Even a long time fan of
Jeopardy like myself can forget its recent history such as that there was no
Tournament of Champions in 2016.
There was an obvious
reason for that: Jeopardy requires champions in order to have a Tournament. And
between November of 2015 and April of 2016, there were none.
That is only a slight
exaggeration and yet understates it. One almost wonders if Matt Jackson had
placed some kind of whammy on Jeopardy when he didn’t win the Tournament of
Champions. Because after Matt’s defeat the show went one of its longest
stretches in its history without a single player qualifying for the Tournament.
Sort of.
There were quite a few
three game winners during that period and indeed three players during this
period won four games. Fred Vaughn, who won $65,700 in late January; Tim Kutz,
who won an impressive $107,000 dollars in late February and Todd Giese who won
four games in the last week of March and just over $82,403. But for whatever
reason, none of them nor anyone else could manage to make it as far as five
games. During this same period Sam Deutsch managed to win the College
Championship.
That said for the
majority of the 2015-2016 season, no one seemed capable of winning five games
on Jeopardy.
And then all of sudden everybody
seemed capable of doing it. Two weeks after Todd Giese lost after winning
four games Andrew Pau first appeared on Jeopardy and had the best run of any
player since Matt Jackson. He won 6 games in a row and $170,202 during them.
His place in Jeopardy lore has been forgotten because of the player who
defeated him when he was trying for win number seven.
For reasons that are
inexplicable to me, there is a group of Jeopardy fans who consider Buzzy Cohen
‘polarizing’. Perhaps it was because in his later games he didn’t take Final
Jeopardy seriously and seemed to be taunting Alex Trebek doing so. Just as with
those who loathed Arthur Chu during his original run I found this inexplicable.
All I cared about was how well he played the game and Buzzy played it very
well. He doesn’t quite fit the level of super-champion as he won ‘just’ nine
games but as someone who had to come from behind as often as he ran away with
victories that doesn’t make him any less impressive.
Like Arthur there was a
considerable gap between appearances: after his fifth victory he had to wait
three weeks for his next appearance as first the 2016 Teachers Tournament took
place (it was eventually won by Jason Sterlacci, a sixth grade English Teacher)
and what would be the mercifully last Power Players Week a celebrity tournament
fundamentally featuring political figures whose play made every single player
in SNL’s Jeopardy parodies all look like Ken Jennings by comparison. (By this
point I had stopped watching these kinds of tournaments altogether.) When play
resumed at the final week in May Buzzy kept on going until that Friday when he
lost to Erin Delaney. He finished with $164,603 and nine wins all of which
would have been the best for many Jeopardy tournaments – but would quickly be
outshone.
Before the season came
to an end two more players had won six games: Hunter Appier, who his run began
three weeks after Buzzy’s ended and netted him $145,603 by its end and Pranjal
Vachaspati, who brought to the season to a fitting conclusion winning $137,088
before his run ended the final week of the season. Still it was pretty obvious
that there could be no Tournament of Champions in 2016 and perhaps not until
the end of the following season.
We had to wait a full
two weeks into the 2015-2016 season to get our first super-champion. We had to
wait exactly one week into the 2016-2017 season for one to arrive.
Seth Wilson was a Ph.D.
candidate from Chicago when he first appeared on Jeopardy to challenge Siddharth
Harihan, who’d already won two games and $28,135. While he got off to a fast
start in the Jeopardy round – he had $10,400 at the end of it, in Double
Jeopardy it was the other challenger Dorcas Alexander who dominated and at the
end of round was leading $16,800 to Seth’s $14,900 and Siddharth’s $7000.
Then came Final
Jeopardy. The category was AUTHORS. “In 1948 he wrote he had an idea for a
novel in which 2 guys hitchhike to California ‘in search of something they
don’t really find.” Siddharth and Seth each knew the correct answer: “Who is
Kerouac?” Seth wagered everything. Dorcas, however, thought it was Steinbeck.
Seth Wilson had won his first game. He would win a lot more.
Seth was not as
dominant a player as Matt Jackson or Arthur Chu had been in their runs: he had
to earn the lion’s share of his victories: only four of his twelve wins
were runaway victories and a lot of his wins were based on the fact that his
opponents found the Daily Doubles ahead of him but by and large they didn’t
work out.
That didn’t change the
fact that Seth was very, very good when it counted. And as a result he quietly
managed to win a lot. Before his fifth game he’d crossed the $100,000 threshold
and on his ninth game he’d crossed the $200,000 threshold. When he won his
tenth game – only the sixth player in Jeopardy history to win that may – he’d
won $231,801 which at that point was the sixth highest total in earnings any
player had managed in their regular run. Two days later he passed Arthur Chu
for fifth place in games won with 12 and he’d managed to win $265,002. He did
so with a big grin on his face and a cheerful manner throughout. He was
actually leading going into his thirteenth game and responded correctly on
Final Jeopardy – but a rare conservative wager worked against him and he was
unseated by Margie Eulner Ott. (As is often the case, Margie lost the following
day.)
