Jeopardy! Airs at different times, but the Internet is often the earliest source

[PokerFace]

Now that King James (not Lebron James), James Holzhauer, is winning and winning, I started watching Jeopardy again.

It airs at different times throughout the world, but as far as I can tell, it still generally pops up first online, somewhere between 8:30pm and 12:30am the day before it airs on regular TV. When it doesn't, I assume the group that's responsible for uploading it, simply was too busy, and thus uploads it later on (often after the regular TV airing unfortunately).

In the USA, the 2nd-earliest time of the day that Jeopardy apparently airs on regular TV is 10:30 am EST (the article linked below seems to mention the local start times) in Montgomery-Selma, Alabama. It's the first airing in the USA of the new episode, but the 1:37 am EST airing in Lafayette, Louisiana is certainly the episode from the previous evening, rather than the new one. Chicago's ABC affiliate, WLS, airs Jeopardy at 4:30 pm EST, and that one is definitely the new episode.

Although yesterday's (Tuesday May 28th) Jeopardy episode was not leaked online early (so I had to wait until 7:30 pm to watch it in Toronto), the Wednesday May 29th episode popped up around 9:30 pm Tuesday night, so I of course watched it (although I won't say what happened, you might be able to read between the lines, so perhaps you should wait until you watch tonight's episode before you continue reading below the line).

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Even though the Jeopardy studio audience isn't asked to sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure agreement), they seem to be willing to keep things quiet for now (most likely because James hasn't lost yet, or has he?), but when Ken Jennings lost in 2004, it was leaked shortly after the taping. The early-bird episode uploads are most likely sourced via Satellite backhauls/wild feeds mostly used by foreign countries like Canada, to record and then later add in their own TV logos and commercials.

So, if you've been watching Jeopardy lately with somebody who seems to be answering more questions correctly than he/she normally does, perhaps that somebody has been cheating via the early-bird internet uploads. Consider yourself warned.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/enter...503-story.html

[CDN Viewer]

Now that King James (not Lebron James), James Holzhauer, is winning and winning, I started watching Jeopardy again.

Interesting, for me its been the exact opposite- I tuned out when the gambler started winning and winning and have not watched since and don't plan to watch again until he is off the show. I don't understand why they don't put limits on how many times a person can win- how much money are they going to let him win, millions?? I don't like the way he plays and I don't understand why anyone would go on as a contestant while this guy is still there because you have very little chance of winning. He starts from the bottom, answering all the big money questions and somehow finds all the daily doubles (luck or ?) and then the game is pretty much over as the other 2 contestants have no way of catching him- not very fun or entertaining to watch IMO. It looks like I am in the minority as if others felt the same and viewership was declining because of him taking over the show, they would make him lose to get rid of him.

[PokerFace]

The difference now is that each episode is now more like an "event" rather than a typical game show. Heavyweight boxers don't always fight against worthy opponents, but it just takes one Buster Douglas to land the "lucky" blow to end the winning streak.

I never liked the fact that they have to answer with "What is," "Who is,", etc., or else they don't get the points. And it would be nice if the name of the category popped up in the top corner of the clue while Alex read it. James says only part of the category name each time, since he moves at super speed.

I first watched James win on the US version of The Chase several years ago, so his odd forced smile with his all of his teeth displayed wasn't new to me. His skill with the buzzer, as well as the fact that he rarely makes any mistakes, allows him to quite often find the Daily Doubles (which are not always at the bottom, and more often appear one row up from the bottom, as I believe the stats show) and control the board.

It's quite funny to watch some of the other contestants pound away at the buzzer trying to buzz in before him, mostly because they want the audience to know that they knew the answer, but King James just beat them to it.

There used to be a 5-game winning limit, as well as a winning-cash limit, but no more. And now that the dollar values on the board have increased from what they first were, the game strategy dictates that you should try to maximize each potential win, rather than try to win smaller amounts for each potential victory. It's a gamble that has paid off very well for King James. I really doubt that he is going to beat the 74-game winning streak by Ken Jennings, but James is now very close to besting the dollar winnings amassed by Ken Jennings.

