This IS Jeopardy - Failures of the Superchampions, Interlude: A Personal Reflection on the Jeopardy Greats Prior to the Age of James Holzhauer

 

By the time Season 35 began in 2018 the idea of trying to rank who the greatest players in Jeopardy history were was becoming a more concrete idea in my mind. I suspected - and I would be proven correct – that because the show was entering its 35^th year, there would be a special tournament in recognition of this anniversary.

As any fan of the show is aware that turned out to be correct as in October the show’s producers announced the Jeopardy All-Star Challenge. Quickly I had issues with it, not just because it involved for the first time in the show’s history a team format, but also because the show only chose to invite eighteen players back to play again as opposed to the forty-five they had brought back in the Battle of the Decades to celebrate their thirtieth year on the air.

My frustration at the time was that none of the players invited back had played prior to 2000, only two (Brad Rutter and Pam Mueller) dated prior to before Ken Jennings arrival in 2004 and the majority were from the past ten years. And at the time three of them hardly seemed to be stretching the definition of All-Star past its breaking point. For all the skills that Leonard Cooper and Monica Thieu (winners of the 2013 Teen and College Tournaments, respectively) would demonstrate in the All-Stars I thought their selection seemed arbitrary at best and did a disservice to many of the other great champions during that same period at worst.

But in hindsight the producers seemed to have had a better grasp on what the fans of the show wanted to see in those selections. And in many ways by watching that Tournament I began to appreciate how difficult it would be trying to figure out how ranking Jeopardy champions would be, even after the sudden appearance of so many super-champions. That fact was clear in regard to how the all-time money winners had changed – or more accurately, hadn’t as of the All-Star Games.

By the end of the 2017 TOC Jeopardy had witness the rise of five players who had won eleven or more games. But because they had all come up short in the Tournament of Champions by the end of the 2017-2018 season, the all-time money winners had not altered much. Roger Craig was still in third place all time with $530,200.

For the record this is how all five super-champions ranked at the end of the 2017-2018 season when it came to money won:

Matt Jackson: $511,612

Julia Collins: $478.100

Austin Rogers: $461,000

Arthur Chu: $397,200

Seth Wilson: $272,000

 

The reason Roger was still in third place was because he had won the 2011 Tournament of Champions. Even without the benefit of his third place finish in the Battle of the Decades, he would have only dropped to fourth place all time in money won.

If nothing else, the All-Star Challenge may have driven home to me just how significant winning the Tournament of Champions is when it comes to determined how great a Jeopardy champion is in a way that all of my previous – and, it must be said, future – calculations of what it means to be a great Jeopardy champion truly means.

That might have been something that was a subtext to my watching the show for most of my life but previous ‘special tournaments’ such as the Million Dollar Masters in 2002 and the Ultimate Tournament of Champions in 2005 had done much to obscure that fact. When many previous winners of Tournaments of Champions were among those who were among the earliest eliminated in both previous tournaments part of me had begun to ponder whether winning this tournament may have been more of a testament to luck than skill. While that may well have been true in the first twenty years of Jeopardy in all the years since Jennings’s arrival that becomes clearer with each passing year and in many ways the All-Star Games helped illustrate that point to me when I was looking at how well so many of the participants had done on the show in regard to money won.

I have alluded to this throughout the series but it’s worth looking at the track record of many of them here because all of them would be invited back to the All-Star Games.

When the All-Star Games took place it was announced in the opening sequence – in something that would remind Alex Trebek of how the Mercury 7 were introduced to him as a child – they were referred to as ‘eighteen of the most celebrated Jeopardy players have been invited back to play again!” Aside from the hyperbole it wasn’t that much of an exaggeration.

The six captains were, by any logical standard, some of the greatest players of all time. No one doubted the significance of Brad and Ken’s accomplishments, Julia and Austin’s have been related in previous articles, Buzzy Cohen’s choice was fitting because he was the last Tournament of Champions winner and Colby Burnett had won both the 2012 Teachers Tournament and the 2013 Tournament of Champions.

As I said I had doubts about three of the players who had been invited back at the time: Monica Thieu, Leonard Cooper and Jennifer Giles the winner of the 2015 Teachers Tournament. (I remain baffled as to the rationale for the last selection compared to some of the other winners I’ve discussed in the articles above.) As to the other nine, well, the only difficulty I had was the era they represented: I couldn’t exactly fault them on their records.

Matt Jackson and Seth Wilson were invited back among them as well as David Madden, who for reason that are not worth going into had decided not to participate in the Battle of the Decades five years earlier. He was, as Alex Trebek himself mentioned, sorely missed.

As to the other six anyone who had watched the show would deny their merit of inclusion. Roger Craig was, naturally, one of them (I wondered later why he wasn’t made a captain instead of Colby) Pam Mueller, whose track record in Jeopardy Tournaments has been well documented in other articles was invited as was Alan Lin who perhaps deliberately would not be drafted by either Buzzy or Austin. The other three were Larissa Kelly, Ben Ingram and Alex Jacob.

So of the eighteen players invited back a third of them had won a Tournament of Champions. Brad, of course, had won considerably more Tournament then that and Colby had been a semi-finalist in the Battle of the Decades before he was ultimately beaten by Roger Craig.

So let’s have a look at the cash-winnings of the six players invited back who weren’t super-champions in the way that some of the others were. I’ll list them chronologically:

 

Larissa Kelly: $327,597

Colby Burnett: $375,000

Ben Ingram: $426, 534

Alex Jacob: $399,802

Buzzy Cohen: $414, 603

Alan Lin: $223,600

 

Aside from Colby, all of them won at least six games in their original appearance and indeed Roger had won that many in his original run.

To win the Tournament of Champions does much to move any contestant up on the leaderboard. At the time of the All-Star Games the five contestants listed above were all among the greatest money winners in Jeopardy history along with the super-champions above and, of course, Brad, Ken and Roger.

