Those of you who have read my columns about Jeopardy
over the past few years know that while I have a very high regard to the show
there has been one key element that I not only disdain but think is something
of a disgrace to the format. On more than one occasion I’ve actually written
that when it comes to Celebrity Jeopardy the wonderful parodies that Saturday
Night Live wrote with Will Ferrell wonderfully mocking Alex Trebek, were
understating how truly horrible these matches were the witness.
At a certain point, I can’t even recall when I began
to stop watching the Celebrity Tournaments that Jeopardy did on an annual basis.
While there had been some exceptions over my first decade of watching the show
by certain individual celebrities, these matches eventually became
grotesqueries of everything I held dear about the show I loved. There were some
critical exceptions over the years – I wrote a column saying that such
surprising talent as Cheech Marin and Michael McKean very likely would be able
to play well in a regular match - but by
and large I considered them outliers in a vast array of fools. The matches
increasingly seemed more for demonstrations of proving just how dumb
celebrities truly were as they could not even answer questions that seemed
directed deliberately towards them. (The most famous example being Bob
Woodward’s inability to respond to a clue involving All the President’s Men.)
Consequently when Celebrity Jeopardy returned, this
time in a prime time format back in the fall of 2022, I made it very clear that
this was one particular Jeopardy event I had no intention of watching. I ended
up partially rescinding on that decision last summer, mostly watching several
of the semi-final matches. I will convince the play of many of these
celebrities did impress me. Brendan Hunt of Ted Lasso was superb in both
his quarterfinal and semi-final match. The play of Patton Oswalt was rather
remarkable and I did eventually come to admire the work of Ike Barinholtz. I
was also glad to see so many of my favorite Jeopardy super-champions taking a
turn reading clues to celebrities after years of watching celebrities do the
same. I was glad to see Austin Rogers read categories about bartending, Amy
Schneider about the Golden State Warriors and James Holzhauer’s reading clues
about gambling. I also thought Mayim Bialik was generally superb as the hostess
of the match.
But my opinion stopped there. And when I heard that
the winner of Celebrity Jeopardy, Ike Barnholtz, had been granted a spot in the
hollowed Tournament of Champions I thought it was a joke and not a very funny
one. To be fair I had not done my due diligence on Ike’s play in that
tournament. In his very first match, he gave a total of 51 correct responses
(over three round of play) and didn’t make a single mistake. He did nearly as
well in his semi-final match, 37 correct responses only 1 error. And in his
final, he gave 41 correct responses and only made two errors. Even if you allow
for the, let’s be generous, easier clues in Celebrity Jeopardy rule, it’s still
a masterful performance by any standards.
That said, even I had known the numbers, it probably
would not have changed my opinion one iota. For any true fan of Jeopardy, the
Tournament of Champions is something sacred and profane and in the last two
seasons it has been under attack. Last year’s Second Chance Tournament bothered
many fans of the show, it’s amplification to this degree at the start of the
year far more and the Champions Wild Card was not much of an improvement.
Inviting the winner of the Celebrity Tournament seemed like a bad joke; a sop
to the studio bosses who wanted the Tournament to get higher ratings.
I have gone out of my way, in every article I have
written on the upcoming Tournament, to not hide my feelings on this matter. I
purposely did not mention Barinholtz in my initial run-up to the Tournament two
weeks ago because it left a horrid taste in my mouth. And while my reaction may
have extreme, I’m not entirely certain how seriously the rest of the world,
those around Jeopardy and those involving Hollywood, were willing to take this.
Part of me suspects that the writers of SNL might well have been planning to
find someone to play Jennings in a sketch in the aftermath of the tournament in
order to lampoon both the idea as well as Barnholtz himself.
Well tonight he played. And if that sketch was
written, it has to be torn up. Because the rules of how the world views
Celebrity Jeopardy and the contestants who are invited back have to be
completely rewritten in the aftermath of tonight’s quarterfinal match. And
people like me have to eat a lot of crow, not to mention rethink how I have
looking at Celebrity Jeopardy or at least the new version of it.
To Ike’s credit, he clearly knew how much pressure he
was under. In the interview segment he joked and said he was: “a guinea pig.”
He also self-effacingly said how much he had been told by friends how smart he
was. He also treating the game with the serious it deserved: there was only one,
maybe two jokes but he did nothing to distract from what was happening. No
doubt he was aware of the significance of his being invited as well as a couple
of other critical facts. The clues were not going to be nearly as easy as the
ones he had no trouble answering less than a year, and more importantly his
fellow competitors were not in awe of his celebrity status. Indeed Melissa
Klapper and Ray LaLonde wanted to win as much as he did, if not more. In
addition to advancing to the semi-finals whoever won could argue forever put on
their resume (in addition to everything else) that they had beaten Ika Barnholtz.
Now I get to the game itself. Tournament of Champions games
are difficult; but these questions were at a tougher level than usual. There
were twelve questions that stumped all three players – and for the record,
myself as well. I can often do very well playing along at home, even in the
Tournament of Champions. To give you an
idea how much trouble I was having, I
couldn’t come up with a correct response until the ninth clue of the
Jeopardy round.