It's event television that will soon most likely be spoiled early, once King James loses and the results are leaked. I don't go out of my way looking for spoilers, but once he loses, I assume that it will pop up everywhere, making it almost impossible to be surprised when he finally loses. I think that's why I'm always grateful to see the early-bird episodes leak, even though it's probably not going to matter once the details of his future loss are spilled. And if they've already been spilled, I certainly don't want to know.

#What is crying over spilt milk?

https://www.theatlantic.com/letters/...letter/588418/

Excerpts from the above article link:

As a former five-time Jeopardy champ in Season 1, Michael Day is very surprised that no one has adopted James Holzhauer’s “maximize your winnings per show” strategy until now.

More from Michael Day:

"It seems like betting big on Daily Doubles—especially if you like the category—and risking a loss is what will maximize your expected winnings. You’ll likely have a shorter run, but you’ll win a lot more money per show.

Maybe it took a game-theory guy like Holzhauer to figure that out. With this strategy, I think he has a good shot at beating Jennings’s overall earnings, but I don’t see him winning anywhere near the 74 consecutive games Jennings won.

It sure makes Jeopardy more exciting, though. After about 12 or 13 years of never watching the game I appeared on three different times—first a run of five wins, then a Tournament of Champions, and finally the Ultimate Tournament of Champions—I’m watching again."

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https://www.theatlantic.com/entertai...r-lose/587878/

Excerpts from the above article link:

James Holzhauer became the fastest-ever contestant on the show to earn $1 million in prize money.

King James: “A particular vulnerability is that I can wipe out my entire score with one missed Daily Double, but I could also lose by failing to uncover any of the Daily Doubles at all, or just running into the wrong opponent at the wrong time.”

The game-show experts stressed that the integrity of Jeopardy is unassailable, and that the existence of cheating or bad-faith manipulation is out of the question. Still, there are ways the producers could think about trying to oust Holzhauer, or at least reduce the amount he wins each episode. (A representative of Jeopardy told me that the show’s producers wouldn’t comment on Holzhauer’s performance while shows he’s on are airing.)

One strategy might be to figure out Holzhauer’s weakest categories, and load up the board—and, ideally, Daily Doubles and the Final Jeopardy clue—with them. But David Hammett (who has worked as a mathematical consultant for game shows such as The $100,000 Pyramid and The Weakest Link) thinks this would be difficult to pull off. “Those [categories] seem so few and far between. You certainly can’t make an entire game out of those,” he says. “It would probably be (a) impossible and (b) it would just come off looking very awkward.”

What about making the questions harder? Hammett says it’s not unheard of for producers to start adjusting a show’s difficulty if it’s, say, running over budget. But harder clues would likely only play to Holzhauer’s advantage, given that his trivia expertise appears to be deeper and broader than many of his opponents’.

Mark Labbett, the Beast (from The Chase), proposed a twist on this idea. “Do you want to know the best way to stop a superstar quizzer?,” he said. “Make it easier.” A trivia show that asks, for example, about the capital of California or the president who issued the Emancipation Proclamation would erase some crucial advantages of a player like Holzhauer. “It just becomes what we call a cavalry charge,” Labbett said. “Everyone knows the answer—it’s just who hits the button first.” (Though, of course, Holzhauer is usually the first to do so.)

Labbett also discussed the possibility of bringing on another elite contestant, a sort of assassin, to take Holzhauer down. But this would have its problems too. “Then you’ve got a new apex predator. How do you get rid of him?” Labbett said.

Given that these options are not only unlikely to be put into practice but also ineffective, Holzhauer’s streak will probably last until he has a bad day (and someone else has a very good one). When that day comes—if that day comes—Holzhauer will be left with the question of what to do with his newfound fame. Jennings, since his own run on the show, has fashioned a career as an author and a podcaster, and hasn’t restricted himself to the subject of trivia. Holzhauer could go back to gambling on sports in Las Vegas, but Bob Boden, a TV executive who has worked on dozens of game shows, says that Holzhauer might be able to go on to write books, like Jennings, or perhaps pursue a career in television.