 In addition Larissa had been in fourth place in money won in a regular appearance until 2014 when Arthur Chu started putting her down the leaderboard. It’s a measure of how great a player Larissa was that it took Arthur eight days to get past that total (and he had to win $58,200 to do so) and Julia needed eleven. Obviously Buzzy never came close to doing that in his original run but Austin was better at it then her. (Roger Craig is the only player invited to the All-Stars who played at a comparable level to her in his six wins.)

One would have been hard-pressed to argue that the producers didn’t make the right selections among this group overall but one does still wonder why the three players I listed above were chosen if the purpose was to bring back memorable players. Even if you were to limit the selection from the past decade then there will still clearly several choices who would have had more reason to be chosen and who might have led to an even better competition.

Those three choices probably should have been the three players who at the time were similar ranked on the leaderboard. Arthur Chu is the most obvious exclusion and the only explanation I have was his reputation among fans as being something of a ‘Jeopardy villain’ at the time. However there were two other champions who’d had records that were nearly as impressive as most of all the other major invitees. I referred to them in passing in the first article in this series but it is worth going over it now because for that reason I considered them among the all-time greats later on.

Dan Pawson first appeared on Jeopardy on December 27, 2007 little more than a month after that year’s Tournament of Champions. It wasn’t a remarkable game – he only won $9700 but from that inauspicious beginning he managed to win nine consecutive games, the most that any Jeopardy Champion had won since David Madden’s 19. There were big wins and small wins – on his seventh win he prevailed with $200; on his eighth, he won $25,000 – but at the end of his run he’d managed to win $170,902. It was an impressive figure in 2007 but by the end of the season Larissa Kelly had managed to win $222,597 in six.

The two ended up facing off in the 2009 Tournament of Champions (which was filmed in Las Vegas)  and though such things rarely happened in my experience both of them managed to make it all the way to the Finals. They faced off against Aaron Schroeder who’d won an impressive five games and $127,902 on his own. He was more than up to the challenge actually going into Game 1 with a narrow lead over both players but Larissa and Dan would respond correctly on that games Final Jeopardy and bet almost everything they had. Aaron was wrong and while his wager was not significant, it put him at a disadvantage he would be unable to overcome.

Game 2 was a back and forth battle for Larissa and Dan for supremacy with Larissa going into Final Jeopardy with a very narrow lead. However this time she was the only player who didn’t know the correct response in Final Jeopardy and as a result Dan won $250,000.

At the end of the Tournament of Champions Dan had winnings totaling  $420,902, only slightly behind David Madden then in fourth place on the leaderboard. Larrisa’s $100,000 put her at $322,597. Both returned to the Battle of the Decades five years later, based on their impressive merits during the 2009 season.

Larissa competed in the third game and basically led from beginning to end. However a Daily Double on the penultimate clue of Double Jeopardy and a correct response by Russ Schumacher stopped her from having a runaway going into Final Jeopardy. Like so many of the Final Jeopardy clues in that tournament no one gave a correct response and it came down to wagering. Because Russ bet nothing and Larissa played to win, Russ would end up advancing while Larissa went home with $5000.

Dan had better luck against Maria Wenglinsky and Keith Whitener in what would be the last game of Round 1. He had a big lead throughout the Jeopardy round and much of Double Jeopardy. However in the final stretch Maria made a huge comeback and went into Final Jeopardy with a narrow lead over Dan. Once again everybody got Final Jeopardy wrong and what worked for Russ in his match ended up working for Dan in his game – he wagered the least of the three players and that allowed him to advance.

Unfortunately Dan’s luck only went so far: in his quarterfinal match he ran into Brad Rutter and like so many before and after him,  he was runover. He didn’t qualify for a wild-card and he left with $10,000.

Considering their respective track records you would have thought if Larissa was invited back Dan should have been as well. That said, Larissa was second on the all-time list for money won by a female contestant and considering that Julia Collins had broken that record in her original appearance (which began not long after Larissa’s defeat in the Battle of The Decades) the logic was understandable.

The other choice was harder to comprehend, but ultimately understandably given the circumstances of his original appearance. Tom Nissley had first appeared on Jeopardy on December 14^th 2010 and won $24,801 in his first game. On his fourth win he won a very impressive $43,800 and while he never hit that high a figure when he departed the show on Christmas Eve, he’d won eight games and $235,405. At that point that total was the third most any Jeopardy champion had won in their original appearance – and no one would win more than that until Arthur Chu in 2014.

But I don’t remember ever thinking of Tom Nissley when I was anticipating the Tournament of Champions the following November. Like all Jeopardy fans we were waiting for the return of Roger Craig who’d won nearly as much as Tom in six games. The fact that Tom had won more games and more money was likely viewed as a technicality for most Jeopardy viewers at the time; there was no question which one of these men was the superior player.

And even though Tom was good in his quarterfinal win and his semi-final win Roger Craig was, well, Roger Craig. When Tom went into the Double Jeopardy round of Game 1 of the Finals with a narrow lead over Tom, I know I was thinking: “Roger will come to life in Double Jeopardy. Which he did: he found both Daily Doubles back to back and quadrupled his total. From that point on, the TOC was an exercise and by the end of Game 1, it was all over sans the shouting. Tom was lucky to finish in second place and get the $100,000.

That being said, it did strike me as odd in retrospect that when the time for the Battle of The Decades came around Tom was not among the fourteen players granted an invitation initially. Having won $335,405 altogether he was still very high on the Jeopardy leader board of winning, ahead not only of several Tournament of Champions winners from that decade but basically everyone else who got an invitation – with the exception of Roger Craig, Dan Pawson and Colby Burnett.

To be fair when the time came for voting on fan favorites for the 2010s (the fans were allowed to vote between five choices for the fifteenth spot) Tom was invited back. That being said when you consider who the other four nominees were it makes Tom look horrible by comparison:

Kara Spak had won five games immediately following Roger’s appearance and just over $83,401. She was a semifinalist in the 2011 Tournament of Champions, qualified for a wild card spot (she lost to Roger Craig) and lost in the semifinals to Buddy Wright who finished third to Roger and Tom.

Ryan Chaffee had won four games in 2009 and $91,900. He was thrashed in his quarter-final.

