Can't make most of XBiz because: THIS... IS... JEOPARDY!

Very cool. Hope he does well.

What is "You should have included the words....PICS or VIDEO" in your thread title.

Lets see what he can do

(threadviews*100)++

Well... tomorrow's show won't air until mid April... but with a little bit of luck, maybe he'll still be going strong.

Hey, the people who work on "Jeopardy!" don't wanna work on weekends any more than you do.

And I say this as a person who DID work on "Jeopardy!"

Good luck to your friend. There have been some high scores on "Jeopardy!" lately.

--t

Hehe... I can forgive the "Jeopardy" peeps... understand it fully there.

I was talking about the _Industry_ shows... like XBiz.

I like a party as much as the next guy... but I also work for a living!

And thanks for the luck - he knows he's up for some real competition... but I've known the guy as a close acquaintance for 20 years now - and am confident he'll do great... the guy's a repository of useful/useless trivia if there ever was one.

How'd your buddy do?

--t

Update please.

I missed the show.

I clicked this expecting an answer.

No worries, CDSmith - the show hasn't aired yet - and wont for a bit of time - I just went to the taping.

The way the Jeopardy privacy policy works, I can tell you how he did, or I can tell you the date he airs... but (as there's press lurking around) I can't tell ya both.

So, I figure I'll tell you how he did, and if anyone wants to know what date the episode airs to watch him yourself, hit me up on ICQ.

The experience was very cool: they tape 5 shows in a production day.

For the most part, no electronics were allowed in the building - as they wanted to prevent the whole electronic messaging headache, I'm sure. The audience is divided by a wall about little under 6' tall... Production guests, Gallery contestants (those that are there (or an alternate) for one of the 5 tapings that day, but not actually currently on stage), and Contestant Guests sit on the smaller side of the wall... taking up about 1/3 to 1/4 of the audience. The other side is for general ticket-holders. The entire audience is about 300 people - give or take.

At any rate, I could go on, but let's just say that the actual set is quite a bit smaller than I envisioned it.

As far as my buddy, he got up, and ended up a 1-Day champion after the day was done - taking home a nice chunk of change (just under 20k) for the hour-and-a-half he spent on stage.

The second game was kinda painful to watch as the main reason he didn't do as well was because he kept getting locked out. The way Jeopardy buzzers work, apparently, they open up the minute Alex finishes reading the 'answer'... if you ring in too early (talking split-seconds here), the system locks you out for 2 seconds before reinitializing your buzzer - giving the other contestants a huge window to ring in... from my vantage point, I could see him continually hitting the button early and the frustration building as -time and time again after the first commercial break - he got locked out.

He was kinda bummed about it - I know he was aiming for the "Tournament of Champions" but then I reminded him that out of 50,000 applicants, only 750-or-so are selected, and he was one of them... and then, out of those 750-or-so, less than 1/3 can say they're Champions.

Oh well... 20k for 2 hours work, along with "Jeopardy Champion" on the resume ain't all that bad.

Yeah... the thread got by me last night... up late, and working on a C++ assignment.

Thanks for the pointer, man.

Yep, you have to get in the habit of waiting until Trebec stops speaking before hitting that button. I see the odd contestant doing that thing where they are repeatedly hitting the button like rapid fire, all the while being locked out for hitting it too early. And for some strange reason once they start doing it they can't seem to get their head out of that zone, and they keep doing it question after question.

As frustrating as it is for the player it is almost more frustrating to watch as a viewer. You just want to hit the person with a bat to smarten them up. :D

quick question... how come I can post the name Ken Jennings or any other former contestant's name but you can't post your friend's name? (so we know who to watch for?) It's not like his name isn't going to be blasted into 10 million households once the show airs.

Umm because their episodes have already aired, while his has not.

You can talk about former Survivor winners too, but you'll get sued if you let the cat out of the bag before the season has finished airing.

Yes, I see now that D has already posted how the guy did. Had he not done that he could have said "watch for my friend, his name is __________" and there would be no conflict.


Btw, who wins Survivor this time around? :D

It's the host! After 15 seasons, they ran out of new twists.

LoL...

Yeah... and CDSmith... I have no problem letting you know his name and when he airs - so long as you give me, the world, and all that's holy a vow of silence on the issue, and hit me up on ICQ. :-)

In re: The "Jeopardy!" buzzers:

The buzzer system is hooked up with a number of controls. Of course, there's the lockout, where the contestant who gets in first locks out the other players. (Mark Goodson came up with that one.)

When I worked there, the light that cued the players was a halo light that circled the board (you can see it in the first post, looks like season 3 or 4) and one of the writers (who was on stage anyway) turned it on at the end of each clue, which was not a secret because the whole clue is right there for everybody to see. Little toggle switch. I ran it one day when the regular guy was sick and it was the most nerve-wracking day of my life.

The part about locking yourself out if you ring in early was in place when I was there. We never would have caught on if a winning contestant hadn't blabbed to Alex Trebek that repeated thumbing of the button was how he got in first. We put the kibosh on that pronto, at the beginning of season 2. Alex also thought it would be better if he could read the whole clue before the contestants could ring in. He was the producer, he could make those changes.

--t

Good Stuff!

Yeah, now-a-days I think they have what looks like rope-lighting along the sides.

The set does look quite a bit more modern. For instance: what you might not realize from watching it on T.V. is that all of those shapes and such appearing behind the contestants (as set decoration) are actually each set up at different depths behind the contestants... with the whole art-deco thing going about 12-15 feet deep. On Television, I think it looks like one seamless background on one surface.

There's also a huge monitor off to the left of the board - and that's where the contestants read the question in a larger-point text. That same area has the scoreboard on top of it as well... which you might have realized by noticing contestants usually looking in that direction on a "Daily Double" or what-have-you.

I figure when I finish my degree, I'll have time to bone up on the old trivia (U.S. Presidents in order, state/world capitols, etc) and give the show a try, myself.