Comments on: What is “People who are not Ken Jennings”?: Other Notable Jeopardy! Contestants

By: Peter Hickey

Peter Hickey — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 00:36:31 +0000

What about Cliff Claven from “Cheers”?

By: Wayne

Wayne — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 19:39:09 +0000

@ concubro–

if it is such common knowledge, why is it so many contestants make horrible bets on the final?

By: Tarn

Tarn — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 17:44:12 +0000

I can’t recommend Prisoner of Trebekistan highly enough. I picked it up hoping for a few tips that would help me do better on the test, and ended up laughing and crying and re-reading and telling everyone I know to read it too. Such a great book!

By: Tanya

Tanya — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 17:11:50 +0000

I liked the wedding anecdote. I am ordained minister and I performed a wedding this past October on the exact anniversary of the day when I won on Jeopardy!

By: Concubro

Concubro — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 11:53:02 +0000

I was on Jeopardy! a few years ago. Missed a $400 question about white water rafting…two months after I’d been WHITE WATER RAFTING! Caused me to be $200 behind going into Final Jeopardy! which we all answered correctly. About $20,000 difference in prize money. Still kicking myself.

On a side note, I was in second place going into Final Jeopardy! and bet strategically to give myself an extra chance to win if we all missed it. When my wager was revealed, Alex said, “Ooooh, interesting wager.” Really Alex? Dude – it’s pretty common knowledge how to bet in Final Jeopardy!

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 15:24:35 +0000

I don’t think the guy on the left in the three way tie is kicking himself at all. He intentionally bid a low amount to create the tie. Apparently during the commercial break before Final Jeopardy, someone had asked if there ever had been a 3-way tie, to which Alex responded no to. The guy bid the 2600 with the possibility that this could happen and he’d secure his spot in Jeopardy lore.

I watch a lot of Jeopardy and the college tournament was actually at my alma mater, Madison this year, unfortunately I couldn’t audition for it, because I graduated last year, but it was a jolly good time to just go and watch the thing.

By: Andy Saunders

Andy Saunders — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:47:39 +0000

Randy:

Larissa’s 6-game winnings were ~225K. She was just shy of $180K in her first 5.

Remember also that back in 1990, though, when Frank was on the show, the clue values were half of the level that they are today. Doubling Frank Spangenberg’s total would put his 5-day total at over $205,000 – which has not been passed by anybody over 5 days.

In nominal dollars, though, Frank’s 5-day record fell to Brian Weikle in 2003 (which was then passed by Ken, and then Larissa).

By: Randy MacDonald

Randy MacDonald — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:41:36 +0000

About the 5-day record of $102K: didn’t Larissa Kelly blow that away? The j-archive website says her 5-day winnings were ~$225K.

By: Julie

Julie — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:37:11 +0000

I wonder how many times the guy on the left in the three-way-tie has kicked himself for not betting $1 more. It’s obvious from the bets and final scores that he would have won for sure, even with the wrong answer, if he had increased his bet by $1.

By: Ira

Ira — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 19:27:37 +0000

I did the online tryouts once and, frustratingly, found it to be several orders of magnitude more difficult than Jeopardy itself.

My American history teacher in high school made it on the show. He didn’t last past his first episode, but he did manage to humiliate an irritatingly cocky opponent who had been on a three-day streak; he got the Final Jeopardy right while the champ did not.