Erin McLean (2010 College Champion) In the 2011 College Championship she lost to Buddy Wright and was runover in the semi-finals – by Tom Nissley in his win.

Joey Beachum (2008 College Champion). Joey  competed in the 2010 Tournament of Champions. (He was unavailable to play in the 2009 Tournament. He was thrashed in his quarter-final match.

Now a personal disclosure. In 2013 when the Battle of the Decades was announced while I was very familiar with Jeopardy I was not entirely the scholar I am today for reasons not worth discussing. That said I was familiar, due to my past experience as well as previous tournaments with the overwhelming majority of the players extended invitations to each of the three decades represented and would have been able to defend in a public forum the selection of the vast majority of those invited. And though because of my issues with technology in 2013 I didn’t get to vote in the fan favorites I could have made a case for every one of the five players considered a fan favorite for the 1980s and all but one in the 1990s.

I have no memory of what I thought of about the five players chosen for the 2000s but based on the records here, this is a clear case of ‘one of these things is not like the other.” It seemed unfair that Tom Nissley given his record on the show had been reduced to being picked this way.

And apparently the fans themselves felt that same way as Tom was in fact the one who received the most votes. Tom appeared in the first game of Round 1 against none other than Colby Burnett and the winner of the 2007 Tournament of Champions Celeste DiNucci.

Tom played well in the Jeopardy round up to a pint and then began to struggle. He was at $2600 and in second place at the end of the round. Then in Double Jeopardy Celeste and Colby caught fire and Tom wasn’t able to ring in until the eighteenth clue of the round and was only able to give four correct responses. He was still in contention going into Final Jeopardy with $7400 to Celeste’s $16,200 and Colby’s $16,400 which had to make how Final Jeopardy played out all the more excruciating for him.

The category was OPERA & LITERATURE: “An aria in this Shakespeare-based opera says: “Di scozia a te promettono le profetesse il trono…Che tardi?” Tom wrote down his response very quickly and it was the correct response: “What is Macbeth?” Alex translated: “The witches promise you the Scottish throne…what are you waiting for?” Tom added $6000 to his total.

Celeste’s response was: “What is Falstaff?’ (Right composer, wrong opera.” However she waged $1399, leaving her with $14,801. She was clearly playing to beat Tom by $1 if she was incorrect and he was right and bet everything. But Colby was even smarter: he wrote an incorrect response but wagered only $199. When it was over he dropped his head to the podium in relief. Tom had to go home with $5000.

Just for fun let’s see where Dan and Tom were compared with all of the biggest money winners (aside from the Big Three at the time) who were invited back to the All-Star Challenge at that time:

 

Matt Jackson: $511,612

Julia Collins: $478.100

Austin Rogers: $461,000

David Madden: $440, 400

Dan Pawson: $430,902

Ben Ingram: $426,534

Buzzy Cohen: 414,603

Colby Burnett: $375,000

Alex Jacob: $399,802

Tom Nissley: $340,405

Larissa Kelly: $327,597

 

Obviously Tom and Dan are still among the greatest Jeopardy players in the show’s history and considering their past interactions with many of the players who were invited back to the All-Star Challenge there would have been the kind of shared history that so many of those who were invited already. Alan Lin went into the All-Star Games with a (only half-joking) single minded mission to ‘absolutely crush Buzzy Cohen’ and you could imagine Tom feeling a similar desire towards a couple of players who were invited back. Dan might have been more sanguine but Brad did humiliate him in the Battle of the Decades (though to be fair, he did that everybody)

A month after the All-Star Games ended Jeopardy would be changed forever by two different events: Alex Trebek announced his diagnosis with the pancreatic cancer that would kill him. And on April 4^th James Holzhauer made his first appearance. Jeopardy would never be the same afterwards.

In the penultimate article in this series I will tell the saga of Jason Zuffranieri, the greatest Jeopardy player you’ve probably never heard of.

 

Emmy Watch Phase 2 Continued: My Reactions to the 2025 SAG Awards Nominations for TV

 

I didn’t mention it yesterday but it is worth noting the SAG awards themselves have always been a pleasing ceremony for me to watch. It may be the only awards show I’ve ever seen where the nominees, at least in the introductions, show some humility as well as respect for their profession. For this awards show they don’t pretend to be anything but what they are: actors.

And as a result the presentations of the awards go out of their way to remind us of television’s storied passed. One year – probably in the late 2000s  the cast of The Mary Tyler Moore show assembled onstage to present Best Ensemble in a Comedy Series. (Steve Carell, accepting for The Office, admitted it made the award extra special.) Larry Hagman and Linda Gray came out to present Best Drama series just weeks before they would officially reunite in the TNT continuation of Dallas. And Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow three years ago presented Best Comic Ensemble leading everyone to wonder of the possibility that Romy and Michelle would get together onscreen.

Those who accept awards for TV have sometimes given incredible speeches: few who witnessed it will forget David Harbour’s acceptance speech for Stranger Things when he shouted out “We will punch bullies in the face.” (Yes, it was in 2017.) Two years ago in accepting the Ensemble Award for Succession Brian Cox (wearing a scarf that included ‘Team Logan’ and F---Off prominently on it) went out of his way to shout out to Zelensky (‘He is one of us, after all,” he said.) And sometimes they’re just fun: last year when Pedro Pascal accepted for The Last of Us he was so shocked he admitted he was drunk and took another occasion to add to the ‘feud’ he had all season with Kieran Culkin.

All of which is to say, even when the nominations show little surprise from the major awards that we get, the ceremony itself is always enjoyable. It ‘s now streaming on Netflix and I have every intention of watching it this year. Now let’s deal with the nominated series and actors for TV.

 

BEST COMEDIC ENSEMBLE

Abbott Elementary, The Bear, Hacks and Only Murders in the Building were all expected to be here. (It’s looking like the guilds have no problem with the third season of The Bear even if the audience does.) The biggest surprise is that Shrinking is the fifth nominee instead of Nobody Wants This which has made the lists of every other show so far. And as you will see it hasn’t exactly been neglected.

