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Doctor Q

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Jeopardy update

Tonight, a blind 17-year-old named Kerri, from Bethpage, New York, played in the Jeopardy! teen tournament. She got on the show by placing in the top ten in the New York tryouts last year, and then being selected from among the finalists.

Kerri was given a card to read the categories in Braille, but she had to listen to clues without seeing them and somehow kept track of what dollar value they were on. This put her at a disadvantage, so she wasn't able to react as quickly after Alex read the answers. She ended up doing OK, but came in third. She typed her "Final Jeopardy" question on a keyboard, and got it right.

I'm impressed by all of the teens on the show. In an interview before the show was taped, Kerri said that her favorite Jeopardy! categories would be literature, books, pop culture, musicals, history, and geography. That's pretty well-rounded! (If it were me, I'd pick computers and, um, er, ... computers).

Her dad, who is a firefighter, encouraged her to try out for the show. The online version of Jeopardy! didn't work with her screen reader software, so she practiced with her brother instead. After college, she hopes to work as a middle school or high school history teacher. Good luck, Kerri!

The first blind contestant on Jeopardy! was Eddie Timanus, who won five games in 1999 and got $69,700 and a new car, which he couldn't drive!
 

wdlove

macrumors P6
Oct 20, 2002
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Thank you Doctor Q for informing us of such a heart warming story. What she has accomplished is very impressive. Something like that give more hope for our future. Kerri will have a very bright future ahead of her.
 

Doctor Q

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Just when you thought it was safe to forget Ken Jennings, he's going to be back on Jeopardy! in May.

Since February 9 they have been broadcasting a 15-week Tournament of Champions, pitting almost 150 five-time champions of the last 21 years against either other. Two winners will play Ken Jennings for a grand prize of $2 million.

Round One: 135 players.

Round Two: 45 winners from Round One plus 9 seeded players, including Brad Rutter, who was the previous top-money-winner before Ken Jennings.

Round Three: 18 winners from Round Two.

Semifinals: 3 winners from Round Three in a two-day point total match. Another 3 winners from Round Three in another two-day point total match.

Finals: 2 winners from the Semifinals play Ken Jennings in a three-day point total match.

The Finals, with the return of Ken Jennings, will be broadcast May 23, 24, 25.

Maybe the match has already been played!
 

Lacero

macrumors 604
Jan 20, 2005
6,637
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There is hope for nerds with tons of useless trivia answers after all! Good luck KJ!
 

wdlove

macrumors P6
Oct 20, 2002
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I hope that Ken will be successful in the final match. The broadcasting of the show is good timing. It will be over just in time for us to focus on Steve and WWDC.
 

Lacero

macrumors 604
Jan 20, 2005
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Sweeps week, obviously. Bring on KJ, he'll get the ratings up for the show. It has been slipping ever since his ouster.
 

Doctor Q

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Lacero said:
Sweeps week, obviously. Bring on KJ, he'll get the ratings up for the show. It has been slipping ever since his ouster.
I guess KJ is a double-edged sword for the Jeopardy! show.

Initially, Ken Jennings brought attention and viewers to the show. Then people here were reporting that the show was losing viewers because there was no longer any contest; you knew Ken would win each night. Then interest swelled with rumors that he lost, and again when that event was broadcast.

So here we go again. Presumably, anticipation will rise for Ken's airdate, and then drop off again. The show sponsors must feel that roller coaster effect!
 

vieoray

macrumors regular
Feb 18, 2005
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Doctor Q said:
The first blind contestant on Jeopardy! was Eddie Timanus, who won five games in 1999 and got $69,700 and a new car, which he couldn't drive!

just wanted to add that eddie timanus was part of the tournament jeopardy has going on. he was on last wednesday's show. he fell behind in the first round but rallied late in the game to come within $5000 of the leader. in final jeopardy, he got the question right and risked all of his money, but the leader also got it correct and wagered enough to win.

unlike the blind girl that was on the show earlier this year, they gave eddie a brail card with the categories and played an audible 'beep' after the clue was read so he would know when to ring in.

since he had been on the show last time, he fell in love and got married. he said he found his wife through a yahoo chat about jeopardy. pretty cool guy, an inspiration.
 

Mechcozmo

macrumors 603
Jul 17, 2004
5,215
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ThomasJefferson said:
Who is Ken Jennings?

This linkety is to a Wikipedia article on him.

This linkety is to a googlism search.

Thomas Veil said:
Holy crap, this thread is still alive? What, did Congress intervene to keep it going? ;)

Ooohhh.... don't make comments like that because we don't want to get this thread headed in the wrong direction.... an all out war isn't something we want...
 

Doctor Q

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Ken is back!

