Homicide Rewatch: Betrayal

 

Written by Gay Walsh ; story by Tom Fontana & Julie Martin

Directed by Clark Johnson

 

One of the things that made Homicide one of the greatest shows of all time is the exact same thing that stopped it from being a huge hit.  Network dramas to this point (and to an extent, today) is based very much on the idea of a formula. Some shows were picking at changes to it during this period but never as much as you'd think: there might be different doctors working at Cook County from season to season or different police and prosecutors working in Law & Order but the formula was pretty much the same episode to episode with variations rare and only happening once or twice a season at most.

Homicide was many things but the one thing it wasn't was complacent. This was true even with the basic idea of the partnership.  Some of that was necessitated by the actors who left each season but even within that structure we've already seen it keep shifting it throughout. The only real constant since the pilot has been the partnership of Bayliss and Pembleton.

When Frank had his stroke at the end of last season the very thing that thrilled Braugher about the arc was the same thing that isolated so many long-time viewers. While Braugher has done some of the best acting in his career during the first half of Season 5 the viewers have been nearly as impatient as Pembleton was for him to get back on the street. And by the end of 1996 enough pressure had come from on high (and more importantly the ratings had begun to stagnate) that reluctantly Fontana would agree to leave this storyline behind. For the rest of Season 5 Pembleton will struggle less and less with speech and the issues he's had all year: Homicide won't forget Pembleton had a stroke but by the time we reach the end of the year it'll be hard to notice the difference.

However it's almost as if Fontana has anticipated Braugher's frustration with this and has decided to put Pembleton off-kilter in a different way. We've seen it ever since Pembleton went back to the street in Control. Bayliss and Pembleton are still bickering about everything but now it has an edge. Bayliss has been questioning Frank's methods more and more in the first two cases they've worked together and while he's always pushed back against his partner, there's a meanness to this that we haven't seen in four and a half seasons.  Indeed we've been sensing more of an edge to Bayliss as Season 5 has progressed. At first the viewer might think its his trying to prove himself but he's been getting angrier in multiple cases, particularly against McPhee Broadman in his last case before Frank returned to the street.  We've known Bayliss to take cases more personally then any other detective since the series began but with every case this season he's been going into darker territory and in this episode he explodes. Not just at Pembleton but everyone he encounters.

The viewer knows right from the teaser that this case will be a trigger for him: Bayliss and Pembleton are called to the scene of another clearly abused African-American adolescent who has been killed and mutilated.  The 'Previously On' sequence makes it clear what we're going to get when it flashes back to Requiem for Adena where we saw the murder of Janelle Parsons in exactly the same way.  So when Tanya Thomson is found on the street the viewer thinks they know what they're going to get. Certainly I did when the teaser aired. I couldn't have been more wrong.

We can tell when Bayliss says: "Murdered little girl? Call Bayliss and Pembleton! We've got lots of experience!" Pembleton actually asks Bayliss if he'll be okay. "People do not change. Especially not you." Frank's both right and wrong today.

By any standard this case is one of the worst for any the show has dealt with when it comes to a dead child. Tanya Thomson died of blunt force trauma but as Cox grimly reports she's essentially been using for a punching bag for months, if not years by the time she ended up being dumped on the highway like she was a piece of trash. Even by this point Homicide has dealt with nearly every permutation of the horror of a child being killed (and so many of those times, they have met that death at the hands of another child) but this one is worse than usual. But when Bayliss basically tells Al that no one's going to report her missing he does so with a snideness to his lieutenant that is becoming frequent with him. Al actually gets up and is gentler than usual but then actually tells Frank and Howard that maybe they should take the case with him given his history. Frank says he knows his partner. He thinks its about Adena Watson. Again he's right and wrong.

This becomes clear when he starts going after Lynette Thomson the moment they see her. He's sure that she knows who beat her daughter to death, and while he's right he's actually going further. He starts pushing Frank and making it clear that he will not be satisfied until Lynette Thomson goes to jail as an accessory. When Frank says its their job to get the boyfriend and that the punishment for Lynette is "she'll have to live with her daughter being beaten to death," Bayliss says: "That's not good enough."

Giardello is right that Tim is too angry about this case and he starts venting on everybody who might help him, including the child services coordinator who he basically wants to lock up as an accessory and scares her off before she could help them. And in his first interrogation he basically accuses Lynette of being the one who beat her to death, eventually shouting: "You were the one who was supposed to help her!" by the time she's in the corner of the box.

At one point Bayliss has yelled at everybody and is planning to get a confession from Lynette Thomson if he has to reach down her throat. Frank responds sensibly and Bayliss's reaction is to talk to her boyfriend alone saying: "You and I aren't working well together." After a brilliant scene in which Al circles Frank in his most predatory fashion and gets him to acknowledge how badly the case is going Frank basically chooses to take his own approach. For the first time in the box he takes the approach of the loving parent. He shows a picture of Olivia which gets Lynette smiling and tells a story about him being upset with his daughter and shaking her to quiet her down and talks about the difference between men and woman with children.

The monologue Lynette delivers is one of the most unsettling of Season 5 as she begins to relate exactly how things involving Nelson unfolded. Its so matter of fact how things play out, the way she starts talking about how he wants things a certain way and how she starts defending her boyfriend instead of her daughter. Her justification for what she did is horrifying: "I had to keep my family together. Tanya was dead and wasn't nothing I could do about that." It's never clear if Lynette has been abused herself (though watching her its impossible not to think of so many battered women over the years) but the way she's so willing to defend what she did is frightening – and all the more so with the denouement when she announces she's pregnant at the end. "They'll be no problems with this one. This one's his." She assures him with.

 

 

It's telling how Homicide works that the other major storyline that has been going on practically since the season began – Kellerman being called before a grand jury – unfolds almost as an anticlimax. Kellerman's  far from thrilled that no matter what he's asked his attorney has advised him to take the Fifth. Kellerman is upset because he wants it on the record he's innocent. The fact that his attorney has told him that he didn't cop a plea means he's innocent isn't good enough for him.

Kellerman watches the process unfold with increasing rage. Mitch Roland, a man who has been responsible for burning down countless buildings, has been given a deal that is so sweetheart even the judge who has to do it all but degrades the attorneys who gave it. The fact that Roland practically gloats at having got away with so many horrible thinks with barely a year and a half in a jail couldn't be a bigger sign as to how little interest Gail Ingram has in justice.  She got her headlines when the grand jury indicted and now she's fine sending all of those involved to prison with what are, let's be honest, slaps on the wrist. Goodman, Connally and Perez sold out their badges and she's taking them away and putting them in jail for two or three years at the most. If the viewer wasn't so invested in Kellerman's fate, we'd be inflamed – or perhaps amused  - by how the federal justice system pretty much works as the criminal justice system does.  Ingram is no more interested in taking her case to court than Danvers or any other prosecutors are when it comes to murderers; all she wants to do is get indictments that will get her picture in the paper and then plea out the criminals to time that barely counts as punishment compared to the betrayals to the public that both Roland and Goodman, Connelly and Perez are guilty of.  There's an argument she cares about the public good or justice even less than any of the detectives we've met: all she wants is her name in the papers.