 

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE MALE ACTOR IN A COMEDY

Jeremy Allen White and Martin Short have been here the last three years. Adam Brody is here as well and Ted Danson, nominated by the Golden Globes for A Man on the Inside is also here. Once again the fact there is no differing between lead and supporting explains the presence of Harrison Ford for Shrinking. I’m not complaining of course, just reminding the SAG of their biggest flaw.

 

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A COMEDY

Jean Smart, Quinta Brunson and Ayo Edebiri are among the expected. I think its safe to say Smart is the favorite. I expected Kristen Bell to be here for Nobody Wants This. Lisa Colon-Zayas is here for The Bear for the same reason that Ford in the male category for Shrinking. The likelihood is this will split the vote between the two nominees from The Bear.

 

OUTSTANDING DRAMATIC ENSEMBLE

For the first time we see an awards show more focused on the season to come. The Diplomat, Slow Horses, and The Day of the Jackal are here, along with Shogun. I am shocked to see Bridgerton here instead of, say, Squid Game; this series has been shutout of every other major awards show to this point. HBO has no presence in Drama this year but that will change this fall.

 

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A MALE ACTOR IN A DRAMA

No real notes. Gary Oldman, Hiroyuki Sanada and Eddie Redmayne have been making the rounds lately and I’m glad to see Jeff Bridges here for what will be the final season of The Gold Man. Tadanobu Asano’s presence is hardly shocking for Shogun – though it may syphon votes from Sanada.

 

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A DRAMA

Keri Russel and Alison Janney firm up their Emmy credentials with their nominations for The Diplomat as does Kathy Bates for Matlock. Anna Sawai is here as well. It is very odd to see Nicola Coughlan here for Bridgerton, perhaps most impressively over Keira Knightley who has been nominated by the Globes and the Critics Choice for her work in Black Doves. Lady Whistledown is clearly a major force among the SAG members.

 

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY  A MALE ACTOR IN A TV MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES

Very few surprises here. Richard Gadd and Andrew Scott are here for the season just past and Colin Farrell and Kevin Kline (nominated yet again for Disclaimer) is here for the future. Javier Bardem looks very much like he will be nominated for Monsters even if the series itself is not. (Yes I will be getting to that show down the road.)

 

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE BY A FEMALE ACTOR IN A TV MOVIE OR LIMITED SERIES

And here we see something I haven’t seen in a very long time. The nominees in every category have been capped at five and seem unwilling to shift. But this year in this category six performers have been honored.

Four make perfect sense: Jodie Foster, Cate Blanchett and Cristin Milioti will be facing off for the third straight awards show and this time they’re up against Jessica Gunning. Lily Gladstone, absent from other major awards shows, is here for Under the Bridge. But Kathy Bates – not Jessica Lange – is nominated for the brilliant HBO TV Movie The Great Lillian Hall. This seems rather odd to be, though perhaps this is out of admiration for Bates (who was superb in the film.)

 

STUNT ENSEMBLE

Few surprises though it’s worth noting all of these series either have been or will be Emmy nominees: Fallout and Shogun from this past year; House of The Dragon from two years period; The Boys from three years prior and The Penguin for this year. I’m honestly not sure who will prevail this time.

 

As the Critics Choice Awards have been postponed until January 26^th due to the wildfires in LA I will be waiting for two weeks to make my prediction for those awards. I’ll be back to deal with the final part of Phase 2 – the nominees for the People’s Choice Awards for television –  next week. Stay tuned.

Jeopardy Second Chance Recap, Part 3: Week 2 Semifinals

 

 

Before we begin an update on the upcoming Champions Wild Card.

In a sign that the show seems willing to acknowledge ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” next week’s wildcard is a return to the format of tournaments prevalent under the Alex Trebek era. Fifteen quarterfinalists – including Will Yancey and whoever prevails on Friday – will compete in five quarterfinal games that will involve five winners and four wild-card spots for high scores among non-winners. This will no doubt add a layer of strategy to this year’s Wild Card tournament that has been lacking in almost every tournament last year.

I will have details on the official way the Tournament of Champions itself will unfold this weekend but for now, let’s look the three semi-final games, which have been just as thrilling in their own ways as last weeks.

 

Semi-Final Game 1:

Jonquil Garrick-Reynolds vs. Steve Miller vs. Drew Goins

For the record: Drew lost to David Erb in his third win after leading him most of the game.. Steve Miller was the runner up and was ahead of Amar Kakirde going into his fifth match. Jonquil Garrick-Reynolds narrowly lost to Drew Basile in what would be his second win.

From the start of the Jeopardy round Drew was off and running. He found the Daily Double in HISTORIC HISTORY and bet the $3000 he already had:

“The 1973 Arab-Israeli War occurred during these 2 periods, one Jewish & one Islamic, both of which involve fasting.” Drew knew they were Ramadan and Yom Kippur and doubled his score. He finished the round with an incredible $11,600 to Steve’s $3400 and Jonquil’s $2600.

Drew maintained his lead throughout the round but a big Daily Double wager by Steve narrowed the gap. He still had $22,400 when he found the second Daily Double in MANUAL EVENTS and wagered $5000. “See junipers & pines as you never have before at Kofuku-ten, a major exhibition of skills in this art.” He knew it was bonsai and went up to $27,400. He finished Double Jeopardy having gotten 30 correct responses – the highwater mark for any player so far in Season 41  - but he didn’t have a runaway as Steve had $18,400 and Jonquil had $9800.

The Final Jeopardy category was 21^ST CENTURY BUSINESS. “An early version of this app was called Matchbox but that name was too similar to another company that offered the same service.” This stumped me but all three players knew it: “What is Tinder?” (As Ken reminded me: “Matchbox was too close to match.com.” Drew’s wager of $3400 put him at $36,801  the highest one day total in Season 41 so far. And if that doesn’t tell you how tough the clues have been this season, I don’t know what will.

