I will confess I
loved Jeopardy super-tournaments over my years of watching them but I have to
confess that as much as you might have enjoyed watching them over the twenty years of their existence,
from the Million Dollar Masters in 2002 to the All-Star Games in 2019, you
couldn’t avoid the pattern.
From 2005 to
2019, it was inevitable that Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings were going to face
off in some form no matter how long the tournament or how different the format.
And it was almost always the case that Brad ended up winning. There was clearly
a variation in the Greatest of All Time Tournament in 2020 but that still ended
with Ken Jennings winning.
Much as I loved
the Jeopardy Masters last year from the first game to the last and as much as I
was thrilled at the conclusion, the fact that James Holzhauer ended up the
victor – albeit in a come from behind match – was slightly problematic for me.
Holzhauer was a hold-over from the Trebek era after all and as much as he
deserved to win, I wondered if the Masters was to become an annual event
whether it would have the same thrill if Holzhauer won year after year. I admit
going into this tournament, even with the new blood, I still thought that it
was likely one of the three finalists from last year – James, Mattea Roach or
Matt Amodio – would end up winning the whole thing.
That of course
got shot to sunshine when Matt and Mattea were the first two players eliminated
in the quarterfinals. James Holzhauer returned to form in the last two games he
played but the two players he was challenging Yogesh Raut and Victoria Groce had
finished ahead of him in the quarter-final leaderboard and each had thrashed
him once. We knew going into the finals anything could happen.
The final was a
two game total point affair. In Game 1, James got to the Daily Double in the
Jeopardy round early in UTOPIAN LITERATURE when he was tied with Victoria at
1400 points apiece. As is his wont, he bet everything. As had been the pattern
throughout this tournament (and much of the finals of last years) it didn’t go
well:
“What Utopia
means, it completes the title of William Morris’ book about a place without
politics or poverty, News From…” James paused then guessed: “What is a
perfect place?” It was actually nowhere.
The rest of the
round was fought practically dead even the rest of the way when it ended:
Victoria had 4600 points, Yogesh 4400, James 3800.
Early in Double
Jeopardy Victoria struck when she found the first Daily Double in HEALTH &
MEDICINE. Already in the lead with 10,200 points, she chose to bet everything:
“Bring Gilbert
and Jennings LLP your claim of this cancer from asbestos exposure, named for a
layer of tissue over internal organs.” Victoria paused before saying: “What is
mesothelioma?” to go to 20,800 points and a big lead.
For a while
Victoria seemed unchallenged. But then James went on a run of his own and found
the other Daily Double in ALLITERATION ALL AROUND. With 10,400 points to
Victoria’s 22,800, he did what he had to do:
“Greenland forms
this body of water’s eastern shore.” James knew it was Baffin Bay and jumped to
20,800 points. He tied Victoria on the 2000 point clue in that category and
went ahead three clues later. The two of them went back and forth for the lead
but near the end of the round James pulled ahead for good. James finished with
27,200 points to Victoria’s 25,200, Yogesh trailed with 9600 points.
The Final
Jeopardy category for Game 1 was POLITICIANS. “He was the first person to be
elected governor of one state and then In senator from another; 173 years
later, Mitt Romney became the second.”
Yogesh’s
response was revealed first: “Who is Houston?” That was correct. Sam Houston
was governor of Tennessee and a Senator of Texas. Yogesh did what he had to do
and bet everything. Victoria had been having trouble with Final Jeopardy and
this was the case today. She wrote down: “Who is Johnson? (I assume she was
thinking of Andrew Johnson, though there are many others who are capable.) She
wagered only 3800 points. James knew it was Houston but he’d only wagered 1109
points. (“I meant to put a zero after that,” he joked.
After Game 1, it
was very close: James led with 28,309, Victoria was next with 21,400, Yogesh
very much in it with 19,200. Things could change on a dime.
In the Jeopardy round of Game 2, Yogesh found
the first Daily Double a little too early with 1800 points on the fourth clue
of the round in ‘I’ TUNES. He wagered 1799 points:
“In the 1980s
Windex Competitor Glass Plus seized on the obvious & used a version of this
1972 song in its ads.” Yogesh paused before guessing: “What is ‘I Can See
Clearly Now?” It was and he went up to 3599 points. He would maintain his lead
for the rest of the Jeopardy round though Victoria would close the gap to 5600
points and James would be at 2800.
In Double
Jeopardy Yogesh held the lead until Victoria went on a run in WOMEN IN POETRY.
With 13,600 points she went for broke:
“This lass was
the daughter of Benedict Bellefontaine, ‘the wealthiest farmer of Grand-pre.”