This is true even in her final interaction with Kellerman to an extent. After months of pushing him of squeezing him demanding he bend the knee and make her life easier, she stops short of asking him a question.  Supposedly it's because she's impressed by his integrity but the truth is she doesn't need him anymore. It has been framed as a convenient out but there's just as much a chance she would have done the same thing no matter what Kellerman did.  Three arson detectives, four arson detectives, what's the difference really? (And as we'll see in the next episode, that generosity only goes so far.) Perhaps Ingram's afraid that if he tells the truth – and reveals that one of her key witnesses perjured himself – it will undo every bit of work she's done building up this case. There's an implication she's moved by his monologue of being willing to give everything he believes in so that he can be a good cop but we also know the last thing an attorney wants is a surprise in court that might lead to her long-term plans being derailed and delayed.  Even if that's not the case maybe she has a full docket and she doesn't want to spend any more time on this. Her statement could be considered moving but it could just be smoke and mirrors. Given what we see of her in later episodes, I'm inclined to think it’s the latter.

The problem comes when the writers try to measure what Ingram is doing with Kellerman's scenario. He's convinced the other detectives will invoke the blue wall. As he puts it:

So I tell the grand jury that I knew detectives in my unit were dirty. What happens to me then? I'm gonna be brought up on charges for failing to report the graft. If I manage to keep my badge after that, what then? I gotta walk back in that building. Everybody's gonna look at me and know I gave up other cops."

It's that part – particularly after so many years of police involved shootings – that has aged the poorest. The show really wants to equate knowing that cops violated the badge and keeping silent about it is a virtue.  This strikes against the entire argument of Kellerman proclaiming his innocence this whole time. Failure to report graft is a crime the same way taking a bribe is.  Kellerman wants thinks that because he isn't guilty of the crime he's accused of is the same of being completely innocent.  He's a cop. He knows the difference between the two but in his case he sees no difference.

And it is worth noting his doing so is only at the last minute.  It's a noble gesture and it would be good but the thing is this storyline has been going on for three months and it has to have an ending. There was never going to be one that didn't end with Kellerman back on the street – the show's called Homicide after all – and there really wasn't a good way out.

To be clear Mike's self-righteous attitude at the Waterfront is the definition of hypocrisy. It's not enough that he hasn't been indicted and that they're not curious about how he got out from under it. His attitude of saying: "I might as well have taken his money" is self-righteous. He was guilty of a crime this whole period – he admitted as much to Cox this very episode. And Lewis and Giardello have spent an enormous amount of time and energy supporting him and trying to help him. What more does Mike want?  The best case scenario for Kellerman's behavior is that he's pissed about having been pushed through the entire system. But even that falls apart when you consider the next major storyline that's going to befall him this season. With the benefit of thirty years of hindsight it really seems Mike Kellerman was never a good cop at any point in his career.

It's harder to blame Bayliss for his attitude. A man has beaten a child to death and a woman has been an accessory to it and the murderer gets three years and the woman a suspended sentence and probation.  We've seen just how little justice there is in the world but this really seems like the worst miscarriage since Annabella Wilgus killed eight women and went to an asylum by pretending to have DID.

However it’s the final scene of the episode that brings Betrayal into classic status. Pembleton goes to find Bayliss who is drowning his sorrows and again he thinks he knows why. Bayliss looks at him. "Every murdered child, every abused child, I understand. Because all those children are me."

"See my father's brother – I was five years old – and he would follow me into the bathroom and he would lock the door and he would take my hand in his. When he was finished he would smile and say, 'what a good boy was', and Oh yeah ---Shhh! And this went on for years. And my parents couldn't understand why I'd cry every holiday, every time there's a family gathering."

"So when I was eight years old, I'd tell my father what had been going on. And it was a struggle to get those words out. And he just stared at me. And he asked me why I was lying. And he was my father and he was my father and he was supposed to protect me but he didn't Frank! I mean for him, whatever was happening it was an inconvenience! I wasn't real, Frank. I wasn't a real person! And he never saw me! He never looked at me ever!"

This episode has been a standout for Secor, but the final monologue makes it arguably his finest hour and it stuns me as to why he didn't even get nominated for an Emmy for this episode. This basically ties in almost everything we know about Bayliss together so brilliantly its even more astonishing to learn that Secor himself came up with the storyline this season rather than Fontana or any of his writers.

Pembleton who always knows the right thing to say is struck dumb. In another show this would be the moment that makes the partners closer, particularly these two have always feuded. But when Frank moves to Tim to try and hug him Bayliss pushes him away: "That's not why I told you." Why did he? Was it to prove that for once Frank wasn't as smart as he said he was?

The final line is the most stunning because its so casual. "By the way Frank. I don't want to be partners anymore." And a drunken Tim gets in a car and drives off, having gotten the last word for once.

So what is the betrayal that the title refers to? Connelly's betrayal of Kellerman at the grand jury? The way Lynette Thomson betrayed her daughter? The way Tim thinks Frank has betrayed him? All we know is that Frank may have recovered from his stroke but he's just had another set of legs cut out from under him. And things are going to get even worse.

 

 

 

NOTES FROM THE BOARD

 

Detective Munch': When Mrs. Thomson says she's looking for missing persons, Munch with his usually sensitivity says: "They're usually the hardest to find." Not aware of the hornet's nest he's stepping he walks in and asks Brodie who came up with the term 'missing persons'. "If you're a person, you know exactly where you are. You're only missing from someone else's point of view." I think we can all be grateful Munch has been working in Homicide all this time; if he actually was in Missing Persons he would be the worst person to help people.

Brodie Has Found A Home! The storyline of Brodie being moving ends this episode with him moving in with a blond woman who calls him "J.H." When Lewis sees her, he says the only reasonable thing: "You're kidding?"

Hey, Isn't That… Latanya Richardson (now Latanya Richardson Jackson) had already appeared in such films as Fried Green Tomatoes, Malcolm X, Sleepless in Seattle and Lone Star by the time she appeared as Lynette Thompson in Homicide. She's become one of the more prominent character actresses in TV and film ever since. She played Atallah Sims in the A & E courtrooms series 100 Centre Street and has since starred in such films as Introducing Dorothy Dandridge, The Fighting Temptations and Mother and Child. Her most notable role in TV was as Norma O'Neal on the acclaimed HBO series Show Me A Hero written by David Simon. Her husband, Samuel L. Jackson, is somewhat prominent in films and TV himself.

 

 

 

As Jamie Ding Goes To 11, A Look At Where He Ranks About The Jeopardy Greats So Far

 Tonight Jamie Ding officially joined the ranks of Jeopardy's elite when he became the 20th player in the show's history to win eleven games. He is also the eleventh to do so in the post-Trebek era which now is five full years.