 

SEMIFINAL GAME #2

Josh Heit vs Zoe Grobman vs Enzo Cunanan

Josh lost the tiebreaker in Game 3 to Drew Basile. Zoe Grobman had a memorable stint in her game in which she revealed her love of Talking Heads which almost got her a victory. Enzo Cunanan narrowly lost to Adriana Harmeyer in what would be her eleventh win.

After a bad daily Double very early in the Jeopardy round, it looked like Josh was heading for moving the fastest. He had $5200 at the end of the round to Zoe’s $3800 and Enzo’s $400. Enzo kept going one step forward, two steps back throughout the round.

So Enzo spent the early stages of Double Jeopardy hunting for the Daily Double at the bottom of the board. He’d managed to make it up to $6800 when he found the first Daily Double in OPERA SETTINGS. He bet $2000:

“Richard Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier takes place in 18^th century Vienna during the reign of this empress. Enzo knew it was Maria Theresa and went into the lead for the first time in the game.

Zoe got to the other Daily Double in POTENT QUOTABLES. Saying she hoped she didn’t regret this she bet $6000. She did in more ways than one:

“This pale dry sherry gets title billing in a Poe tale.” She said What is…Amontidello?” She had the right story in mind, it was Amontillado. Zoe said: “I’m gonna remember that one.

Enzo maintained his lead from that point forward finishing Double Jeopardy with $15,600. However a late push by Josh moved him up to $9600 and Zoe finished with $6600.

Final Jeopardy had a very vague category. “FACTS ABOUT COUNTRIES.” I didn’t know this particular fact. “It has 40,000 people & a workforce of 42,000, more than half commuting from nearby, including Vorarlberg state in a neighbor country.” Zoe knew the correct country: “What is Liechtenstein?” (Apparently Vorarlberg is in western Austria.” She added $5401 to put her at $12,001. Josh thought it was Luxembourg which cost him $3601. Enzo started with Luxembourg, crossed it out and wrote in Liechtenstein. Had Zoe responded correctly on her Daily Double she would have been the winner but instead Enzo managed to prevail and he moved on to the finals.

 

SEMI-FINAL GAME #3

Lindsay Denninger v. Ferdinand Percentie v. Sam Cameron

Ferdinand nearly beat Amy Hummel in her fourth win. Sam was reminded of how he nearly beat Greg Jolin. Lindsay was in a neck and neck game with Neilesh Vinjamuri before he prevailed for his third win.

Sam got off to a fast start in the Jeopardy round, amassing $2600 before he found the Daily Double in BEST IF USED BY DECEMBER 31, 1999. He wagered everything. It went badly.

“After 85 years, complete control of it passed to its home nation on December 31, 1999.” He guessed Hong Kong (which went back to the Chinese in 1997) when it was actually the Panama Canal. He rebuilt to $3000 by the end of the round, trailing Ferdinand by $2000.

Sam was in a close battle for the lead when he found the first Daily Double in YOU JUST GOT MONK’D. He bet $5000:

“In 1939 Thomas Merton opened the Bible to Luke 1:20 and read “Behold, you shall be” this & he decided to become a Trappist monk.” It took him a moment to say: “What is silent?” and he jumped into the lead.

He had a bigger lead when he found the other Daily Double in GOVERNMENT WORK but he was cautious and only bet $1000: “You might get a bit sick of Lincoln’s face as a metal-forming machine operator at this agency’s production facilities.” He knew it was the Mint and went up to $17,800. However a late run by Ferdinand at the end of the round stopped Sam from running away with the game – kind of the theme for the semi-finals and Sam finished with $19,400 to Ferdinand’s $10,2000 and Lindsay’s $6200.

The Final Jeopardy category was AMERICAN HISTORY: “The last claim awarded under this act was in 1988, 126 years after it passed, for a parcel of land in Alaska.” Sam and Ferdinand both knew the correct response (as did I at home):”What is the Homestead Act?” Sam’s wager of $1001 gave him the win.

Three gentlemen in the finals and yet another Second Chance winner who lost to Adriana Havemeyer in her original appearance. That motivation was not enough to help either Colleen or Kaitlin overcome Will last week. Will it make a difference this week?

I’ll be back on Friday with the report.

Emmy Watch Phase 2, Part 1: The Independent Spirit And Image Award Nominations for TV

 

 

Those of you who have been following my columns for the last few years are aware that in recent year I have begun to divide the awards shows for television that I believe may be harbingers for the Emmy nominations in the summer among different ‘phases’. Phase 1 starts in December with the nominations for the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Award nominations for television and ends in the middle of January.

The second phase has involved organizations that focus more on films but have a history with TV. Many have existed for years but I’ve only begun to follow them fairly recently even in alignment with my column. The majority of the nominations occur this week and the next. They include the Image Awards, the awards given by the NAACP to celebrate the excellence of African-Americans in pop culture, the SAG Awards which while relatively limited have in recent years given more variety in their prizes that the Emmys sometimes do and recently the Independent Spirit Awards which in the last few years have begun nominated television shows and performers from the year just past.

All of them have flaws in their process. The Screen Actors guild has never differentiation between lead and supporting in any of the television series they nominate shows and performers for each year and while they nominate a lead male and female actor for Limited Series they have yet to create an award to honor ensembles for that category. The Spirit Awards, in addition to not differentiating awards by gender, have the added burden of only honoring a series in its first season and never again thereafter. The Image Awards flaw is self-explanatory. Yet all three do have a gift for recognizing and often honoring shows and awards that even the Golden Globes and Critics Choice have chosen to ignore. And while there are rarely parallels between these awards and many of those the Emmys will honor; they have a potential to find possibilities that the Emmys might honor as well as series and actors that assuredly will fall under the radar of the Academy.

For that reason even though Phase One is  not over yet, I think it’s time we begin phase 2. In large part this is because the nominations for the Image Awards came out today and the SAG Awards will come out tomorrow. How much of this will aid the Emmy voters going forward is hard to know – it’s a long way between now and June – but it’s worth checking in at least.

I’m going to start with the Spirit Awards because they actually gave their nominations in December but because I was focused on other things at the time, I didn’t have a chance to look at them then.