In fact, Boden was the producer of The Chase, the show on which Labbett had to contend with Holzhauer. Watching from the control room, “we were dumbfounded by how well he did,” Boden remembers. So dumbfounded, in fact, that he later had Holzhauer audition to join the show as a colleague of the Beast.

Which is to say, Holzhauer will probably have options. But first, he has to lose.

[PokerFace]

I assume that all those who care, have already watched yesterday's episode of Jeopardy.

I'll take spoilers for $2000, Alex.

If not, go watch it before you read the rest of this post.

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It's a good thing I started writing my previous post when I did, because by the time I finished researching and reading it, I noticed that Monday's early-bird episode had been available since around 2:20 pm Saturday. Had I waited until around 7pm to do the Jeopardy research, I would have noticed the spoiler Google headline with the YouTube video title of: James Holzhauer loses on Jeopardy!

It was purely a coincidence that I posted on Saturday, in the early afternoon, BEFORE noticing that the Monday episode was already up and ready to be watched. I only ended up watching it late Saturday night after the hockey game because I assumed that King James was going to win anyway. While I was watching the episode, I still expected him to somehow win in the end because I was still assuming that he wasn't going to lose until the next round of taping in September, or whenever they do it.

A few hours later, more spoilers were appearing via Google, but that youtube video with the obvious spoiler title was no longer showing up on the first page, even though the video was still up on YouTube. By Sunday morning at 6:20 am ET, there were just under 2,000 views of that 3-minute YouTube video, but then a few hours later it was forced down by Sony. There was still an awful-looking 1-minute version of it on YouTube, that was filmed from in front of a TV via a smart phone I assume, and that was what many of the websites reporting on the King James loss were using.

The loss by King James came at the worst time of the week because the Monday episodes are often leaked on Friday or Saturday, increasing the odds that the results would be spoiled even before the first official Monday television airing at 10:30am in Alabama. Once Monday morning rolled around, many of the major newspapers, websites, alerts and radio stations mentioned the spoiler.

That Monday episode was taped on March 12th, and the results were leaked around that time, but Sony did a great job of removing the online leaks before most people saw them. However, some persistent people from the March 12th studio audience kept posting about the loss and describing it in detail. Sony had to remove them quickly, but the leaks kept being posted throughout late April and all of May. The fact that I didn't stumble across any spoilers is a good sign that most people were spared those very early spoilers thanks to a very busy Sony staff.

The Jeopardy team brought in their version of the Terminator to kill King James. A female Terminator so cool under pressure, that it didn't surprise me to later find out that she had previously written a thesis on the difficulty of Jeopardy questions. One of the questions in her thesis, was very similar to one that appeared on her episode (the picture of Apples and Oranges). Oh, and the Final Jeopardy category dealt with Shakespeare's Times ... a topic that King James once admitted wasn't one of his strong suits. He got the right answer, but it did appear that the Jeopardy team wanted him to really work for his money this time!

Anyway, it's time for the next chapter to be written. And yes, I've already watched today's early-bird episode several hours ago, so if I've already seen it, you can be sure that somebody is going to leak the results early. At some point, most people won't care about getting the results early, and that's when things will return to normal, even if the early-bird episode leaks continue.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-...pened-spoiler/
[How James Holzhauer’s astonishing ‘Jeopardy!’ run came to a dramatic end]

[CDN Viewer]

FINALLY!!

Although, reading about how he lost, I must concur with many people's comments about something fishy going on here (conspiracy theorists unite! ). It looks like he may have lost on purpose, his wager in final Jeopardy was too low seeing as how he was trailing the eventual game winner. He was cleaning house day after day, leaving his opponents far behind and now when a real threat emerges he only bets a measly $1399 when he is trailing- sorry not buying it.

