@Scipio, are you able to tell us how many shows are taped on one day?
@cbreeze : Typically five shows are taped in one day.
@cbreeze - they tape 5 shows in one day. One day’s worth of taping = one week’s worth of shows - Monday through Friday. They stop taping for a lunch break between the Wednesday show and the Thursday show. They also bring in a new studio audience after the lunch break. Although if you wanted to you could probably sit in the audience for both taping sessions in one day - just go get back in line after lunch for the second taping session. There is no admission charge to sit in the studio audience. They sometimes bring in bus loads of audience members from senior citizen centers - out on a fun field trip.
I was lucky in that I was picked to play in the very first show of the day, a Monday show. And after a shaky come-from-behind win in my first game, I got on a roll and blew through the remaining four matches that day, winning each by a runaway. At the time I had the sense that I was “in the zone” and probably could have kept on winning for at least another game or two. But the taping day got over, and I had to retire after the five wins anyway.
After one show finishes they start taping the next show about 30 to 45 minutes later. So both Alex and the defending champion have to hustle back to their respective dressing rooms and change clothes and then come back out and pretend it’s the next day. Alex also has to pretend the date is some day in the future. For example my shows taped in September but didn’t air until early January. So Alex was making on-air comments about winter and the recently passed Christmas holiday season even though it was actually still summer and about 95 degrees outside.
They usually tape two days a week, and they tape an entire season’s worth of shows in 43 taping days. Which means that Alex must have about the best job in the world. He earns a reported $10 million/year, but he only has to come in to work 43 days per year.
They need 15 contestants for each taping day. But they bring in 17 just in case they need a spare or two - in case someone gets sick, or faints, or decides they are too scared to go on (all these have actually happened). So there are two alternate contestants who sit through the whole day of taping and don’t get to play. They always pick southern California residents to be the alternates, because in the regular season you get yourself to the show at your own expense. And they don’t want someone to pay to fly in from far away and never get a chance to play.
Since I’m from southern California that happened to me. My first taping day was in July, but I ended up being an alternate and didn’t get to play. But they promise alternates that they will be called back and that they will definitely get to play when they come back. They called me again in August and told me to come back for the second taping day in September. Once I got on a roll and started mowing down opponents some the remaining contestants got nervous about playing against me and began volunteering to be one of the alternates so they wouldn’t have to face me. I can imagine that this happens to James a lot on every one of his taping days. Seeing him plow through everything and everybody no doubt makes them eager to be the ones who get to come back and play some on other day when James will hopefully be gone. But the way he is playing he might well still be there when they come back a month or two later.
With a live audience and tapings in advance, how do they keep results secret? I can understand in the normal course that no one really has much of an interest in spilling the beans so to speak because there wouldn’t be much interest in the info. But here, assuming James lost before the last show of season 35 was taped, there is a group of people who know that now. And there would be people interested in knowing. How does that remain a secret? With the idea that 3 people can keep a secret if two are dead, how does it work? I would imagine that contestants sign confidentiality agreements. Show staff does the same. Audience members maybe do too?
That ^^ question was asked on TheJeopardy!fan webpage, but the only real answer is that people keep quiet to make the game more fun. The audience is under no contract to keep quiet.
I guess when Ken Jennings was on (over the summer, over some tournament breaks) it did leak out that game 74 was it for him.
They basically ask for the studio audience’s forbearance not to blab the results. For us contestants they told us we could tell our family and close friends but that we were forbidden to publicly reveal the results prior airing, say by giving advance media interviews or such. They threatened that they would withhold the prize money if we violated this by making a big public splash prior to airing about winning on Jeopardy.
One thing to note is that you don’t actually earn the prize money until the show airs, not when it tapes. So if you rack up a big win but it never airs for some reason, say if the show is cancelled or you somehow get disqualified as a contestant, then you get nothing.
The only people I told were my wife and kids. I didn’t even tell my parents. I made them all live through the drama in TV real time when it aired. My sister-in-law (wife’s sister) got so nervous watching me play that she had to quit watching after the first game and would only watch the replay later after her husband told her that I had won.
I felt so bad for the contestants last night. The man on the end seemed pretty frustrated. I couldn’t blame him. I like James, but I do hope this doesn’t go on too long.
@Scipio - that had to be so hard to keep it quiet. When Brent and Josh (The Beekman Boys from Beekman 1802) won The Amazing Race, they were so good about keeping it quiet. My daughter and I were in the shop one day when she was still pretty little, and she asked Brent point blank if they won. He said, “You’ll have to keep watching and see.”
I really didn’t think they had won and was so surprised and pleased to find out they did.
Contestants sign a non disclosure agreements; audience members do not. Contestants receive their money up to 120 days after their show airs.
Ugh! In my area, Jeopardy had been pre-empted tonight for the NFL draft! How can this be? If James loses tonight…grrr
Will it be on later? When Jeopardy is pre-empted here (on a Fox station, so often for sports), they run it later, about 11 pm.
Or you can cheat and look it up online…thejeopardy!fan.com
Not until Sunday!
It was moved to the Fox channel in my area because of the NFL draft on ABC.
But I am so proud every time he misses one that I know!!! (And shouting at the t.v. as it happens because so far, they all seemed easy and obvious to me… as in, how could anyone not know???).
Admittedly it has only happened about 3 or 4 times, at least for answers he got wrong (as opposed to simply not buzzing in). 
Same here, but it’s scheduled to be broadcast later. Last night I tried to record it, but I guess the real timing was different than the announced schedule, and I ended up with a recording of Wheel of Fortune instead. However, with a little Googling I found the entire episode, sans commercials, uploaded to YouTube… so there’s that.
My problem is that watching Jeopardy is also part of my new personal exercise program. I can’t sit on the couch – I have to stand in front of the t.v. and move. (Trying to end my couch potato ways…) But when the time is changed, that throws things off. But supposedly it should be broadcast on the ABC affiliate at 8:30pm to tonight rather than the usual 7:30pm… we’ll see.
@emilybee I was all set to watch at 7pm on ABC and the draft was on! I didn’t think to check other channels, assumed it wasn’t on tonight?!
@3sonsmom, our station ran a crawl last night during Jeopardy announcing the switch to other station tonight.
He is so dominant that this is in danger of getting old (and boring)… No competition so far and his personality doesn’t draw me in either. But that’s just my opinion. I have enjoyed getting back into watching Jeopardy occasionally again though.
@emilybee If our station had a crawl, I didn’t catch it. I missed last Friday since we weren’t home, otherwise we saw all his episodes. We have it on every night when home.
Our crawl said “Tune in Sunday”. Checked all the other stations including the random over-the-air ones with no luck. So I cheated and checked online.
Also, maybe a topic for another thread, but since when is the NFL draft such a big thing? I must be living under a rock.
Watching tonight’s episode of Jeopardy (Friday 4/26) this was the first time I noticed James’ opponents waving their buzzers (clickers) around in the air as they tried to buzz in to answer the question. James would consistently win the battle of the buzzer. First time it was obvious to me that the opposition was trying to answer (ask) the questions but he was just beating them to the buzzer. A very very important skill. If you know all the answers but can’t buzz in on time, you won’t win a lot of money.