 

BEST NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

Well, no one can fault Baby Reindeer or Shogun being here and I’m glad to see English Teacher among the contenders. Fantasmas has a significant critical and audience following. I have yet to hear of Diarra From Detroit but perhaps other awards show will follow along

 

BEST LEAD PERFORMANCE IN  A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

Ten nominees with no separation from gender. Fans of my blog no how I feel about this but for a change it works as if they’d divided the nominees between male and female: five male actors, five female ones.

For the males Brian Jordan Alvarez now looks more and more like an Emmy favorite for his work in English Teacher. We’ve already seen Hiroyuki Sanada win last night for his work in Shogun and Richard Gadd and Andrew Scott have been dominating the nominations for limited series already. Julio Torres nomination for Fantasmas makes sense because, as with Alvarez and Gadd, he is one of the creative minds behind the show.

Apparently comic book based material is not a burden for Independent Spirit awards: both Kathryn Hahn for Agatha All Along and Cristin Milioti for The Penguin are represented here. Anna Sawai is showing up everywhere and Lily Gladstone was nominated for an Emmy for her work in Under the Bridge. I am overjoyed to see Julianne Moore here for her work in Mary & George.

 

BEST SUPPORTING PERFORMANCE IN A NEW SCRIPTED SERIES

This has a slight advantage for female performances: there are seven actresses nominated and three actors – but I can’t quibble given the caliber.

For the male we have Enrico Colantoni deservedly nominated for The English Teacher and Tadanobu Asano here for Shogun. I’m not sure about Brian Tee for Expats though.

I am overjoyed to see Betty Gilpin here for Three Women and hope this and her nomination by the Spirits is a sign of an Emmy nod down the road. Stephanie Koening is more than worthy as in Nava Mau and I’m thrilled to see Ruth Negga here for Presumed Innocent and Moeka Hoshi for Shogun. I believe Patti LuPone was nominated by the Critics Choice for her work in Agatha All Along. As for Chloe Guidry’s presence for Under the Bridge, not having seen the series I will withhold comment (though I may get to it down the line now)

BEST BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE IN A SCRIPTED SERIES

I’m thrilled to see Hoa Xuande nominated for his extraordinary in The Sympathizer a show that has almost been completely shutout by all the major award groups. No surprise to see Jessica Gunning here. Diarra Kilpatrick is clearly the lead from Diarra From Detroit and there have been many great things to say about Penelope and Megan Stott. I will get to Agatha All Along so I know who Joe Locke is.

 

Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series in Natasha Rothwell’s How To Die Alone. I’ll give that a pass and look for it down the road.

 

Now let’s look at the Images for TV

OUTSTANDING COMEDY SERIES

And there’s How To Die Alone. Along with perennials Abbott Elementary, The Neighborhood and The Upshaws. Joining them is freshman series Poppa’s House.

 

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

I hope the nomination for David Alan Grier for St. Denis Medical will help move him to the forefront of this category in the Emmys going forward. He is nominated with fellow freshman (and In Living Color co-star) Damon Wayans for Poppas House. Delroy Lindo is here for the now cancelled UnPrisoned and Cedric the Entertainer and Mike Epps have been here before.

 

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY SERIES

Two Emmy winners in this category: Ayo Edebiri for The Bear, Quinta Brunson for Abbott Elementary. Want to take odds one of them prevails? Natasha Rothwell is here for How to Die Alone, Kerry Washington for UnPrisoned, Tichina Arnold for The Neighborhood.

 

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A COMEDY

As you’d expect Tyler James Williams and William Stanford Davis are representing Abbott Elementary and perpetual Emmy nominee Keenan Thompson is here for SNL. Giancarlo Esposito is always here for one show or another: in this category it’s The Gentlemen. Damon Wayans, Jr is here for Poppa’s House.

 

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A COMEDY

Janelle James and Sheryl Lee Ralph, no argument. Danielle Pinnock has gotten her share of recognition for Ghosts. Ego Nwodim is here for her farewell season on SNL and Wanda Sykes is always here.

 

OUTSTANDING DRAMA SERIES

And another reason to love the Images they nominated Found for Best Drama. 9-1-1 is also deservedly present. Bel-Air is no surprise and neither is Reasonable Doubt. Cross being here over the Power franchise; slightly odd.

 

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A DRAMA

Donald Glover continues to circulate for Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Harold Perrineau is here for From which makes a lot of sense. Aldis Hodge is here for Cross and Jabari Banks for Bel-Air. Michael Rainey, Jr does make sense for Ghost.

 

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA

If the Emmys could do so well. Here is Shanola Hampton, making another argument for an Emmy nomination. Here is Angela Bassett yet again here for 9-1-1. And here, most welcome, is Zoe Saldana for Lioness which I honestly didn’t expect to see here. Queen Latifah is a perennial favorite; perhaps I’ll get to Reasonable Doubt down the road.

 

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A DRAMA

Few likely possibilities for Emmys down the road but criminally undervalued performers: Method Man for Ghost; Jacob Latimore for The Chi; Morris Chestnut for Reasonable Doubt (my guess is he’ll be back here next year for Watson) and nominees for Bel-Air and Cross.

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A DRAMA

Kind of shocked this is where the only nominees for Bridgerton are. Always thrilled to see Lorainne Toussaint and Lynn Whitfield here (especially given Whitfield’s incredible work on The Chi) and more love for Bel-Air. No presence by Grey’s Anatomy. Maybe even the Images are running out of patience.

 

OUTSTANDING LIMITED SERIES SPECIAL OR MOVIE

Little surprise the MLK/X version on Genius is here or for that matter the recent Fight Night and Griselda. I’ve heard interesting things about The Madness; Rebel Ridge is unknown to me.

 

OUTSTANDING ACTOR IN A LIMITED TELEVISION

Colman Domingo is one of the major figures nominated across the board and it is hardly a shock to see Kelvin Harrison here for Genius. Kevin Hart was always a possibility and I didn’t know Laurence Fishburne had worked in TV this year.