It was one of the most
impressive runs in Jeopardy history – and yet Seth became something that
happens very rarely to super champions. By the time of his 2017 Tournament of
Champions appearance he had been completely eclipsed in the imagination of the
public, and perhaps even Jeopardy fans.
There were outside
factors, none really having anything to do with the election that year. The
biggest one was the fact that the show realized it was going to have to wait
until the following November (by and large the starting period for most TOC’s)
to begin play. A lot could happen in a year and indeed quite a bit did.
For one thing in
December of 2016 Jeopardy back-to-back multi-champions. On December 2nd
Tim Aten began a run of seven wins and $107,499. He would be defeated by Cindy
Stowell who would win six games and $103,803. Cindy’s appearance was
overshadowed by tragedy. She had suffered from Stage IV cancer and had been
giving only months to live. In fact she never lived to see her championship
run, dying on December 5th, a full eight days before her episodes
aired. (I will write on her run in a later series.)
After Cindy’s defeat on
December 22nd there followed the remainder of the 2016-2017 season
was one of the oddest in Jeopardy history: many three game winners and only a
handful of players who won exactly five games: both of them coming in the final
month of the season: Jon Eisenman and Justin Vossler, each of won around
$100,000 apiece. There were also two six game winners: Lisa Schlitt and Alan
Lin as well as the 2017 College and Teachers Tournament Winners.
When the 2016-17 season
was over Jeopardy had fourteen players who were eligible for the tournament by
the standard of either the five game guarantee and the winners of the special
Tournaments. Had Cindy Stowell been alive they would have had enough eligible
players. The question was who got that last spot. There were five players who’d
won four games since the previous Tournament of Champions in November 2015.
This was unprecedented territory for the show: how did they determine who was
eligible based on those standards?
I have no idea the kind
of thinking that was going on with the producers behind the scenes during the
off-season between Seasons 33 and 34. How they would handle it will remain a
mystery – because two weeks into the new season, a new player arose that would
become yet another super-champion who rose above Jeopardy itself.
Matt Jackson had become
a media favorite in his original run as much because of his expressiveness in
winning as his dominance as a champion. Austin Rogers managed to one-up Matt in
that respect because of his similar behavior: the rapid gesticulations and
gestures he did behind the podium when Johnny was introducing him. That
behavior, which led him to being named one of the great viral sensations of
2017, at times overshadowed his superlative nature as a Jeopardy player.
And from the start of
his run to the end he was one of the most dominant super-champions of all time.
He won $36,000 in his first runaway victory which would turn out to be a light
game going forward. By his fourth appearance he’d won $123,100, well ahead of
any other player save Ken Jennings – and not that far behind him. On the day he
officially clinched his spot in the Tournament of Champions he won $65,600 –
and the very next day won $69,000.
To that point in
Jeopardy history no one – not even Ken Jennings – had won that much money in
back-to-back appearances. After six wins he had won more money than anyone in
Jeopardy history – even Ken Jennings – had won in their first six games
with $257,700. No one other that James Holzhauer has won more than that much
money in their first six games since; not even Amy Schneider or Matt Amodio
were anywhere near that amount.
One could call his
performance behind the lectern somewhat downhill afterwards considering he
‘merely’ averaged about $25,000 a win for his next six games. Four of those
games, it should be mentioned were runaways and two of them were much closer
than the majority of his games. And it’s not like he – or the audience – wasn’t
having a lot of fun watching him dazzle us with his superb play and gestures
even though the former was letting us enjoy the latter.
But eventually Austin’s
luck ran out in the form of Scarlett Simms. Scarlett got off to a faster start
then him in the Jeopardy round and eventually built a lead that two correct
responses on Daily Doubles could not overcome. In this case he made five
mistakes along with 21 correct responses where as Scarlett only made one
mistake and gave 25 correct responses. She finished with $21,200 at the end of
Double Jeopardy to his $16,600. But super-champs to that point he made Scarlett
work for her win.
The Final Jeopardy
category was MOVIE HISTORY. “A 1947 FBI chided this holiday film’s ‘attempt to
discredit bankers…a common trick used by Communists.” Austin knew the correct
response: “What is It’s a Wonderful Life?” He wagered almost everything,
putting him in the lead with $33,150. Scarlett however also knew the correct
response and her wager of $12,001, gave her $33,001 and unseated Austin after
12 wins and $411,000.