The Jeopardy! "Ultimate Tournament of Champions" has been going on for 15 weeks and at last has reached the finals, where the two winners of the previous rounds play Ken Jennings for the highest three-day point total.

The broadcasts start in about 24 hours, with shows Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The winner gets $2 million, 2nd place is $500,000, and third place is $250,000, making the final day the largest single payday in TV game show history.

The three contestants:

Ken Jennings: Won $2,520,700 last year, making him the biggest money-winner in game show history. He was put directly into the finals of the Ultimate Tournament, to play the two challengers who earned that right by winning the previous rounds over almost 150 other past champions.

Brad Rutter: His $1,155,102 in 2002 made him Jeopardy!'s first millionaire winner. He hosts his own quiz show in Pennsylvania. So far, he's earned $100,000 in his come-back run.

Jerome Vered: He won $96,801 in 1992. Back then, you could win no more than five times, and he was undefeated for his five. At the time, he set the record for one-day winnings with $34,000. He's got $139,801 so far in the current tournament.

Will Ken be rusty or will he hit the ground running? The show promoters are promising "nail-biting competition, lightning-fast dexterity, savvy wagering skills, and some of the toughest questions in Jeopardy!'s history." Sounds good to me.

I haven't been watching the build-up shows, but I'll be watching for the next three nights. Go, Ken!
 

jefhatfield

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Jul 9, 2000
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i watched many of the shows leading up to this and while they were good, neither contestant could clean out entire sections the way ken jennings did in his extraordinary run

ken will have to be way, way off for either of the challengers to beat him

the tournament of champions was usually close with the three daily contestants on any given day being neck in neck until the final question

ken jennings usually had the thing sewn up in the first 12 minutes or so and on a bad day, he usually had the thing won by the final round
 

wdlove

macrumors P6
Oct 20, 2002
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I happy to know that you are keeping up with this breaking current event. We should be behind our guy Ken.
 

shambolic

macrumors regular
Oct 27, 2003
126
5
Staten Island, NY
Go Brad, Go!

I guess I'll be the one to break up the united MacRumors Ken fan club.. :rolleyes:

I do have my reasons, though. My wife and I have been watching the Ultimate Tournament of Champions religiously since it started (missed maybe one episode), as she herself appeared on the show in 1993 and was beaten into second place on the Final Jeopardy question, by a certain John Cuthbertson, who ended up as a five day champion, qualifying him for the Ultimate Tournament.

And just as he managed to edge out a win all those years ago, he started to do the same thing in the UTOC over and over, making it into the second round, then the "Elite 18", then the semifinal, each time sneaking through in Final Jeopardy... which displeased my wife to no end! She's been waiting for him to get his comeuppance for over 11 years now, and so certainly wasn't happy for his success.

FINALLY, on Friday, with John carrying a lead into the second day of the two-day semi-final, Brad saw off his challenge. So now we're cheering Brad all the way! :D

Should be an interesting match, I would be surprised if Ken gets everything his own way. Brad is very quick on the buzzer, and can get into a Ken-like groove at times. Jerome - well, he's a smart guy, but hasn't given me the impression that he can dominate. We shall see...
 

Doctor Q

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shambolic said:
Jerome - well, he's a smart guy, but hasn't given me the impression that he can dominate. We shall see...
Being a winner from longer ago, Jerome's knowledge base might be skewed less toward recent events. Any of them might know the name of a river or the author of a classic book or what colors are in a certain country's flag, but I wonder if Jerome knows less about the 90s and 00s than Ken and Brad.
 

shambolic

macrumors regular
Oct 27, 2003
126
5
Staten Island, NY
Possible spoiler alert - discusses 5/23 show

If tonight's show was anything to go by (don't read on if it hasn't aired in your timezone and you want to be surprised), it should be a great week of competition.

Ken got off to his usual fast start, while Brad was misfiring in the first half of the game, just as he did in the first game of the semi-final. And then it got interesting - Brad got onto a roll (you can always tell when the players are in a groove, they start getting chatty with Alex Trebek), and Jerome - well, my wife has been reading the official Jeopardy! forums and a lot of folks there think he might surprise us all. Jerome is the ultimate "rebound guy" - he's not the fastest on the buzzer, but if anyone gets a question wrong, especially a high-value one, he's in there with the right answer, which can be a real killer (winning money at the same time that your opponents are losing it).

At the end of the show, all three players had somewhere around $16k, give or take a couple of thousand either way. My inkling is that Ken will be the final victor, but we shall continue to root for Brad...
 

~Shard~

macrumors P6
Jun 4, 2003
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Just watched the episode a little while ago - it was good, glad to see everyone finished pretty evenly, and ken was in third no less. The next 2 shows should be fun to watch!
 
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