Games People Watch

The chatter about who should host Jeopardy! — and the amazing run by Matt Amodio — got me to watch the show again a few times and I had a few thoughts about it…

  1. Mayim Bialik is fine as the host.  Lots of people would have been fine.  The guy they gave it to — Mike Richards — was on the low end of "fine." I dunno if they've decided to give Ms. Bialik the permanent job if/when her other gig ends but what we've learned from this is that it doesn't really matter very much who hosts it. The show is about the game itself and the contestants — in that order.
  2. The show is kinda boring when one contestant's running away with it. If we go into Final Jeopardy! and I have $20,000 and my opponents each have $4000, the only way I won't win is if I'm stupid enough to wager more than $11,999.00. And if I'm smart enough to be that far ahead, I'm smart enough not to do that. The end of the show was usually anti-climactic with Amodio way out in front and it's the same way with the new ongoing champion, Jonathan Fisher.
  3. Since everything in the world now has to be a "they're not telling you the truth" conspiracy theory, folks are saying Amodio threw the game in which he lost. My pal Paul Harris explains why that's ridiculous.
  4. And Paul doesn't mention another possible explanation for why Amodio lost when he did. Maybe the two other players that day — Fisher and Jessica Stephens — were just plain better at the game than he was.

I can feel my interest in the show ebbing again and I probably won't watch it much in the coming weeks. But there's one nice thing about Jeopardy!: It ain't going anywhere. It will always be there when I do feel like tuning in.