Since this is about numbers this St. Patrick's Day Jamie made his own mark in Jeopardy history when he gave forty-four correct responses. Only one player has managed more than that in the entire 42 years of Jeopardy and Ken Jennings was modest the following day when he said: "I'm told that was me."

Jamie has been superb when it counts: he's managed seven runaway victories in his eleven wins and has responded correctly in eight out of the eleven Final Jeopardys he's been a part of to this point. He's already won $291,820 so far. So it is now time for me to ask the question: just how great a player is Jamie compared to the super-champions in Jeopardy history?

The answer is…complicated.

Let's start by comparing Jamie at this point in his run to the ten other players who've won eleven games or more in the post-Trebek Era. I'll work backwards starting from Jamie:

Jamie Ding: $291,820

Harrison Whitaker: $309,000

Scott Riccardi: $282,101

Adriana Harmeyer: $258,700

Ray Lalonde: $311,500

Cris Panullo:$356,702

Ryan Long: $209,300

Mattea Roach: $244,882

Amy Schneider: $421,200

Jonathan Fisher: $246,100

Matt Amodio: $368,600

You might not be able to tell because I ranked them chronologically but at this point Jamie Ding is in sixth place in comparison. I was surprised he was doing better than Scott Riccardi at this point in his run and that Harrison Whitaker was doing better than Jamie at this point in his. In truth that's just about right given how Jamie's been playing overall.

Now let's compare him to all of the players (save the other Jeopardy great also named James) at this same point in their runs and this time I will include Ken:

Ken Jennings: $376,158

David Madden: $269,101

Arthur Chu: $297,200

Julia Collins: $231,310

Matt Jackson: $339, 411

Seth Wilson: $245,002

Austin Rogers: $394,700

Jason Zuffranieri:$332,243

Jamie Ding: $291,820

So he's clearly much better at this point then David Madden and Julia Collins were but compared to Ken, Austin or Matt Jackson he's not in their zip code.

In my piece on Harrison Whitaker I said at this point I can differentiate between three types of super-champions. Here's the guideposts I gave:

1. Those who completely dominate a game from beginning to end and leave both their opponents in the dust by the time the Jeopardy round is over. Amy Schneider, Matt Amodio and Cris Panullo are the clearest examples of that since the post-Trebek era began.

2. Those who while they play well frequently do not runaway with their matches and need to get Final Jeopardy correct in order to win. Ray Lalonde and Adriana Harmeyer are the most recent examples.

3. Those who run away with most of their games but not by incredible margins. Mattea Roach and Ryan Long fit this model.

At this point Jamie is closer to the third example than any others. He has managed to runaway with seven games but in four of them – including today – he hasn't had much of a margin to write home about.  On Wednesday's game, which was the closest call he had this week Thayer had just over 50 percent of Jamie's total and it was only because all three of them responding incorrectly on Final Jeopardy that Jamie survived a scare. Indeed last week he survived three very close matches which were decided only in Final Jeopardy and all three times he responded correctly. In two of them he was the only one to do so and in Friday's game, his nearest opponent also responded correctly. In each of those three games Jamie's two opponents each finished with five figure totals.

All super-champions, like any other Jeopardy player, have to have as much as luck as they do skill in order to win. Jamie has been very good at finding Daily Doubles and making them pay off. But a lot of times his opponents have found them ahead of him and its worked in his favor. In his first defense of his title Andrew Ford kept close to him until Double Jeopardy and when he found the second Daily Double and got it wrong Jamie ran away with the game. On Monday he was challenged by Max Gencov for most of the game until Max found the second Daily Double in Double Jeopardy and got it wrong, which cost him $8000. And in the last few games whenever Jamie has found Daily Doubles it's been decidedly hit or miss. On Tuesday he got one wrong that cost him $6000 and it was only on a remarkable run near the end of Double Jeopardy that he managed – by an inch – to clinch another runaway. And on tonight's game he lost $4400 on a Daily Double late in Double Jeopardy and finished Double Jeopardy with $19,800 – his lowest total at the end of Double Jeopardy to this point. Only because his opponents struggled as much did he manage to run away with the game.

He's also starting simultaneously to struggle with Final Jeopardy as well. He responded correctly on seven of his first eight and the one he got wrong was in a runaway. (Though Jamie was the most reckless he was in a Final Jeopardy and bet $30,000 to finish with a $3000 pay day. He learned from that mistake.) But he's gotten only one of his last three Final Jeopardy's correct and he's actually starting to lose altitude.

No one can deny Jamie is an incredible player: in addition to his near record 44 correct responses, he's given 36 correct responses in two separate games and 32 correct responses in another, while in yet another he gave 25 and didn't give a single incorrect response. And considering just how good some of his opposition has been even in those runaways he's got, everyone knows Jamie has serious game. (Conversely I can think of anywhere between 7 to 10 players in Jamie's run who will no doubt be considered for the Season 43 Second Chance Tournament whenever it happens.)

But unlike some of his fellow super-champions Jamie seems to be losing altitude. After their eighth win Jeopardy greats such as Jason Zuffranieri and Scott Riccardi stepped up their game and actually had far more dominant wins in the week that followed. Jamie, by contrast, is starting to fall into the same pattern Harrison did during his run with his margins in runaways getting thinner and thinner. I would be shocked if he manages to end next week the same way he did the past two – though he may yet surprise us all.

Still there is another reason to marvel at Jamie's run besides the obvious one.  The 2027 Tournament of Champions will be the first one since 2024 to have at least two super-champions competing in it. And given the new format, both Harrison and Jamie will be granted a bye into the semi-finals. Throw in the fact that Season 41 was closed out by Scott Riccardi and Peak Jeopardy has officially returned to your screens. It may take a bit longer to fill out the roster for the next Tournament of Champions – there are only four official and two unofficial slots filled at this point – but if Jamie and Harrison are part of it, I have no doubt fans can hardly wait for the next postseason.

I'll be back when Jamie's run comes to an end for his final ranking.

  

Theodore White & The Kennedys, Part 2: White's (Mostly) Objective View of Robert F. Kennedy In the Books

 

As you'd expect Bobby Kennedy makes quite a few appearances in White's book on 1960. And its clear that while White might express admiration for Jack Kennedy, he considers Bobby in a far less flattering light.

Robert F. Kennedy is mentioned over two dozen times in Making of the President: 1960 and White is very clear about how important Robert was in the echelon of making his brother President. But he comes across mostly in snapshots during the primary campaign and even the convention, with little detail as to his personality or strategy. This is understandable because White is more interesting in the candidates and not the men (which is who was in power) at the time.

It is not until the fall campaign begins in earnest that White discusses Bobby in detail. (He notes in a footnote that Bobby Kennedy is now attorney general.) He makes it clear that Bobby was present observing during Stevenson's failed campaign for the Presidency in 1960. (He may not be aware that Bobby eventually became convinced of Stevenson's inability to lead and didn't vote for him as President that year.)

Thus in 1960 at Hyannisport…he was in no sense a neophyte in national politics. (Bobby was 34.) Young as he was, he knew as a privileged witness not only the inner personality of his brother Jack (…whom he reveres) but also the mechanics of American electioneering.

