. Mother, father, and son in his thirties. The son really didn't seem to have any friends. His dad died, and his mother a few years later. He would up going on Jeopardy and was winning for several weeks, won a lot of money. He came back, continued living in the house. No one had seen him at all for a long time. We later found out that he died in the house, and while he had some sort of a job with a bank, nobody really started looking for him for months. I remember it was spring when they found him, and you could smell the decay a half block away. Always felt that the kind of people who did well at these kinds of contests were a little unusual after this incident.

R23 so very sad.