Friday, February 11, 2005
Ultimate Tournament of Champions, Day Two
No let-up on the Jeopardy tourneys, as they head straight from the teen round-up to what they’re calling the “Ultimate Tournament of Champions”. 144 previous tourney champs or five-time winners are facing off in a blood-splattered melee of relentless intellectual prowess. Eventually only two shall remain standing, and they will get to face off against the synthetic Mormon brain of former media sensation and current immigrant smuggler Ken Jennings. It’s like Thanksgiving day for nerds, but only if they came back from the dead.
The shit began on Wednesday, in an episode even more forgettable than your typical Jeopardy. Three warriors from times long gone came back and slugged it out with their minds. I think one of them lost their hair. And one of them was in Groundhog Day, I think. But it was an uneventful half-hour, full of questions that were surprisingly not as difficult as we had expected. Some man, or woman, or somebody, won, I guess, but I can’t remember. I do know that the Final Jeopardy question was Ulysses S. Grant, and that I got it wrong.
Last night was a step in the right direction. The questions were harder, especially a category on conductors that reminded me of the Jeopardy of my youth, when cultural categories were generally about opera and classical music. Nowadays every other question is about Kiersten Dunst. They had a good range of contestants, too, including the earliest five-game winner in the tourney, John Genova, Jeopardy Class of ’84. I think he finished with $800. Rachael Schwarzt had the run of the joint early on; the first woman to ever win a Tournament of Champions, back in 1994, Schwarz took an early lead, and probably would have won had it not been for the Daily Doubles. She answered more questions correctly than the eventual winner in both rounds, but got her one Daily Double wrong. Michael Rankins, a preacher from somewhere or the other, who was a five-game winner in 1988, lucked into two Daily Doubles. Both times he wagered big, and twice reaped a whirlwind of digital cash. He was able to hold off Schwartz’s persistent advances and emerge victorious. Way to go, Michael!
Tonight three more ghosts from Trebek’s past return to tolerate him. Unfortunately none of them are his mustache. They briefly introduced them at the end of last night’s program, and of course they all had the unseemly countenance and sickly disposition of the professional pseudo-intellectual. Let’s hope they can provide some excitement.
I like Jeopardy, because I like yelling at my TV set.
No let-up on the Jeopardy tourneys, as they head straight from the teen round-up to what they’re calling the “Ultimate Tournament of Champions”. 144 previous tourney champs or five-time winners are facing off in a blood-splattered melee of relentless intellectual prowess. Eventually only two shall remain standing, and they will get to face off against the synthetic Mormon brain of former media sensation and current immigrant smuggler Ken Jennings. It’s like Thanksgiving day for nerds, but only if they came back from the dead.
The shit began on Wednesday, in an episode even more forgettable than your typical Jeopardy. Three warriors from times long gone came back and slugged it out with their minds. I think one of them lost their hair. And one of them was in Groundhog Day, I think. But it was an uneventful half-hour, full of questions that were surprisingly not as difficult as we had expected. Some man, or woman, or somebody, won, I guess, but I can’t remember. I do know that the Final Jeopardy question was Ulysses S. Grant, and that I got it wrong.
Last night was a step in the right direction. The questions were harder, especially a category on conductors that reminded me of the Jeopardy of my youth, when cultural categories were generally about opera and classical music. Nowadays every other question is about Kiersten Dunst. They had a good range of contestants, too, including the earliest five-game winner in the tourney, John Genova, Jeopardy Class of ’84. I think he finished with $800. Rachael Schwarzt had the run of the joint early on; the first woman to ever win a Tournament of Champions, back in 1994, Schwarz took an early lead, and probably would have won had it not been for the Daily Doubles. She answered more questions correctly than the eventual winner in both rounds, but got her one Daily Double wrong. Michael Rankins, a preacher from somewhere or the other, who was a five-game winner in 1988, lucked into two Daily Doubles. Both times he wagered big, and twice reaped a whirlwind of digital cash. He was able to hold off Schwartz’s persistent advances and emerge victorious. Way to go, Michael!
Tonight three more ghosts from Trebek’s past return to tolerate him. Unfortunately none of them are his mustache. They briefly introduced them at the end of last night’s program, and of course they all had the unseemly countenance and sickly disposition of the professional pseudo-intellectual. Let’s hope they can provide some excitement.
I like Jeopardy, because I like yelling at my TV set.