To this knowledge he brought, moreover, the force of his singular personality – one that has baffled all political analysts who seek hidden sensuosities of theory or belief. For Robert F. Kennedy was, and is, above all, a moralist whose deepest-held beliefs might find expression in either party – or in the Y.M.C.A For him all the vulgarities and weaknesses of the American manner – the crude violence on TV, the physical weakness and seeming softness of American youth – are personally offensive. It is as a Boston puritan, albeit of the Catholic faith, that Robert Kennedy should be seen.

The question that future readers must ask, given the prurient nature of his older brother was how Bobby managed to square that discrepancy as a character flaw – or whether he, like so many millions afterward, chose to not consider it.

As a Puritan, Robert F. Kennedy believes that men should work hard, go to bed early, rise early strive to the extent of their ability and be penalized ruthlessly when they fail in their relationships. It is his opinion that men play to win – whether in touch football or politics – with no quarter given friend or foe…His relentless drive was to make him many enemies and expose him to much sophisticated analysis by politicians and press alike. But essentially, he is a simple man moved by great emotions…"

Reading this it's impossible not to look at Bobby's determination to win at all cost and not see the model that would be followed by so many conservative political agents, whether it be Nixon himself or Lee Atwater or Karl Rove decades later.

That is by far the clearest portrait of Robert F. Kennedy we get during the 1960 campaign. White seems willing to allow it because he managed to get his brother the White House but as with his brother he withholds further opinion on him at the end of the book.

This brings us to 1964. As you'd expect White opens the book with a thirty page bravura sequence in which he describes the moment he learned of President Kennedy's death, the horror it struck over the nation and the memorial sequence that followed. (The chapter is titled 'Of Death and Unreason') Then he discusses very briefly the Kennedy Presidency and what effect it had.

And then he does something that his readers and so many generations have never been able to do, though it is by necessity something he must as he is about to cover the 1964 election. He leaves the Kennedy administration, all it accomplished and all it might have to the vanguard of history and turns to everything that followed in the year that passed, starting with LBJ's ascension to power and then the Republican civil war that was unfolding between Rockefeller and Goldwater. (This will be dealt with in future articles.) And  even though he's still part of the administration and already part of the national psyche Bobby Kennedy basically disappears from the narrative for the next two hundred pages.

It's only until he gets to the Democratic Convention that he mentions the Kennedys at all and that's in transition between Kennedy and Johnson's administration. He speaks about the Kennedy White House as almost a fourth branch of government when he talks about their court, making it seem as if everyone of those associated, whether they were Sorensen or O'Brien or Salinger, were speaking for the White House and that they were being open about it. White is aware of how they went to woo them and he makes it clear:

To some on the outside, there was something almost too precious about the court of the Kennedys – too gay, too glamorous, too elegant. Outsiders sneered at the seminars of the Hickory Hill group, where several earnest Cabinet members gathered to discuss great thoughts and heard great thinkers. Outsiders denounced as Babylonian the parties and swimming pool gaieties that the press reported. (He then lists in a footnote Robert F. Kennedy's swimming pool party described as an orgy in which drunken members of the American government one by one tossed themselves fully clad into a swimming pool.)

White then acknowledges his presence. It's in this section that his  worship of the Kennedys becomes the clearest and one wonders if he ever realized just how much the Kennedys were doing everything in their power to woo the press and make them their friends so that no one would question what is now the clearly seedy underbelly of that administration.  He clearly remembers this as a delightful time and never questions whether it affected his objectivity.

It's true he has issues with Johnson's White House in comparison to JFK's and he does have a look at LBJ's frequently sulky manner. But he remains objective and he's clearly impressed as to how Johnson handled the transition with grace and how he managed those months, coming up with the idea of the Great Society. And its only on page 271 that he gets to the issue that no doubt most readers wanted to know about: "the attitude of Lyndon Johnson to the Kennedy family as represented by its leader, the Attorney General, Robert F. Kennedy."

White exercises as much discretion as humanly possible to try and mitigate the feud that was as much to define 1960s politics as anything else that happened during that decade. And its when he gets to Bobby that we hear it:

"For (Robert Kenendy) Lundon Johnson was all the yesterdays; for him Lyndon Johnson was his father's generation. And when Lyndon Johnson became President, all the yesterdays were restored.

'There are millions of people all across this country who feel as Robert F. Kennedy does; for them the name of Kennedy is magic, as was the name Stuart under the Hanover reign of the Georges; and whenever old or young devotants of the Kennedy loyalty gather, the Bonny Prince Charlie of the faith is Robert F. Kennedy. Like the Jacobites, they await the Restoration."

He mentions the Kennedy for Vice President boom and the New Hampshire primary trying to write him in and its clear that White considers it unseemly. He acknowledges that the Kennedy loyalists are 'a permanent force or element in the politics of America. Robert F. Kennedy would not mobilize them – nor would he repudiate them."

White admits in a footnote LBJ never took him into his confidence during his year in the press corps to that point but he's dead on in his assessment:

It was not comfortable to be considered a usurper. A President must be President in his own right… To attach a Kennedy name to his own name would mean forever sharing the title of the Presidency with a ghost of the past….Furthermore, the press unendingly murmured with nostalgic comparisons of Johnson's administration and the Kennedy administration. If Johnson were to prove himself in a campaign for the Presidency, he must prove it alone."

All but the most devoted pro-Kennedy supporters – who must be legion even now – would find it very difficult to argue with this logic. In the decision to try and keep Bobby from being part of the ticket LBJ goes to lengths that might be considered petty – keeping Bobby out of a film paying tribute to Kennedy – but could not be dismissed as a reality. Bobby Kennedy might not want to be Lyndon Johnson's Vice President but he could have said so in public at any time, by disparaging a draft. That he refused to make any public statements on that fact saying a flat no had to be as clear to Johnson as the fact he wasn't actively campaigning.

White clearly thinks LBJ's final approach – to eliminate from consideration any member of his cabinet as Vice President – was incredibly heavy handed. But as has been proven in politics time and again, some times you have to hit people over the head to get a message across. I have no doubt the version Johnson and Kennedy tell about the White House meeting in this book is almost entirely fitted for public consumption and that in private each told a version to make themselves the hero.  And I certainly don't believe Bobby said: " I could have helped you, Mr. President," with any humor at all the way White reports it.

I quoted George W. Bush's statement about Obama: "I want him to succeed." In my wildest imagination I don't truly think Bobby Kennedy wanted LBJ to succeed. He had been opposed to him being on the ticket in the first place; the fact that he had been as close to assistant President during his brother's term meant he had done everything to keep Johnson as far away from the decision making process as possible. (There was discussion that Bobby was trying to get his brother to remove Johnson from the ticket in 1964 as much as anything.) And as we know all too well the only people that the Kennedys ever thought would make good Presidents were Kennedys themselves.

White never weighs in on the idea during 1964 whether he believes Robert F. Kennedy should be President in the future; speculation was never part of his writing. He does mention how problematic the idea was to many when he discusses the Republicans rumbling in the months before JFK was killed.