For the record Ike managed to get two right before I
could. But all three players, I need to make this clear were all playing
extremely well from start to finish. They might have not been able to answer twelve
clues at all, but they didn’t make a lot of mistakes the rest of the way. This
was a closely fought match. Melissa managed to move into the lead on the Daily
Double in the Jeopardy round but it was the smallest of margins. By the end of
the Jeopardy round Ray had a narrow margin with $5400 to Ike’s $4800 and
Melissa’s $3800.
The start of Double Jeopardy was just as close. By the
early stages of the round Ike had moved into the barest of leads with $7600 to
Melissa’s $7400 and Ray’s $7000. Then he found the Daily Double in NUMERIC
MOVIE TITLES (Ken told each title only consisted of numbers.) Perhaps realizing
the significance, Ike rolled the dice:
“Fellini felt he’d directed 7.5 films before making
this 1963 gem.” Ike knew that it was 8 1/2 and jumped into a commanding
lead. Unfortunately that’s where he started to stumble though I really do need
to be fair to him. None of the clues he got wrong were obvious and all of them
stumped his fellow champions
NUMERIC MOVIE TITLES, $800: Loosely based on a
classic legal film, this Nikita Mikhailov drama pits a racist juror against a
pensive foreman.” Ike rang in and then realized he’d be wrong when he said:
“What is 12 Angry Men?” He had
the right idea, but the film is just called 12.
Then he got two straight incorrect responses in 5-SYLLABLE
WORDS. “If you’re using metaphors and similes to make a point, you’re speaking
this way.” He guessed metaphorically, which cost him $1200. No one else could
come up with figuratively, not even me.
The next one was for $1600: “Frances Willard, founder
of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, was one.” He guessed: “What is a
teetotaler?” Now that’s what she was but it doesn’t have enough
syllables. I realized it was prohibitionist. Not long after this Melissa
managed to get to the other Daily Double in LANGUAGES, got it right and gained
$8000, putting her in the lead. Ike managed to get $1200 back in the remainder
of Double Jeopardy but Melissa finished in the lead.
The game its worth noting was played brilliantly by
all three players. Both Ike and Ray got 17 correct responses apiece, but Ike gave
the three incorrect answers I listed while Ray did not make a single mistake.
Melissa ‘only’ gave fourteen correct response, but they included two Daily
Doubles. Melissa had a significant lead with $21,400 to Ike’s $14,800 and Ray’s
$13,800.
At this point Ike had done far more than any
reasonable fan would have expected him to do as a contestant. He had faced off
against two Jeopardy champions -including, it’s worth mentioning, a man whose
thirteen wins and nearly $400,000 in regular earnings were among the highest
won by any Jeopardy player in history and played at their level and led on many
occasions in the match. He had treated the event with seriousness, applauding Melissa’s
correct responses on both her Daily Doubles. (She and Ray, in turn, did the
same when he got his correct.) Not only had he not made a fool of himself –
which I have to tell you going in was a threshold I did not think he could meet
– but he exceeded the expectations of any fan of the show.
The Final Jeopardy category was one that would cause
even the best Jeopardy players to sweat: POETS OF ANCIENT ROME. The clue was: “Far
from Rome, this first century poet wrote, “The leader’s anger done, grant me
the right to die in my native country.” I was playing along at home, and full
disclosure I didn’t have a clue who this was referring too. Ultimately I
wrote down: “Who was Cicero?”
Ray’s answer was revealed first: “Who is Ovid?” As Ken
pointed out: “The great Roman who died in exile for writing erotic poetry that
was a little too erotic.” Ray gained $8000, putting him at $21,800. Ike’s response
was revealed next. He too wrote down Ovid. He wagered $13,801, enough to beat
Ray. Then came Melissa who since Ray’s response had been revealed had a furtive
look on her face. She had written: “Who is Juvenal?” She had bet $8201, which
dropped to $13,199 and made Ike Barinholtz, a ‘producer, writer and actor from
Chicago,” a semi-finalist in the
Tournament of Champions.
This is where I officially apologize to Ike Barinholtz.
I am sorry that I did not think you deserved to be invited in the Tournament of
Champions. I’m not certain I would extend this invitation to past winners of
these tournaments but the fact that you played so well against two extremely
qualified champions has clearly made me change my view of you and your fellow
celebrities. It’s not that I thought you were all stupid, of course, but I was
clearly letting my own biases get in the way.
I also must admit that, not having watched Celebrity
Jeopardy to any real extent since at least 2004, I’ve very likely underestimated
many fellow celebrities who have played over the years. I don’t know by how
much or even if you and some players from the first Celebrity Tournament are the
exception, but it is now more than clear, given what has happened that I must
rethink what has happened.
And that will start by rewatching this past year’s
Celebrity Jeopardy when it is inevitably rerun this summer. Apparently Lisa Ann
Walter was the winner of the Tournament this past year and is, therefore, been
invited to the next Tournament of Champions. Her work in Abbott Elementary has
already made me inclined to love her and the fact that she managed to get to win
this tournament makes me appreciate her even more. I don’t know when the next
Tournament of Champions will take place or if they will follow the same rules
as before. What I do know is that I will not dismiss Lisa’s presence going
forward and will report her accurately in the next leadup. This will be part of
my making amends.
And as for the writers on SNL, you may have to
make at least a partial apology tour. At the very least Celebrity Jeopardy can’t
be considered the automatic laugh it used to be. At least I won’t.
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