It took Victoria a long time before she said: “What is Evangeline?” and doubled
her score to 27,200 points.
James and Yogesh
went on runs but Victoria rang in at just the right time to find the other
Daily Double in NEW MATERIAL ABOUT OLD MATERIAL. She had 29,200 points and yet
again she did math in her head and bet just 800 points:
“Taken to
England in 1296, this 26 by 26 by 11 block of pale Yellowstone has but one
decoration - a yellow cross.” Again the
pause: “Is it the Stone of Scone?” It was and Victoria went up to an even
30,000 points.
By the end of
Double Jeopardy Victoria had run away with Game 2 with 34,000 points to
Yogesh’s 15,799 and James 8800 points. I couldn’t do the math fast enough in my
head to figure out if Victoria had locked up the Masters before the Final
Jeopardy category was revealed – but as you will see Victoria did.
The category was
AMERICAN WOMEN: “The New York Times wrote of this women who had died in 1951
‘Though she was forgotten at the time, part of her remained alive.”
All three
players knew the correct woman: “Who is Henrietta Lacks?” Her life has been immortalized due to the
controversy surrounding how her cells were harvested.
James knew the
writing on the wall and was good-natured in defeat. In his response he added:
“Final Boss Death Music’ and made the appropriate arcade sound. Yogesh wagered
more than enough to move into second place. And Victoria who knew how lucky she
was adding: “good game y’all, see you next year.” She wagered nothing, she
didn’t have too. Her final total of 55,400 points was enough to grant her the
title of this year’s Jeopardy Masters to win the $500,000 prize. James was the
first to embrace her as the three masters embraced. James finished third with
$150,000 and Yogesh won another $250,000.
With Victoria’s
triumph in the Jeopardy Masters I believe what I said at the start of this
recap three weeks ago: that this second iteration more than justifies the new
Tournaments existence. For all the justifiable arguments of tournament fatigue
and the suspicion that the novelty might have worn off this year’s Masters has
proven that it will not be the same thing year in and year out.
For one thing
James Holzhauer will be the only constant in each iteration. Whenever the
invitational takes place in 2025 and Matt Amodio, Mattea Roach and Amy
Schneider are invited back, only one will be to return to the Masters. Admittedly
Matt Davies could pull the same trick he did last year and have the ‘producers
choice’ be one of the three who doesn’t make it but considering how
controversial that decision was at the time that’s not a bell I think he would
dare ring again.
And as we know from
the results of the Invitational there is no guarantee any of them could win or
even make it all the way back to the finals. Such was not the case for Sam
Buttrey or Andrew He. I suspect they may return in a future invitational but I’m
not sure it will be one in 2025. (I will write about who is likely to return as
well as some personal favorites I like to see brought back.)
This brings me
to the final issue. The ratings for this year’s tournament have been slightly
lower than last years – the figures I’ve seen have had them down an average of
20 percent. I suspect this is due to several factors, including the tournament
fatigue that plagued much of Season 40. You must also consider the fact that second
seasons of any show are generally lower than the first and the X factor which
is that when the first Jeopardy Masters aired last year, the WGA strike had hit
Hollywood and much of the 2023 season had ended already, therefore affecting
the amount of competition Masters was up against. This may not have much affect
on the ratings for Fridays (always a dull night for networks) but for Mondays
and Wednesdays it had to be a mitigating factor.
And it’s worth
noting that support for the show is still pretty high based on the online
chatter. Add the fact that the ratings are still good – it averaged between 4.5
and five million episodes per season – and that ABC does a pretty good market
in prime time game shows that aren’t Jeopardy and a renewal for a third
season seems almost inevitable, if not certain.
I myself had all
of the fun that the Jeopardy fan has with this year’s Masters that I did last
years. While I experienced tournament fatigue like so many Jeopardy fans did for
much of this season, this doesn’t strike me as the kind of ‘tournament’ I or
any long time Jeopardy fan could ever get sick of. Yes all of these players are
‘celebrities’ of a sort, but those who try to compare it to reality TV are
barking up the wrong tree. The comparison is closer to a professional competitor,
albeit one who plays chess or crossword puzzles as a competitive level rather
than baseball or football. In a sense Jeopardy
Masters is the World Series for trivia nerds like myself and given the ridiculously
hard level of the questions, the brilliant display of intellect by the
competitors and the personalities involved, I’m glad to know that I have
something like this to look forward like this every year. Maybe some day the
general public will get tired of this but I doubt the Jeopardy fan will and the
readership for these columns seems to indicate, we are legion.
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