With the clash between Rockefeller and Goldwater looming as the civil war it would become many Republicans in the so-called Eastern Establishment turned to their hero, former President Eisenhower, hoping for a candidate they could throw their weight behind. One of his choices is his own brother Milton and in October of 1963 White says colleagues were discreetly exploring support. But to the New York group was out and there is one big reason:

"It would have destroyed the brother issue," said one. "How could we hammer Jack and Bobby Kennedy if Ike was running his brother for the Presidency?"

This is as close as White comes to saying that Bobby might have been a liability to his brother's run for reelection had he lived. And future events have shown this play out in 21^st century politics at the highest level (though more for spouses and children then siblings).

White leaves Bobby Kennedy as he is at the end of 1964: Senator Elect of New York. Under normal circumstances White would not have dealt with him until 1972 at the earliest when Johnson would have been gone from the White House one way or the other. Given the nature of his landslide victory it would have been a natural response.

History – led by Johnson's actions aided by members of Kennedy's own cabinet – had  other plans.

 

The 1968 volume has the greatest evidence of White's bias towards the Kennedy family. The book opens with a dedication to both JFK and the recently assassinated Robert, followed with a  Bible passage. The chapter devoted to Bobby's entire campaign is bears the subtitle 'requiescat in pacem', or rest in peace and Latin. And he compares the two assassinated leader to the two assassinated Roman emperors who were also brothers 'the Gracchi', which he says with accuracy 'identified them with a cause that outlived their time in the forum.'

It is a tribute to the horrible tragedy and relationship he had with Robert Kennedy that this chapter is not a love letter to the doomed cause the way that Jules Witcover's 85 Days is (White footnotes it as a superb history of the campaign in 1968) White remains remarkably clear-eyed and objective in the flaws of the man he is profiling, both when it comes to the errors his campaign made, the uphill fight he faced for the Democratic nomination after the California primary and refuses to say with certainty that if Bobby had been the nominee he could have won the Presidency afterward. With a little more distance (understandably hard to come by after that traumatic year) he might have been able to make connections from his earlier books that for all Bobby's behavior on the campaign trail, he really hadn't changed that much since they first met in 1960.

He is very aware of Bobby's flaws, the power drive which he admits was 'sinister' to as many as it was the thing that 'drew their loyalty'. Indeed he spells it out

"It was not right, felt such millions, that any man should inherit the leadership by patrimony, family wealth or descended prestige. Had he not been the son of Joseph P. Kennedy, the brother of John F. Kennedy, what then would Robert F. Kennedy have been?...Was a Kennedy dynasty, a single family, to claim by family right the prize all other men in American history had been required to struggle for?

That is a question that White and his predecessors were never forced to answer due to the actions of Sirhan Sirhan. Considering America's attitude towards political dynasties now it's still one we haven't fully dealt with.

White takes us through Bobby's thinking during 1966 and 1967 where as much as he loathes Lyndon Johnson, he doesn't want to destroy the Democratic Party by running in a primary. I find it telling that his thinking was complicated when Eugene McCarthy entered the race. Kennedy says that McCarthy wouldn't make a good President, and while that's no doubt true one can't help but be reminded how much of this was due to the fact that McCarthy had never kissed the ring of the Kennedy dynasty.  Bobby had to remember that McCarthy had given the speech at the 1960 convention to nominate Adlai Stevenson, the most prominent attempt to disrupt the JFK's nomination. Combined with his dislike for Stevenson as early as 1956 – and the fact that McCarthy had been considered for the Vice Presidency in 1964 when Bobby had been eliminated – it would have been understandable had there been personal animosity.

The most generous interpretation of Kennedy's decision to run after McCarthy's surprise victory in New Hampshire – when he finally entered the race – is that Bobby was afraid of four more years of turmoil.  There's another possibility that the ruthless politician that Bobby was has to have contemplated. If LBJ left the race but someone else – McCarthy or Humphrey – got the nomination and  somehow managed to win, then Bobby's political prospects would be dimmed until at least 1976. If he did absolutely nothing, he would be the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in 1972. In that case it was in his interest for LBJ to earn the nomination and whatever the results, he'd be the frontrunner going forward. But if by some chance another Democrat claimed the prize, then Bobby would have to wait until 1976. And by that point whatever luster still held from his brother's legacy would be completely gone and his name would no longer have the same power it once did.

For Bobby Kennedy was ruthless, White doesn't back away from this at any point. And while he might have the Kennedy name, being the junior senator from New York didn't have any real power in Congress. For a man who had essentially been assistant President for three years he had to have chafed during this period.

So the fact that he chose to run knowing as White puts it "no course to power that he could take would fail to divide the Party in bloody bitterness, leaving it shattered when he came to face the Republicans in the general election' very much speaks to a man who knows that his actions will do immense harm to his party and who nevertheless makes the decision to do so anyway." And White makes it clear that the long process to the announcement proceeded almost like bedroom farce – and that the next ten days were a disaster because "No preparations had been made for a national campaign'. He makes it clear the events in March were horrible publicity with him on the campaign trail and his bitterness towards Johnson – who in Los Angeles he calls 'a man calling upon the darkest impulses of the American spirit', makes him look on TV 'hysterical, high-pitched, almost demonic, frightening… the ruthless and vindictive Bobby Kennedy.

He acknowledges that Bobby doesn't find his theme until the Indiana primary where he finally manages to become on the campaign trail the man that his followers remember, mocking his own ruthless nature, joking about how the fact he has ten kids who drink milk do much for the farmer, becoming an idol to those who see him. This comes with the triumph in the Indiana primary.

And its there that White makes it very clear "never did any Kennedy face a more delicate, difficult or uphill battle'. First he had to campaign against his rivals McCarthy and Humphrey so that he could beat them in the primaries but still get their support in the general. Then there was the strategy of earning delegates and White is very clear that even the most optimistic campaign could see Bobby getting more then 800 of the 1312 delegates he needed to earn the nomination. He had to manage a clean sweep of the primaries in order to get bargaining power at the convention. But:

"…the use of that bargaining power depended on another set of ifs: if the war continued or grew in unpopularity; if Humphrey could not disassociate himself from the war; if McCarthy's resentment could be mollified after his defeat, if any substantial number of state leaders stayed uncommitted on the first ballot – then if Humphrey could be stopped on the first ballot, the McCarthy votes must crumble and go to Kennedy on the second ballot…

White acknowledges everything had to go right. And he reckons without certain factors. The first played out in real time; McCarthy's hatred of Bobby continued after Kennedy was assassinated. And he refused to organize and try and put up a front leading George McGovern to take up the Kennedy cause. After the convention McCarthy (as Walter Mondale would report in his biography years later) would refuse to endorse Humphrey even though he knew it was the right thing to do. If McCarthy was that strident after Kennedy's assassination, there is no reason to believe he would have done the same if Bobby had lived and gotten the nomination.