He was now tied for
fifth in most games won and money won. The difference was that in 12 games
Austin had won nearly as much as Matt Jackson had won in thirteen and was very
close to Julia Collins and David Madden had in 20 and 19. He’d averaged just
over $34,000 a win in each of his victories, which at that point was more
dominant then any super-champion in the show’s history. He didn’t have to look
like he was having fun; this ‘humble New York bartender’ was clearly having
fun. The fact that he had more than enough money to quit his day job and chose
to keep at it made viewers like myself love him all the more.
It was less than a
month before the Tournament of Champions took place but while Austin was
clearly a heavy favorite (fan as much as anything) it was difficult to look at
the line-up and say he had a clear advantage. Considering that there were far
more six game winners competing in this tournament then five game winners and
that every single competitor in this tournament had already won at least
$100,000 to argue that players like Austin or Seth had an advantage because
they’d won so many games would seem to be hubris. This was, if anything, a
stronger field than the 2014 Tournament of Champions which had two
super-champions in it. Austin was the first to learn this.
In his quarterfinal
match he faced off against David Clemmons, the winner of the 2017 Teachers
Tournament and Alan Lin, who’d won six games. Almost from the start of the
match Alan was the dominant player and Austin was struggling throughout. At the
end of the Jeopardy round Alan had a huge lead with $8800 while Austin was in a
distant second with $600.
Austin got a chance to
make his move early in Double Jeopardy when he found the first Daily Double in
BOATS & SHIPS. Still in a distant second he wagered the $3400 he had. It
didn’t go well:
“A pirogue is one type
of this, a canoe made from one log.” Austin fumbled before guessing: “What is a
kayak?” It was actually a dugout canoe. He did his best to regroup but the
damage was done: Alan ran away with the game and had $19,605. Austin had just
$8000. Austin’s only hope for getting to the semi-final was through the wild
card.
The category was 19th
CENTURY POETS: “In 1824 he was refused burial in Westminster Abbey for
‘questionable morality’, in 1969 he got a memorial stone there.” Austin knew
the correct response: “Who was Lord Byron?” He wagered everything, giving him
$16,000. Now all he could do was wait.
Seth Wilson’s turn came
the next day. He was up against Lisa Schlitt, who’d also won 6 games and Sam
Deutsch, the winner of the 2016 College Championship. This match was far closer
then Austin’s. Lisa moved out to a big lead thanks to responding correctly in
the Daily Double in the Jeopardy round and finished it with $9200. But Seth was
not out of the tunning with $5600 and Sam was not far off with $4400.
Lisa managed to add to
her lead when she got to the first Daily Double but Austin was close with $8000
when he found the other Daily Double in WHERE & WHEN? “The Constitution
gets its first state ratification: State, year.” He got the state right – Delaware
– but thought the year was 1788 instead of 1787. It cost him $2500 and dropped
him into third. He was still there at the end of Double Jeopardy but it was far
from a distant third: He had $9900 to Sam’s $12,400 and Lisa’s $14,400.
The Final Jeopardy
category was THE GREAT DEPRESSION: “A street-corner occupation that saved many
in the Depression was aided by a 1930 tops-in-the-U.S. crop in this state.”
Only Lisa knew the correct state: “What is Washington?” (As Alex said: “They
had a bumper crop of apples that year.” Seth thought of a farm state but it was
Iowa and he lost $4501 to dropped him to $5399. Viewers at home (but not Seth)
knew that whatever hope he had of a wild-card spot was gone. Austin’s, however,
would be more than high enough to qualify for the semi-finals.
Austin’s semi-final
opponents were 2017 College Champion (and self-proclaimed spiciest meme-lord)
Lilly Chin and Andrew Pau, who’d won more money in his six games then Buzzy
Cohen had in 9. Austin had his hands
full.
Both he and Andrew
fought it out the entire Jeopardy round for the lead with Lilly making some
major gains in the second half. Austin
had a narrow lead when the end of round buzzer rang with $6800 to Andrew’s
$6000 and Lilly’s $4600.
Andrew got off to a
rocket like start in Double Jeopardy getting the first five clues correct and
finding the first Daily Double in WORLD PLACE NAMES on the sixth clue of the
round. At that point he already had $13,600, twice Austin’s total. Perhaps wanting
to try and put the game away early he bet $8000 and it backfired. He dropped to
$5600.
Double Jeopardy became
a war of attrition, coming down to who made the fewest mistakes. In that sense
Austin did the best, only giving one incorrect response to 18 correct answers.
Andrew gave 16 and gave two incorrect ones and Lilly gave thirteen correct
responses but gave four incorrect ones. In both cases it was the incorrect
Daily Doubles that decided the game. Austin finished Double Jeopardy with $9200
to Andrew’s $7200 and Lilly’s $6800.
