Jeopardy Tournament Format Thoughts

[Jeremy Nelson]

Now that we're a few years in, and the single elimination, first to 2/3 format seems here to stay, does anyone have any preference for this versus the two-week, 10 episode contained format?

For me, the "first to three victories" is growing on me, and I do like that the top 3 seeds get a bye into the semis. That said, I still miss how tidy the previous format was, and it was nice knowing the actual tournament end date for spoiler purposes.

Champions Wildcard and Second Chance feel so interchangeable that they might as well be combined into one two week tournament.

[TLEberle]

I am elated that Celebrity Jeopardy follows the format of Super Jeopardy from 1990, even if it means that the million dollar final might be a runaway. 

I hope the show never attempts the National College Championship ever again—if you win a game you should be guaranteed to move up. This doesn’t mean I don’t want a college championship

I get why youngsters are unlikely to ever get to play again but I miss the feeder tournaments where the winner moved up to TOC. I’m over second Chance but the Wildcard as a way to grab that 21st spot is fun.

[Steve Gavazzi]

Second Chance and Champion's Wildcard aren't bad in a vacuum, but between them, the ToC, and the Invitational Tournament, there's now two straight months of shows with no regular games...and that's just bizarre.  The JIT in particular feels like it ought to be named "The 'We Have Way Too Many Tournaments Now' Tournament."

For the love of God, just do the damn Tournament of Champions for two weeks and be done with it.

[BrandonFG]

Second Chance and Champion's Wildcard aren't bad in a vacuum, but between them, the ToC, and the Invitational Tournament, there's now two straight months of shows with no regular games...and that's just bizarre.

This is where I stand. I know the writer's strike necessitated the tournaments from a couple years ago, but even after they went back to regular contestants it felt like they went into tournament overload.

[SuperSweeper]

The new tournament formats seem like big money and time savers to me.

They save money because these formats are generally giving away less in a week than the average regular week would work out. The Second Chance, for example:

Normal week: $125K ($20K x5 for the winners; $5k x5 for the runners-up)
Second Chance: $95K ($35k for the champion; $15k x2 for the two runners-up; $5k x6 for the other contestants)

Note that this *may* be negated somewhat if they're paying for contestants' airfare and lodging, like they used to do for the ToC (unsure if this is still being done).

They save time (presumably) by having to find dozens fewer contestants each season.

[Jeremy Nelson]

I hope the show never attempts the National College Championship ever again—if you win a game you should be guaranteed to move up. This doesn’t mean I don’t want a college championship

I get why youngsters are unlikely to ever get to play again but I miss the feeder tournaments where the winner moved up to TOC.

Count me as one of the people who miss the College Championship, partially because it's fun, but also because I love a trophy that carries the names of all the winners. I used to love when they brought out that giant trophy for the Finals.

Even axing the Teachers/Professors tournament feels like a bridge too far- no offense to 3 game winners, but in most cases, I'd rather see students and teachers playing for a spot (and most definitely the latter, since those winners have historically held their own in the ToC)

[Chief-O]

The JIT in particular feels like it ought to be named "The 'We Have Way Too Many Tournaments Now' Tournament."

For the love of God, just do the damn Tournament of Champions for two weeks and be done with it.

My first thought after reading this was, "They should probably have JIT on ABC primetime". I'd take it over the celebrity shows.

/but then, as I write that, I realize "Masters" is almost kinda-sorta similar
//really, they probably *should* just do one or the other

[Robert Hutchinson]

It feels to me like doing a Champions Wildcard + ToC is more than enough tournament to do in one go. Why not do Second Chance (with no connection to the ToC) and the Invitational on alternate years and/or at a different point in the season?

(And while we're at it, who at the show hates wild-card slots and total-point finals so much?)

[Joe Mello]

I think an overlooked "problem" is that in the Before Times, these tournaments would be scattered throughout the various sweeps periods. Now instead of a couple 2-4 week blocks, it's all one big glut to (theoretically) promote J! Masters. I think it would be more palatable to perhaps move 2nd Chance and WC to November and keep everything else in February, but I understand that it might be easier logistically to bring everyone in at once (not to say you couldn't film everything at once, but whatever).

(And while we're at it, who at the show hates wild-card slots and total-point finals so much?)

Basketball has effectively codified the idea of play-in matches. Also, from what I remember from various discussions, total-point finals are less fair than Best-Of-X in that if you have a bad first day you'd still be viable in the latter format but be potentially sunk in the former.

[Jeremy Nelson]

(And while we're at it, who at the show hates wild-card slots and total-point finals so much?)

The Wild card slots in the ToC have been usurped by byes for the top three seeds. I'm okay with that.

To be fair, Champions Wildcard still uses the total point finals to decide who moves on to ToC.

[TLEberle]

The Wild card slots in the ToC have been usurped by byes for the top three seeds. I'm okay with that.

I would prefer the "high scoring runners up" playing off for the last two slots--three byes out of 21 feels rather unbalanced.

To be fair, Champions Wildcard still uses the total point finals to decide who moves on to ToC.

As a young curmudgeon dealing with lots of stuff two of my favorite things were Friday Finals on Wheel of Fortune and either the Friday to end the quarter-finals of a tournament, or the second half of the finals. The tournament was a fun two-week change from the normal conveyor belt of contestants moving through the process and somebody is guaranteed to win a big prize or maybe a new car depending on the year. I think that is lost with the new tick mark system, but on the other hand if Roger Craig gets absolutely flattened in game one, or game two with two different winners, he's still in there with a chance to regroup that you don't get if you have no money against say Leszek Pawlowicz or Dan Melia.

Another thing we aren't getting with the feeder/themed tournaments is you get one every couple of weeks. After ten weeks of run up it feels a bit of a letdown after the final big check is given out.

And if I'm going to be a curmudgeon I will lean into it whole hog--I miss the road trips. College Championships would always have a built-in rooting section since I imagine the home town will get at least one participant, and there's nothing like five thousand people gasping or going nuts in Radio City Music Hall. I would rather the show had put money into the traveling set/brain bus than buffing up the second and third place prizes.

[JasonA1]

I always liked the elegance of the two-week ToC, but once it was pointed out to me that the classic tourney format de-emphasizes playing Jeopardy! the way it's played the rest of the year -- coupled with the GOAT special being so good -- I warmed up to the "first to win X games" thing really fast.

I run a tourney or two each year with friends, and also switched to that format. It was competitive and interesting, and I reckon it will probably average a better ending than the two-game combo finales I did.

-Jason

[aaron sica]

As a young curmudgeon dealing with lots of stuff two of my favorite things were Friday Finals on Wheel of Fortune

I really, really miss this. It looks like they kind of bring the essence of it back (NASCAR week being a great example), but I wouldn't mind seeing it more.

[Jeremy Nelson]

And if I'm going to be a curmudgeon I will lean into it whole hog--I miss the road trips. College Championships would always have a built-in rooting section since I imagine the home town will get at least one participant, and there's nothing like five thousand people gasping or going nuts in Radio City Music Hall. I would rather the show had put money into the traveling set/brain bus than buffing up the second and third place prizes.

Honestly, when Davies started using the phrase "Jeopardy as a sport", this was the first thing on my wish list.

As a young curmudgeon dealing with lots of stuff two of my favorite things were Friday Finals on Wheel of Fortune

I really, really miss this. It looks like they kind of bring the essence of it back (NASCAR week being a great example), but I wouldn't mind seeing it more.

I'd love to see it regardless of special weeks. Incentivize the Friday game by either throwing a guaranteed Million Dollar Wedge on the bonus wheel, or have the champ play the 5-in-45 bonus round that seemed to go over pretty well.