Bad show plug placement during Monday 11/29 'Jeopardy'?

[Nate Wesley]

Viewers in the Montgomery, AL area can watch Jeopardy at 9:30 AM (CST) on WAKA-TV 'CBS 8'. If it airs in the afternoons or the evenings where you live, pay attention to the episode that airs today (Monday 11/29).

(***WARNING: Nerdy complaint ahead***)

In the first Jeopardy round, there is a category called 'A Murder Investigation' with clues read by Kyra Sedgwick of TNT's The Closer. There's nothing particularly wrong with this until the category has been finished: Host Alex Trebek temporarily stops play to 'thank' Kyra, giving her show a plug for what feels like a quarter of a minute. Game play resumes, with the round eventually finishing with time running out--with one or two clues never being revealed to players.

Now, I know that 'portions of the show unrelated to game play' are usually edited from game shows, but Jeopardy is different because the rounds have a time limit (per segment, at least). But in the time it took for Trebek's shout-out to Sedgwick, at least one more clue could have been revealed in-time, affecting someone's score.

I've scoffed at people complaining about out-of-control show promos, screen bugs, etc. during shows before--but that particular plug seemed pretty egregious to me.

 

[azumanga]

What they could've done is give the shout-out and plug as they introduced the category before the round started -- this way, no precious time would be lost in gameplay.

 

[pab]

As someone who has been behind the podium, I can confirm that "Jeopardy" is played in real time. The portions "not affecting game play" are when they re-edit to take out when Alex mispronounces a word or stumbles in his reading.

As for the payola for "The Closer..." gotta pay the bills somehow when you're giving that much cash to a winner.

 

[vchimpanzee]

As someone who has been behind the podium, I can confirm that "Jeopardy" is played in real time. The portions "not affecting game play" are when they re-edit to take out when Alex mispronounces a word or stumbles in his reading.

This can't be right. What about when they have a Daily Double and the staff has magically discovered that a contestant's wrong answer was right or right answer was wrong, or something like that, or Alex misheard. Since they seem to have to resolve this with every Daily Double, or after each commercail break, they must have to stop for this research. It can't ALWAYS be done in the exact amount of time.

 

[imhomerjay]

He didn't say it was always the case. In fact, that's quite inherent in the post, and, yes, there are occassional (hardly daily) cases where a stopdown takes place to research something. I've seen it happen during taping; the fact is that the majority of times, and with those few examples, the show is done live to tape.

As for the plug, putting it first makes no difference--there is a finite time for the show, so you're taking the time from one place or another. It's hardly the first time a round--with or without a plug--has seen clues left on the board. Certain categories take longer than others--and the Clue Crue clues in particular can be a tad longer than normal clues--and as such you wind up those kinds of situations. It's a business--if there's a deal to provide the acknowledgement, those few seconds are relatively meaningless in the long run. If it's like most typcal rounds, a few quicker responses or fewer wrong answers would have provided the time to reveal the two last clues.

 

[vchimpanzee]

He didn't say it was always the case. In fact, that's quite inherent in the post, and, yes, there are occassional (hardly daily) cases where a stopdown takes place to research something. I've seen it happen during taping; the fact is that the majority of times, and with those few examples, the show is done live to tape.

Well, he didn't list time to do research as an exception either.

 

[imhomerjay]

It was about an 8 second mention. The one clue left unseen was as much due to the time it took with a number of multiple wrong responses as anything else.

 

[pab]

As someone who has been behind the podium, I can confirm that "Jeopardy" is played in real time. The portions "not affecting game play" are when they re-edit to take out when Alex mispronounces a word or stumbles in his reading.

This can't be right. What about when they have a Daily Double and the staff has magically discovered that a contestant's wrong answer was right or right answer was wrong, or something like that, or Alex misheard. Since they seem to have to resolve this with every Daily Double, or after each commercail break, they must have to stop for this research. It can't ALWAYS be done in the exact amount of time.

They will occasionally stop for rulings from judges, but not often. Most of the time when things like that happen it's during the commercial breaks, and then they'll come back and announce the change in scoring. That's also when they record the inserts to cover up mispronunciations or fumbles.

It's only when the outcome of an answer would have immediate impact upon the game as it goes on, or if one of the judges immediately calls a flag on the answer that they stop the actual game for research. 99% of the time, the game is recorded essentially "live to tape" in real time.

 

[vchimpanzee]

As someone who has been behind the podium, I can confirm that "Jeopardy" is played in real time. The portions "not affecting game play" are when they re-edit to take out when Alex mispronounces a word or stumbles in his reading.

This can't be right. What about when they have a Daily Double and the staff has magically discovered that a contestant's wrong answer was right or right answer was wrong, or something like that, or Alex misheard. Since they seem to have to resolve this with every Daily Double, or after each commercail break, they must have to stop for this research. It can't ALWAYS be done in the exact amount of time.

They will occasionally stop for rulings from judges, but not often. Most of the time when things like that happen it's during the commercial breaks, and then they'll come back and announce the change in scoring. That's also when they record the inserts to cover up mispronunciations or fumbles.

It's only when the outcome of an answer would have immediate impact upon the game as it goes on, or if one of the judges immediately calls a flag on the answer that they stop the actual game for research. 99% of the time, the game is recorded essentially "live to tape" in real time.

Before the Daily Doubles, too, obviously.

I saw the episode in question and, yes, he didn't really have to talk so much.