The Final Jeopardy
category in this wafer-thin close match was VICE PRESIDENTS. “A biography of
this 19th century VP traces his family to a German town made famous
in a folk tale about children.” Austn knew the correct response: “Who is
Hannibal Hamlin?” (Lincoln’s first vice President, whose name was descended
from Hamelin, the town of the Pied Piper.) This response would be decisive in
his qualifying for the finals.
The 2017 Tournament of
Champions Finals is known for the inveterate clowning of Austin, Alan Lin and
Buzzy Cohen which Alex noted: “I’m dealing with three monkeys here.” Lost under the antics was the brilliance of the
three champions who had already combined to win 27 games and just under
$700,000. The fact that Alan had already faced Austin and soundly thrashed him
added a competitiveness to these finals that one rarely sees. And it also
continued the tradition of having two of the hardest Final Jeopardys possible
which stumped all three champions, myself and no doubt countless viewers at
home.
In the Jeopardy round
of Game 1 Austin took an early lead and managed to hold it throughout. He
finished with $4800 to Buzzy’s $3000 and Alan’s $2400.
Austin held his lead
for awhile in Double Jeopardy and then went to the category TRIPLE RHYME TIME.
After no one got the $400 clue, he said: “This is going to be terrible.”
Naturally the first Daily Double was in the very next clue in that category.
Nevertheless he wagered $2800:
“A happy 10K for women
in habits.”
Austin: Okay, I’m gonna
put it in the right…What is a nun fun run, ooh, a fun run…oh, God. What is a
nun fun run?
Alex ended his
suffering. “All three were acceptable.” Austin went up to $9600. He maintained
his lead for awhile but then he found the other Daily Double in PLACE ‘MAT’S.
At the time he had $12,800 and wagered $4800.
“Olive you should know
that this capital of the Greek department of Messenia is a major fruit market.”
Austin said: Marco
Polo, I have no idea.
After Alex revealed it
was Kalamata he added: “Olive’ at the beginning of the clue was a very
important part.
Austin was honest. “I
understand it. I just didn’t get it.
After that Alan went on
a tear to take the lead and finished Double Jeopardy with $14,400 to Austin’s
$10,000. Buzzy had struggled throughout the game and had only $4200.
The Final Jeopardy
category was INVENTIONS. “When Time Magazine named it Invention of the Year in
2007, it was described as too slow, too big, pretty & touchy feely.”
No one gave the correct
answer though Austin came the closest – and then backed away from it. He wrote
down: “What is the iPhone?” crossed it out and wrote down “iPad” instead.” As
Alex pointed out, he should’ve stuck with his first choice because it was the
iPhone. Alan wrote down the iPad as well and Buzzy wrote down the Tesla model
S. I’m note sure what I thought it was: I think I was torn between both of
Austin’s guesses.
Austin ended up
wagering the least of all three players. He lost $3500. Buzzy bet the $4200 he
had and Alan lost $5600. At the end of Day
Alan was in the lead with $8800 to Austin’s $6500 and while Buzzy had
nothing, if he played well in Game 2 he had more than a fighting chance.
In the Jeopardy round
of Game 2 Austin got off to a fast start when he found the Daily Double in the
MUSIC GROUPS DEFINED. He bet the $1800 he had: “On a standard piano, there are
36 of these, sharps & flats.” Austin knew they were the Black Keys and
doubled his score. Alan narrowed the gap however and he and Austin spent the
rest of the round fighting for the lead. When the end of round buzzer rang
Austin still had it $6200 to Alan’s $5600 while Buzzy had $2800.
Austin held his lead
for a little while in Double Jeopardy but then Buzzy and Alan began to take
command. When Buzzy found one of the Daily Doubles early in the round, he had
$10,800. Knowing the ground he needed to make up he bet everything and it worked
out for him. Alan got to the other Daily Double later in the round, bet the
$10,400 he had – and it didn’t go his way.
When the end of round
buzzer range, Buzzy had $25,600 in front of him. Alan had only $1200 and had no
chance of anything other than second place. However Austin had $10,200 and was
still alive. If he got Final Jeopardy right and wagered enough and Buzzy was
incorrect, he would win the Tournament of Champions.
The Final Jeopardy
category sounded deceptively easy: STATE CAPITALS. It may have been the most
difficult deciding Final Jeopardy in a TOC for a very long time.
“A state capital since
1805, its name begins with the last four letters of the state’s name.” No one
could come close to a guess, though Austin made an effort when he wrote down:
“What is Indianapolis?” That cost him $10,000. The correct response was Montpelier,
the capital of Vermont. Buzzy didn’t take it seriously and lost $1301. As a
result he won the Tournament of Champions and a quarter of a million dollars.
By risking everything Austin had a combined total of $6700, which ended with
him in third place and $50,000.
The next article will
be a brief interlude in which I state my personal reflections on the
super-champions just prior to the rise of James Holzhauer.
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