The bigger problem was one that the Kennedy campaign would acknowledge themselves: by the time of the California primary Humphrey had already gotten enough delegates to lock up the nomination. There would likely have been a fight in Chicago but Kennedy would have been on the losing side. And that's before you consider a possibility White acknowledges happened at the time: that at the Chicago convention LBJ was publicly reconsidering his renunciation.

White only refers to it a footnote but now we know that Johnson had been considering it ever since the primaries ended. At some point he called Ralph Yarborough (the Senator from Texas in charge of that state's delegation) and asked what would happen if he were to announce his candidacy. Yarborough said that he might get 1000 delegates right then. However when he called Richard Daley to ask if he should make an appearance at the convention, the Mayor told him if he did , his personal safety could not be guaranteed.

I truly believe that if Bobby was ever in a position to get the nomination after the primaries Lyndon would have willingly risked his life to make sure that Kennedy, a man he despised just as much Bobby hated him, didn't get the nomination for President. And we already know that when Humphrey did get the nomination Johnson made very little effort to get him the Presidency and that's before you consider he crippled any chance the Democratic Party had to have a peace platform at the convention. It's already known he favored Nixon because he was closer to a continuation in Vietnam than Humphrey, there's absolutely no reason to assume he wouldn't have done the same even if Kennedy had gotten the nomination.

Even without knowing any of these details White still isn't willing to argue that Kennedy might have been able to win the Presidency had he gotten the nomination. His main logic, oddly enough, is looking at the Republican side. If a Kennedy candidacy would have emerged from Chicago

"would  not the Republicans have foreseen that possibility – and in Miami, might they have chosen a Rockefeller or a Reagan over Nixon? And 'if' Robert Kennedy had emerged triumphant from Chicago, could he have beaten a Rockefeller, a Reagan or a Nixon?"

White allows that he thinks Kennedy would have come away from Chicago the winner which is speculative at best. But not even he is willing to engage in political fanfiction.  "He might have healed his party," is the most he will say.  Might.

White's own opinion on whether these kind of internecine battles are not clear in 1968. But by the time of his final book he will have reached a different conclusion – and that will involve the final Kennedy brother, who will be dealt with in the last article in this part of my writing on White.

 

 

Emmy Watch 2026 Phase 2 Continued: My Observations About the 2026 BAFTA and Royal Society for TV Nominations

 

 

Considering the influence so much of British TV has always had on American programming well before the era of Peak TV even began there has always been an overlap with so many of the TV series that the British make that we frequently see in the Emmys. We see it most often in so many of the nominations and winners of limited series over the last decade but occasionally that overlap is also seen in the comedies and dramas that the Brits have made over the years. For that reason, looking at the nominations that British TV gives itself can occasionally give insight into what the Emmys might do in a few months' time – providing of course, it doesn't reflect on the year just past.

With that in mind I take a look at the BAFTA TV nominations that came out this afternoon as well as a couple of other British organizations that theoretically might give some guidance to what the Emmys will do this July – or conversely what we might want them too.

It helps matters that they also give international awards.

 

Drama Series

 

I think it's safe to say despite the popularity in some circles for A Thousand Blows and This City is Ours none of the nominees has a chance.

 

Limited Drama

As you might expect Adolescence did just as will with the Brits as it did in America getting eleven nominations total. I'm not convinced Trespasses, I Fought The Law and What It Feels Like For a Girl will get anywhere in America

 

International

Here's the real meat. The White Lotus, Severance and The Studio were all nominated. The current seasons of The Bear, The Diplomat and Pluribus all were as well. I'll be curious to see who wins this much. (No I don't know if the Brits consider The Bear a comedy either.)

 

Leading Actress

Two nominees from last year are up for awards but as you might expect not for the shows we saw them in. Aimee Lou Wood is up for Film Club and Erin Doherty is nominated for A Thousand Blows. (That's where she first started working with Stephen Graham by the way. ) Sheridan Smith is up for I Fought The Law and Jodie Whitaker is up for Toxic Town which is ranked by Netflix. I don't think she or any of the other nominees have a snowball's chance

 

Leading ACTOR

Stephen Graham is here for Adolescence. There are some familiar faces here. Matt Smith is nominated for The Death of Bunny Monroe, Taron Egerton for Smoke and Colin Firth for Lockerbie which you can see on Peacock. James Nelson-Joyce is up for This City is Ours and Ellis Howard for Girl. Graham is most likely to win here as he did at the Emmys/

 

Actress in A Comedy

Ulness you’re a fan of Amandaland I don't think any of these nominees will be familiar. I'm glad to see Jennifer Saunders is still working outside of Absolutely Fabulous.

ACTOR IN A COMEDY

Same here though Steve Coogan is still getting attention for playing Alan Partridge.

 

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Now we're getting somewhere. Three of the nominees for Best Supporting Actress in a limited series last year are nominated here: Aimee Lou Wood for The White Lotus and Christine Tremarco and Erin Doherty for Adolescence.

I've actually seen the three other performance and they are all good ones. Chyna McQueen for her work in Get Millie Black, Emilia Jones for Task and Rose Ayling-Ellis for Reunion. Jones has a chance for getting nominated this year.

 

Supporting Actor

As you'd expect Ashley Walters and Owen Cooper are here for Adolescence. We also see Paddy Considine for Paramount Plus Mobland and Fehinti Balogun for the recent Apple TV hit Down Cemetery Road. It is odd they are nominated and not their more noteworthy leads in these series but there we are.

 

The remaining nominations are irrelevant to the Emmys so I'll leave them out.

BAFTA is not the only British organization to give nominations for TV. There's also a group known as the Royal Television Society that gave nominations earlier this month and in fact gave their awards today. Much of it covers similar ground but there are minor differences that could be relevant.

For one thing they have a category called Comedy Drama which might be the British version for dramedy. (They really do everything better in England.) I've actually seen one of the nominees on Showtime Dreaming Whilst Black and I heartily recommend it. Adjani Salmon, the lead performer, is truly superb.

In Drama series we actually see a show that will contend for Emmys next year: Season 5 of Slow Horses. Which begs the question, why wasn't it good enough for BAFTA?

 

Leading Actor Female has Doherty for A Thousand Blows and Rose Ayling-Ellis for Code of Silence (not Reunion). I'm pleased to see Tamara Lawrence recognized for Get Millie Black which was one of my favorite series of 2024. It's also nominated for Best Limited series along with Adolescence, I Fought The Law and What It Feels Like for A Girl.

In Leading Actor male, Stephen Graham is present for Adolescence, no surprise.

Then we get to Supporting Actor and we see some interesting ideas.

In male we see Owen Cooper for Adolescence nominated against Christopher Chung for Slow Horses. In  female Doherty is up against Wood for Toxic Town and Saskia Reeves for Slow Horses. No the Royal Society didn't see fit to nominate Gary Oldman either.

Writing Drama does see Adolescence along with the loved in some circles Riot Women and expect Owen Cooper to have a big night: he's also among the nominees for Breakthrough Award.