[PokerFace]

That was the correct bet because it prevented the 3rd-place player (Sexton) from winning, even if that player bet it all.

Though shall not doubt King James! Bow to his greatness!

By the way, the Terminator's last name is pronounced by Alex and the announcer as if it was Betsure ... so betting is something both of them do well.

The Terminator bet enough to beat James even if he bet it all. It wouldn't be logical for her to have bet too low, so he had to assume that she would wager the "correct" amount. Sure, it was possible that the Terminator would make an "error" in her bet size, but based on how past Jeopardy players play, they often bet enough to keep the 2nd-place player from winning, regardless of how much they bet ... which is exactly what she did.

It might have looked like James was making a mistake, but if you read the article linked below, even James says the same thing. It's also what many of the past winners were saying this morning on the talk shows. It was as expected, the right bet size made by a professional gambler. The King was no fool; he was simply playing the odds in a manner that gave him arguably the best chance to win.

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2019/06/why...de-total-sense

The wager ensured that Holzhauer would win if he answered correctly and Boettcher [winner], did not, assuming she bet more than $1801 — which, again, contestants in her situation almost always do. Holzauer’s bet ensured he would also finish with at least $1 more than Sexton regardless of the Final Jeopardy! outcome.

So, to recap: Holzhauer knew he was done if Boettcher answered correctly. He bet $1,399 because it meant he would almost certainly win if she did not. He explained as much in an interview with Action Network:

“I knew I could only win if Emma missed Final Jeopardy, as there was no way she wouldn’t bet to cover my all-in bet,” Holzhauer told The Action Network. “So my only concern was getting overtaken by third place, and I bet just enough to make sure of locking him out. Betting big would have looked good for the cameras, but now I turn my straight bet (Emma misses) into a parlay (Emma misses and I get it right).”

It’s too bad, though, because a Jeopardy! match-fixing scandal masterminded by a professional sports gambler would make a far more interesting end to Holzhauer’s reign. Alas, he probably just got beat.

[PokerFace]

Extra Jeopardy Notes: Although King James got $2,000 for his 2nd-place finish, those consolation monetary prizes are NOT included in a Jeopardy champion's official final total. So, if James was just a few dollars short of breaking the total-money record still held by Ken Jennings, that $2,000 he got for losing would not have officially bested Ken's record amount. Plus, even if you were to unofficially count the consolation prize as part of the total "winnings," you would then also have to take into account Ken's 2nd-place consolation prize of $2,000 as well (which is not part of his official record winnings).

In 2014, after Ken Jennings finally lost, it was estimated that he would have to pay a little bit more than $1 million bucks in taxes. Which means that King James will most likely have to pay about the same thing, unless perhaps his tax bracket is much different (he's a professional gambler, so not sure how rich/poor he is on paper).

In 2016, all three contestants flunked out in a regular game (I assume that means that nobody made it to Final Jeopardy), and the two leading contestants each received $2,000 as a consolation prize, while the third place contestant received $1,000, and then three new players were brought in for the next episode.

In 2017, Manny Abell won a game with $1. Abell had $1,000 going into Final Jeopardy!, while the other two players each had $12,300 (12 times more than Abell's winnings). Unfortunately for them, they both wagered everything and lost, while Abell wagered $999. He gets to keep the dollar, but the losers got $2,000 and $1,000. However, since the winner gets to play again, he/she can still get that $1,000 last place consolation prize, bringing their 2-day total to at least $1,001. I assume that you don't have to get to the Final Jeopardy stage to get the $1,000 last place prize.

[PokerFace]

Based on some recent comments made by the Jeopardy producer, I obviously gave the Jeopardy people too much credit regarding their removal of spoilers. They apparently are not smart enough (or simply too lazy) to search Google with simple, common-sense search phrases that would have found the spoilers faster. They relied on others calling them about the leaks to youtube.

And many of those Facebook and other website leaks from several weeks ago were most likely deleted by wise moderators, well before the Jeopardy people even noticed anything.