 

OUTSTANDING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED TELEVISION

Apparently The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat is a major film and features three of the greatest African-American actresses working today in it: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Sanaa Lathan and Uzo Aduba. Perhaps this is where Sofia Vergara finally wins a Best Actress prize

 

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTOR IN A LIMITED TELEVISION

Ron Cephas Jones was nominated for Genius by the Critics Choice as well and it seems every African-American character actor in the world was in Fight Night, considering Don Cheadle, Samuel L. Jackosn and Terrence Howard are all nominated for it.

 

OUTSTANDING SUPPORTING ACTRESS IN A LIMITED SERIES

So was Taraji P. Henson. Sanaa Lathan doubled dipped for a BET film and Jayme Lawson was nominated for Genius.

 

OUTSTANDING GUEST PERFORMANCE

Everyone who say Ayo Edebiri and Maya Rudolph’s hosting SNL knows they earned it. Keegan Michael Key and Cree Summer were superb in their guest roles on Abbott. Marlon Wayans is here for Bel Air.

 

 COMEDY WRITING/ DIRECTING

Two nominees for Abbott Elementary and none of them are for comedy. I’ll be watching Shrinking with interest and wondering why no actors are nominated. Apparently Ayo Edebiri also directed an episode of The Bear.

 

DRAMA WRITING /DIRECTING

Big surprise Bridgerton has three nominations for writing yet received no nominations for Best Drama. Not a shock to see Mr. and Mrs. Smith nominated for the Pilot. The majority of the directing nominees are for drama and Marta Cunningham is nominated against herself for her work on Genius. Paris Barclay and Carl Franklin are two of the best directors in television so their nominations for Monsters is hardly a shock.

Abbott Elementary and The Bear are already contending for Emmy nominations across the board for their seasons and Donald Glover has gotten his share of love for his work on Mr. & Mrs. Smith. Monsters is likely to be contending for awards down the road and its conceivable Fight Night will due. Shanola Hampton continues to linger as a possibility for Best Actress in a Drama (none of last year’s nominees in the category are eligible) and its not yet clear where the Emmys will land on limited series yet. As for the rest of the nominated series and actors, the majority are almost certain to be overlooked for Emmys mainly because the majority of them, sadly, always seem to be.

Both the Spirits and the Images will air on February 22^nd; The Spirits will be streaming; the Images on two consecutive nights edited for BET.

 

Tomorrow I will report on the results of the SAG Award nominations for television.

 

 

My Joyous Reactions to the 2025 Golden Globes - And I'm Not Just Talking About the Winners for TV

 

I know that I said on Friday what I was expecting from the Golden Globes going into last night’s ceremony: I said all I cared about was the awards in television and that entertainment was very low on my list of concerns.

This was something I have sadly come to expect from the Golden Globes during so much of the past several years. During much of the 2010s watching the Golden Globes could be a joyous experience and that always happened when SNL alums were hosting. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were wondrous in their first three appearances on the show; the opening number of the 2017 Golden Globes in which Jimmy Fallon led the celebrities through a brilliant satire of La La Land is a high point in my career of awards watching; the gentle prodding of Seth Meyers with very little of his political commentary – all of those were fun.

This didn’t occur when Ricky Gervais did so and with each passing year he seemed less committed to entertaining and more to getting drunk. (I’m convinced he was completely pissed in his final stint in 2020 before the show started.) Amy Poehler and Tina Fey did their best during 2021 but could do little to overcome both Covid and the mood; Jerrod Carmichael’s exceptional work of addressing the elephant in the room in his opening monologue was both radical and hysterical in 2023 but the audience clearly was uncomfortable and Jo Koi last year was arguably the most disastrous choice to emcee any awards show since Seth McFarlane hosted the Oscars in 2013. One can understand why I chose to focus more and more on the awards given then the ceremonies themselves: I couldn’t say something nice, so I didn’t say anything at all. (And I knew my fellow critics were not going to be nearly as forgiving so I saw no need to pile on.)

Nikki Glaser, however, seemed to know the right mood to set from the start. “If you’re watching on CBS, welcome and if you’re watching on Paramount Plus you have six days to cancel your subscription.” She then looked at the audience: “These people can do anything except convince America who to vote for.”

With that she was off and running and kept her political commentary, refreshingly, to a minimum and always in a certain context. “The Penguin, The Bear, Baby Reindeer, these are not just things you will find in RFK Junior freezer,” she said before saying they were nominated TV shows. “Look at all the movie stars: Colin Farrell, Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet. And look all the big TV stars: Colin Farrell, Cate Blanchett, Kate Winslet.” She claimed she was not their to roast even though that’s more or less what she did but unlike the contempt that one saw in Gervais, there seemed to be an affection towards it that I just didn’t see. “Eddie Redmayne is nominated for Day of the Jackal. He plays an assassin that no one knows exists because his show takes place on Peacock.” An appropriate dig. “Nicole Kidman has been nominated for her 20^th Golden Globe. Congratulations to Nicole and to Keith Urban for being such a horrible musician that Nicole leaves the house to make eighteen movies a year rather than listen to you.” (It’s as good as explanation as any.) “Tilda Swinton is here, nominated for playing Timothee Chalamet.” Then she went after Chalamet. “Timothee you were so good as Bob Dylan that Dylan himself said your singing was completely unrecognizable.” Then she turned to Zendaya. “You were so good in Dune. I woke up for every scene in you were in.”

This level of mockery was very pleasant – and she was more than willing to turn it against herself. After losing Best Stand-up performance to Ali Wong (I’ll get back to that) when the commercial cut back to her she said, “Welcome back, I’m Golden Globe loser Nikki Glaser. But I’m not bitter because I just made $11,000 betting for Ali Wong to win that award. You lose some, you win some.” If her genius – and I’ve only touched on some of it – doesn’t get her an automatic invitation to return next year, I don’t know what will and I have to say this is more proof that, the best man to host any award show is a woman. I’m looking forward to Chelsea Handler’s return hosting the Critics’ Choice next week.