 

I'll be honest the most perplexing thing about BAFTA's TV nominations is their odd relationship with Slow Horses. Considering how popular it is in America I would have expected it to dominate BAFTA's TV nominations just as frequently. Yet it was shut out by them this year and while they nominated Oldman and Chung last year they didn't nominate the show for Best Drama. Then again it's hard to know how seriously you can take them on a good day when it comes to what works overseas. Last year they nominated Baby Reindeer for four awards but gave Best Limited Drama to Mr. Bates Vs. The Post Office.

For that reason I don't think I'll cover the winners this year; the nominees are sufficiently eccentric enough.

I'll be back in a few weeks when the Peabody nominations come out. Until then, cheerio.

 

Better Late Than Never: Nobody Wants This Season 2 Review

 

In many of my reviews I've argued that a great show, whether it is a comedy or drama, can cross all racial or religious lines. I was immensely entertained by the first two seasons of Ramy even though I'm not a Muslim, found the first season of Beef one of the best shows of 2023 even though I'm not Korean and am certain Reservation Dogs is one of the best comedies of the decade even though I'm not an indigenous person. If a show has themes that are universal the fact that I am a white cis male has done nothing to interfere with it entertaining me.

With Nobody Wants This one of the major critical and audience hits of 2024, I found myself on the other side of the coin for a change. This incredible romantic comedy strikes chords with me because I'm Jewish and can get a lot of the in-joke between the Roslow family, the way they view their children and tradition and the way that they are almost appalled about how Noah (the always sublime Adam Brody) has fallen in love with a blond-haired shiksa named Joanne. As I joked in my rave for the first season Noah's parents and his immediate circle are the only people I'm aware of who don't meet Kristen Bell and automatically fall head over heels in love with her.

The first season was incredibly well received earning Emmy nominations for Best Comedy, Adam Brody and Bell's first Emmy nomination for anything. (Can you believe it?) Having watched every episode during the winter and early stages of last year when I, like so many other people, desperately needed something that was just blissfully funny I've been waiting for Season 2 to drop as much as the next person. And my schedule, as you might expect, only recently cleared up enough for me to see it. It helped immensely that, much like last year, the early signs are that yet again Nobody Wants This will be a major awards contender, having been nominated for Best Comedy Series by both the Golden Globes and receiving five nominations from the Critics Choice Awards. I didn't need an excuse to see Season 2 – I loved the show immensely then – but I spent much of the end of last year watching All Her Fault and the past month watching The Girlfriend and The Beast in Me, knowing that Nobody Wants This would be there when I needed it. And this week I finally got around to seeing the first three episodes. It is just as marvelous as before.

At the end of last season Noah was about to ascend to his lifelong ambition of being head rabbi at the temple he's trained for his whole life. Joanne, who couldn't imagine Noah not doing it and couldn't face the burden of his parents told him she couldn't see him anymore. But Noah chose Joanne over his ambition – and perhaps more tellingly his family. He has not renounced Judaism, as that famous Seinfeld episode once played out; if anything during the first episode of Season 2 – which took place three months after Season 1 ended – had Joanne and Noah having their first argument when it became clear that Joanne had no intention of ever converting, which would be a permanent obstacle in him become a rabbi.

This led to a major fight at his temple when his head rabbi did retire and replace him with another rabbi also named Noah. The two of them apparently knew each other from Hebrew camp and they were apparently Big Noah and Little Noah. Cue the immediate joke when someone calls for Rabbi Noah and both say yes. Even worse, the new Rabbi Noah may be a jerk but he's incredibly good at his job with bothers our Rabbi Noah.

The ice had not melted one bit between Noah's mother (every time she's onscreen Tovah Feldshuh steals everything not nailed down) and Joanne. Bina is very much the cliché of the Jewish mother, only in Nobody she's far closer to a mob boss when it comes to her family and the community. Its clear watching Bina that this is the first time perhaps in his entire life that Noah has done anything independent of his mother's wishes which in Jewish culture is an unspeakable crime where the guillotine and the firing squad or merciful in comparison. When Noah chooses not to show up at Shabbot, Bina makes a completely unscheduled (and undesired) appearance at her sons pick up basketball game which unnerves her children and scares the hell out of her daughter-in-law Jackie. Only Joanne decides to confront her, which is another in the endless line of reasons I love her.  Joanne may want the approval of Bina but only because she wants Noah to be happy. She's used to being hated by the masses and she doesn't give a damn about anyone else's opinion. For a moment détente seems to be achieve but we know damn well Bina isn't going to rest until Joanne is gone.

All of this is hysterical for someone who is an insider. But like all of the other comedies I've mentioned above, you don't need to have studied the Talmud to love Nobody Wants This because everything else in the story – relationships between couples, dysfunctional families and sibling rivalry – is a universal theme. We keep seeing it between the always tempestuous relationship between Joanne and her older sister Morgan (someone give Justine Lupe an Emmy already!) Morgan has tried her best to be supportive of her sister but it clearly chafes that Joanne has managed to finally get into a serious relationship. We're reminded in the third episode just how dysfunctional Joanne and Morgan's family situation was growing up and if anything it's worse now. Joanne's father came out of the closet and basically abandoned them to their mother who is essentially so thoroughly involved as a hippie that she barely even talks to her children something that they are grateful for.

This played out in the third episode where Joanne, while at Shabbot, tried to explain that her family didn't have any traditions and that sending a text for their mother's birthday was the only thing they did. Noah insisted on trying to set up a tradition to celebrate it – mainly because he's feeling less needed at his temple – and it turned out to be a disaster on every level. Her mother wanted the event to end as quickly as possible because she was more interested in spiritual energy then being with her family. Her father was more concerned about whether to text his most recent boyfriend (more likely a hook-up) then anything with his children. And Morgan, who we've thought is envious of what her sister has, showed up with Dr. Andy her new boyfriend. Joanne thought something was sketchy because she'd never heard of him until now.

And she's right to be. As Noah found out Dr. Andy is Morgan's therapist and there's a suggestion they've been dating before the official relationship was terminated. Joanne is understandably horrified by this – it violates every ethical guideline – but she ends up supporting Morgan later when she lets her guard down. "He knows all of the traumatic shit I've been through and he still wants me," Morgan tells Joanne with a vulnerability we haven't seen Morgan show. We want Morgan to happy but we also know how bad this will end.

On the other side of this is Sascha, played by Timothy Simons with such charm and awkwardness that is the mirror opposite of his iconic work on Veep but playing someone far more likable.  Sascha is very much still in love with Jackie but the fact that he kept his burgeoning friendship with Morgan secret all last year set off flares in Jackie that Morgan still doesn't get. The two of them have spent the last couple of episodes trying to rebuild their marriage and they actually seem happy in the most recent episode, until Bina walks in after they've just had sex (something she's unapologetic about) and basically makes it clear she wants another grandchild. It's still not clear where this storyline will end up going after three episode but the viewer is rooting for Sascha like they are all of the other leads in this series. Sascha is the son who can never live up to Noah in the eyes of his family and he knows it – though that may change given how the third episode ended.

