At some point I assume they stopped filming for the season. Probably when Alex Trebek announced his cancer diagnosis about a man nothing ago. If James is still winning, does he come back next season when they start filming again? I have no idea how many taped shows are remaining before summer break.
If James still hasn’t lost by this season’s end he will be back as defending champion at the beginning of next season. Under the current rules you play until you lose.
And based on some of his on-air comments, I think James is 1/4 Japanese - just like my daughters are. But my daughters look even less Asian than James. Both have light brown hair and D2 even has blue eyes.
@scipio do you still get called to play as an undefeated champion?
Do you think you could best James on a really good day? If they called and asked you to challenge him would you give it a try?
I love learning all of the inside secrets of a jeopardy contestant and champ.
James talked on one of the early shows about his grandmother moving with them from Japan, and I don’t think she spoke much English but liked watching Jeopardy!
I think it was last year that they made the Jeopardy! season longer, with new shows still airing in the summer. Alex was on Good Morning America last week and I got the impression he was done filming for the year so maybe all the ‘James’ shows for this season are in the can.
Ken Jennings ran over into the new season.
This season ended filming at the beginning of April, with enough episodes in the can to broadcast until around the end of July. If James wins all the remaining games in this season, he’ll have won 62 games, 12 games short of Ken Jennings’ 74 game record. However, he’s already got 68% of Ken’s winnings in just 22 games.
I must say, though, that I’m enjoying these James-free shows this week.
@shellfell Many of the teachers have turned it into a guessing game.
I’ve often read things about James that say , “all the contestants know almost all the answers,James is just winning because of buzzer skills and gambling prowess” but these shows with the teachers make me realize that’s not exactly true.
I typically look forward to the various tournaments. But this year I would have preferred to see the regular shows continue without a break. Though the teacher’s tournament is probably my least favorite of the tournaments (other than maybe the celebrity tournament - do they still have that one – SNL version of that tournament is good tho).
@saillakeerie I do not believe that the celebrity tournament has been held for a few years. The last one had Anderson Cooper and his answers showed a minimal knowledge of all things international. Since then when I see him reporting on overseas crises I realize he has a good script writer.
There may be a different tryout and standards for making the show for teachers than for regular contestants. Not something I know for sure, just guessing.
“The last one had Anderson Cooper and his answers showed a minimal knowledge of all things international. Since then when I see him reporting on overseas crises I realize he has a good script writer.”
I do t think that’s necessarily true. There’s no reason to think he’s not doing research when an actiusl issue comes up and becomes a crisis. It’s a totally separate thing to know this stuff off the top of your head.
@maya54 He missed questions that a 12th grade geography student would now.
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@scipio do you still get called to play as an undefeated champion?
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Not any more. The last time I got called back to play in a special tournament was in 2005.
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Do you think you could best James on a really good day?
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No, I’m too old and slow now. If I could somehow transform back into me of 25 years ago and played my very best game I think I would have a chance. But even under those circumstances I think that if I played 10 matches against James he would win about 8 of them.
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If they called and asked you to challenge him would you give it a try?
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Sure, I’d give it a shot. I’d almost certainly get clobbered, but I’d still try to do my best and hope for categories that aligned with my strengths and his weaknesses (if he has any).
Scipio, our neighbor down the street was a week-long winner 20+ years ago. Neighbor is smart!! Now, neighbor hosts local trivia nights for fundraisers and researches and makes up all of the questions . fun!
I already miss James. I’m not a big fan of the tournaments and really disliked the recent one with teams of past champions. To me, it didn’t have the flow of a regular games with different players in every round.
@twoinanddone I agree. it was nice to see some of the champs again but the play was too disjointed. I also noticed that when it was Ken Jennings turn to play the double jeopardy round he did not do too well.
We are bored with the teachers tournament this week. Looking forward to James returning.
I wonder how many people aren’t paying attention to the fact its the teacher’s tournament and think James lost? My sister (who is not a regular Jeopardy watcher but who has watched James several times) texted me Tuesday and asked if she had missed that James lost because he wasn’t on.
I actually liked the All Star format. We nice to see a lot of my fav past champs. Different format was interesting (to me at least). Change of pace from other tournaments. Wouldn’t want to see that every year but every 5 years or so would be fine. Popular opinion though seems to be against it so seems unlikely we see it again.
I heard an episode on Planet Money from NPR about james and jeopardy. It’s funny/interesting! google planet money episode 912; james H is a relative of one of the planet money program staff. you’ll enjoy it!