And this flow, I should add, was felt entirely in every single pairing who came out with almost no awkwardness. Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley came out together to present an award looked at each other. Moore: “what are you doing here?” Qualley: “It’s my week.” (I’ll be getting to The Substance.) Seth Rogen and Catherine O’Hara before their presentation of Best Female Actor in a Limited Series did a superb bit of all the awards that they had won for Canadian productions over the years. (O’Hara, as we all know, is very good on these moments.) Melissa McCarthy and Awkwafina came out to present the awards for Comedy and chose to use their moments to ‘raise awareness’ for each nominee. McCarthy said she would use The Bear to raise awareness for bears freedom to do cocaine; Awkwafina about how The Gentlemen are underserved in our communities and the self-esteem issues faced by Nobody Wants This. “We see you. We want you!” they assured Kristen Bell.

And the majority of the speeches themselves had their creative high-points. By far the most visible was Demi Moore’s somewhat surprising victory for Best Female Actor in a Comedy for The Substance. Moore’s moving, defiant speech about her career and how she had thought a few years ago it was over was everything an awards show speech should be. Kerry Washington said before announcing Best Male Actor in a Comedy: “Good luck following that speech.” Sebastian Stan’s victory for A Different Man was also somewhat of a surprising and he gave a quieter, albeit differently inspiring speech. Some speeches were a bit overextended by far – Adrian Brody’s win by far the biggest offender – but I actually found it a strength that no one was trying to hard to play anybody off tonight.

And it’s hard not to see the parallels even in some of wins in movie with television. Kieran Culkin’s win for Best Supporting Male Actor for A Real Pain made him the first performer since Angelina Jolie in 1998-1999 to win back-to-back awards in television and film. (In an interesting parallel, one of the performers he beat was his former Succession sibling Jeremy Strong, who was nominated for The Apprentice.) Ali Wong did something similar in her victory for Outstanding Stand-Up Special; last year she won Outstanding Lead Actress in A Limited Series for Beef. And Moore’s victory comes in the midst of what has been a revival of her career on multiple platforms she was one of the Swans in Capote vs The Swans in what was by far the most tragic role.

I have put off relating my reactions to the winners in television in large part because with only a couple of exceptions I was dead on in the lion’s share of my predictions. It was hard to imagine being wrong about Shogun being the biggest winner in Drama: it swept the lead prize and took trophies for Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai as I expected. Sanada was, as you’d imagine, humble (and went out of his way to point out the biggest technical glitch of the night) and Sawai even more so. She gave credit to the voters but she made it very clear that if she’d been a voter she would have chosen Kathy Bates. (Bates’s held her hand to her heart when the camera cut to her.) But given his reaction when his name was announced not even Tadanobu Asano expected to win for Best Supporting Male in Television. It was not like he was undeserving: his character was one of the more beloved of the entire series. But Asano’s work had been overlooked by the Emmys this September so a natural assumption seemed to be it would be this year.

The producers were incredibly grateful about just what was happening, which is to be fair, more than deserving when you consider just how much they were asking of FX when they were producing, how long it took for it to be realized and how great the exception was. The producers were astonished, among other things, “their marriage had survived.”

The one disappointment I had of the night was Jeremy Allan White’s third consecutive win for Outstanding Male Actor in a Comedy for The Bear. Sight unseen, I’m not sure he deserved it and he clearly didn’t expect to win: he was the only nominated actor who wasn’t present. This was made up for by numerous factors, not the least of which he will not be able to win at the Critics’ Choice awards.

And of course there was the fact that Hacks was the big winner in comedy. Jean Smart’s win (her second for the show; the first speech she gave) was as you might expect humble. “I’ve never felt more grateful to be called a Hack she said.” When the show triumphed for Outstanding Comedy Series, it’s first win at the Globes Paul W. Downs gave another superb speech, ending by saying: “We’re still shooting season 4 and we’re up at 6 am tomorrow. So if Jean asks for a shot, no one give it to her. Give her water instead. I’m looking at you, Kate Winslet.” (Winslet and Smart, of course, collaborated in Mare of Easttown Smart’s previous HBO project before starting Hacks.)

And Limited Series had by far the biggest rewards. As was to be expect Baby Reindeer ended up winning the grand prize but I suspect there was room for doubt given that in the other upset of the night (though not nearly at the level of Asano’s) Colin Farrell won Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor for The Penguin. This award by far gave me the greatest joy in a night full of them, not just because I believed it would happen but because it was one of the great performances.

Farrell started his speech by saying: “No false modesty. I did it all by myself” before acknowledging everybody responsible, especially the makeup people and the crew. Given just how much work it took for Farrell to become Oz and given the cold nature of how the show looked – which he confirmed – I have a feeling this was a heartfelt one.

The female wins were more expected. Jodie Foster, as to be expected, did prevail for Night Country and even Sofia Vergara, her fellow nominee, seemed overjoyed. Foster has now moved past the point of talking about her privacy and went out of her way to thank both her partner and her children along with Issa Lopez and the people of Alaska. And Jessica Gunning did prevail for Baby Reindeer and justifiably went back to the idea of how incredibly lucky she was. When the show did win the grand prize (something I was not sure of given that Farrell had prevailed) Gadd was his usual modest self, talking about why he thought this incredibly dark and unpleasant show had managed to find such a following. He spoke about the needs for stories like this, particularly in today’s world (his speech was the only one among the TV winners that had anything to do with the political climate) and even that was more out a desire for creativity than anything else.

 In 2024 there was a greater balance considering that at least half the awards were divided between shows that had come from the 2022-2023 season (Succession, Beef) and the 2023-2024 season (Season 2 of The Bear; Elizabeth Debicki’s win for the new season of The Crown.) This year, with the exception of the wins for White and Farrell, all of the awards for TV were given the shows that aired during the 2023-2024 season. Will this trend continue in the remainder of the end of year awards?

On Friday I will begin my predictions for the TV Awards for the 2025 Critics Choice which severely differ from the Globes in many ways in almost every category. They are usually superior to the Globes both in awards given and entertainment value. This year the Golden Globes set the bar high on both fronts. I look forward to seeing how that turns out.