Nobody Wants This arrived right when comedy needed it last year as many of the extraordinary comedies that made up the first half of the decade were coming to an end. Reservation Dogs ended in 2023; Somebody Somewhere ended in 2024 and Hacks is about to air its final season in a few weeks' time. (Though its still not considered a comedy by many The Bear is going to air its final season this summer.) We've gotten some incredible new comedies last year, including St. Denis Medical and the awe-inspiring The Studio.  Nobody may want the relationship between Joanne and Noah to work out but we all want great comedies that have a human touch to them and Nobody Wants This is another brilliant entry in this decade's remarkable run, even if you think the Torah is a dance that Jewish people do at weddings.

My score: 4.75 stars.

Ranking Jamie Ding's Run Among The Jeopardy Greats Part 1: Why Eight Was Often Enough on Jeopardy And Where Jamie Compares to Them

 

 

In terms of bringing out great Jeopardy champions Season 42 already has last year beat.

We started the season with Paolo Pasco who won 7 games and over $195,000 before being defeated by Steven Olson who himself would join Paolo in the 2026 Tournament of Champions. Paolo would earn a bye into the semi-finals en route to the most dominant performance by any Jeopardy champion in the Finals of the Tournament of Champions in its new format, running away with three games in spectacular fashion in an extraordinary appearance.

Just before the eligibility requirement for the 2026 Tournament of Champions ended fans were greeted by the arrival of the next Jeopardy super-champion fourteen game winner who won $373,999 during November and then on December 1^st met defeat.

Now a month after the postseason came to an end a new Jeopardy great has entered the list of great Jeopardy players and while he is not yet a super-champion he is quickly entering the discussion of so many that we have been privileged to witness in the post-Trebek Era. As yesterday he managed his eighth victory I feel it is time to discuss his place in Jeopardy lore. Because even his run stops before he gets to double digits – and if he does I will discuss him at great length on Friday  -  Jamie is setting himself up to be a force to be reckoned with. Like Harrison it's impossible to imagine him not getting a bye into the semifinals of the 2027 Tournament of Champions when his run ends and since he's already second in both games won and money so far, its worth talking about him now.

If 11 games is where discussion of super-champion status has become in the post-Trebek era, 8 games is where being considered a truly great Jeopardy player was ever since the five game limit was removed at the start of the 2003-2004 season. Indeed when Tom Kavanaugh won eight games at the start of 2006 it was the third-place total in terms of games won behind David Madden and Ken Jennings until Dan Pawson surpassed two years later.

Between Tom Kavanaugh's run in and Arthur Chu officially taking third place with 11 wins in 2014 only five other players managed to win eight games. I've mentioned some of them in previous articles but for the record here they are again:

 

Dan Pawson, 9 wins $170,902

Tom Nissley, 8 wins, $235,405

Jason Keller, 9 wins, $213,900

Drew Horwood, 8 wins, $138,100

Ben Ingram, 8 wins, $176,534.

 

Dan and Ben both went on to win the Tournament of Champions in 2009 and 2014 respectively and have been invited back for multiple special tournaments multiple times in the years since including the first Jeopardy Invitational Tournament in 2024.  Jamie Ding at this point has won $222,203 which puts him considerably ahead of everyone save for Tom.

Its one of those oddities of gameplay how Jeopardy played out between Arthur Chu ushering in the modern super champion in 2014 and James Holzhauer essentially permanently defining it  in 2019 that there were six players who won eleven games or more but no one who won exactly eight games. We had quite a few seven game winners and Buzzy Cohen managed to win 9 games in 2016 but no one managed exactly eight. In the 2019 Tournament of Champions, the last ever hosted by Alex Trebek Ryan Fenster, Josh Hill and Kyle Jones all won seven games which was tied for second behind Holzhauer in games won.

In the truncated 2019-2020 season as I've written Jeopardy saw three female eight game champions between December of 2019 and February of 2020: Jennifer Quail, Karen Farrell and Mackenzie Jones. Jennifer was the most successful of the three, finishing as 1^st runner up in the 2021 Tournament of Champions and a semi-finalist in the first Jeopardy Invitational Tournament.

In Season 38 we saw three players who managed to win eight games or more: Stephen Webb, Hannah Wilson and Ben Chan. The latter has very quickly become one of the greatest Jeopardy champions of all time finishing a runner-up in the 2024 Tournament of Champions. We saw Isaac Hirsch come up with 9 games in 2024 and we all saw Laura Faddah make a certain kind of unfortunate Jeopardy history.

Since most of the eight day players of note had their moment in the post-Trebek its worth comparing Jamie Ding at this point in his run with them. I'll leave out Laura Faddah because, well, we all know why:

 

Jennifer Quail: $228,800

Karen Farrell: $159,603

Mackenzie Jones: $204,808

Stephen Webb: $184, 881

Hannah Wilson: $229,801

Ben Chan: $227,800

Isaac Hirsch: $195,389

Jamie Ding: $222,203

 

As someone who remembers all of the players on this list as some of his favorites to watch even among the era of super-champions it's hard not to consider Jamie at the level. Some of them were far more dominant in their original runs then Jamie has been to this point (I'm thinking of Hannah and Ben in particular) but they fit the same overall pattern: running away with several games but never by as big a margin as so many super-champions or constantly playing in tense exciting games where they're often fortunate to get a win, usually by being ahead at the end of Double Jeopardy and responding correctly in Final Jeopardy.

Of course Jamie hasn't been at the level of Tom Nissley, who ranks among the all time greats. And while he's played brilliantly in all eight games he's still behind where two of the all time greats were after six games.

 

Larissa Kelly: $222,597

Roger Craig: $230,200.

 

Of course as anyone who's watched Jamie's run knows there's an excellent reasons Jamie's still behind Roger and Larissa on the list of money won in his original run. In his second appearance Jamie had $34,000 at the end of Double Jeopardy and his nearest opponent had only $1600. He went incredibly big and risked $30,067 in Final Jeopardy and responded incorrectly and won just $3933. He learned his lesson after that and has been far more conservative in wagering whenever he has had a runaway ever since (though as you know if you've been watching when he's runaway with a game he hasn't exactly had much room to maneuver since then.)

Jamie Ding has not officially reached super-champion status and indeed his run might very well end tomorrow. It could also end in a week or longer; no one can predict the future certainly not even someone who's been watching Jeopardy all his life. But in an earlier era –  which would be seven years ago – Jeopardy fans would be considering him one of the all-time greats by this point. He's already proven multiple times how great he is and whenever his run ends I know he's made sure that Season 42 keeps on surprising and delighting us with so many great champions already.

Author's Note: Jeopardy, you're killing me. Those of you who read my last piece on Season 42 will remember that I talked about James Hirsh, who I'm confident we will see in the 2027 Tournament of Champions and James Denison, who according to Jeopardy has officially qualified for it. Now here comes Jamie Ding.  I swear to God, if the next player to qualify is Jimmy or Jim I'm just going to throw up my hands and call the show Jim-Pardy until the end of the year.