There's also virtually no mention of the Satellite backhaul feeds as being the source of the spoiler video links. Heck, one of the main journalists writing about all things Jeopardy, assumed the video leak was probably put up by a local station affiliate employee (see link below). I assume that's possible, but since different Internet Groups upload the early-bird episodes, it does seem to be more likely related to the Satellite backhaul feeds that can be accessed by many more people at once.

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertai...poiler/590947/
[How Did Tonight’s Jeopardy Result Not Leak Sooner?]

However, the scrambling/encryption of these Satellite backhaul feeds, or using a different system like an all-digital, Internet-protocol store-and-forward delivery system for over-the air syndicated programming, that Warner Bros. and CBS often use, are just two ways that things can be done to make it more difficult for the "early-bird" internet pirates uploading the content ... but the scrambling aspect also makes it more likely that something could go wrong for the affiliates as well (even though Satellite wild feed, scrambling/encryption was going on as far back as the late 90's - I've seen ABC make use of it). Not only that, but the Internet-protocol method was initially only used for SD content, until an improved version was implemented for HD content ... but that improved HD version required new equipment which was a cost that most affiliates didn't want to bother with (thus Satellite delivery was still the "best" option). Nowadays, the conveniences of the HD system far outweigh the reasonable extra cost (apparently only the optional backup system would add extra cost), but I doubt that the US companies would pay for the basic equipment used by foreign countries like Canada. But if Canada is using the new 2018 (or thereabouts) HD internet-protocol system for its Jeopardy content, perhaps the Satellite backhauls are still needed by other countries, or used as another backup possibility for any station(s) requiring it. It's been at least 20 years since I watched an actual Satellite backhaul feed from a Satellite dish, but thanks to the Internet pirates, I can at least relive the good old days of early-bird viewing from time to time.

Extra Note: Back in 2017, at least one US affiliate had to apparently move its 6 pm airing of Jeopardy to 12:37 am the next morning, due to a late delivery of the Jeopardy episode (not sure what method of delivery or recording failed). However, the new episode of Wheel of Fortune aired in the proper 6:30pm local timeslot.

https://www.broadcastingcable.com/ne...platform-46814
[Ascent, CBS and Warner Bros. Create New Syndicated Delivery Platform]

NOTE: The above article was updated in 2018, but it appears to have been originally uploaded in 2009, which makes sense since Pathfire was sold to DG in 2007 as it was beginning to incorporate HD content/ads with its service. So, if the HD aspect of internet-protocol delivery has already been around for at least 10 years or longer (including Jeopardy distribution), it does surprise me that the Satellite backhauls are still around. Again, it might simply be a cost/convenience issue for foreign distribution to countries like Canada, but it would be sad (and hopefully unlikely) if Canada was still preparing content and commercial insertions like it did 10 years ago.

[CDN Viewer]

'The Terminator' that took down King James is playing in the same manner he was which means I will continue to tune out. I was wondering whether we might see some copycats spring up, trying to adapt the same style of play as James- now I have my answer. Not impressed, this style of play leads to blowouts where one player is way ahead of the other 2 and results in a less competitive game IMO. Its like watching a hockey game where its 7-0 after the first period- the game is pretty much over and there is no reason to continue watching. I like a good competitive match like a chess battle where all players are in contention and the outcome comes down to their replies to final Jeopardy.

[PokerFace]

If the episode is uploaded early by the pirates, the Jeopardy! Fan website posts the Winner and the stats for the game around 9 am ET. If it's not uploaded early (like the current episode), he waits until after it first airs on broadcast TV (so the results are posted between 11 am-11.30 am). I only checked the website recently, so perhaps the pattern of posting isn't as consistent as it was lately.

https://thejeopardyfan.com/category/recaps/season-35
[Spoilers - so avoid clicking if you don't want to know the results before the episode airs in your area.]

[PokerFace]

Might be a good idea to watch today's (Thursday July 18) new episode of Jeopardy.

#Life is like a box of chocolates ... you know the rest.