I like the way the “Jeopardy!” Tournament Of Champions finals are structured so that the eventual winner has to come out on top in three games, not in a two-game total point match. In the past, that format eliminated players who played aggressively in their first game but lost a lot in Final Jeopardy and thus had no chance of catching up. The new system allows them to start over again from scratch and try to outplay their opponents.
Speaking of that show, I’m sick of seeing former players brought back for second and sometimes third chances, as in the Champions Wildcard series, which seemed to go on forever. And it won’t end after the Tournament Of Champions. It will be followed by another tournament, the Jeopardy Invitational, bringing back yet more former players, many of whom have made almost as many appearances as Johnny Gilbert. As if that’s not enough, there’s also going to be another primetime “Jeopardy Masters” tournament soon with, yes, a lot of the same people again.
All of this was an overreaction by producers to the writers strike last year, but I can’t wait to see first-time players return to the show in a few weeks.
By the way, as I knew he would, Ken Jennings has gotten even better as host of “Jeopardy!” He’s more comfortable with the players and more playful, often joking about answers in a way that even Alex Trebek never did (and Mayim Bialik can’t).
While I have your attention, I also have to get something off my chest about two other shows I’ve been a longtime viewer of…
On his podcast this week, longtime sitcom writer Ken Levine (“Cheers,” “Frasier,” “M*A*S*H”) said most two-part episodes of half-hour comedies were really more like one-and-a-halfers, because they didn’t have enough storylines to fill a full hour. That’s the way I feel about the ninety-minute episodes of “Survivor” and “The Amazing Race” CBS uses to fill up its entire primetime lineup on Wednesdays.
In both instances, the super-sized shows feel heavily padded, usually with backstories of the players that I guess are supposed to make viewers better connect with them. But I don’t need to know every detail of their lives, from weepy stories involving a sick family member to how they acted in high school or how they thrived while being raised by a single parent. Just show me the contestants as they deal with the challenges of the game and each other.
That said, this season of “Survivor” has included two of the worst players in the history of the game. One was a guy named Jelinsky, who was so annoying (e.g. he only referred to himself in the third person) and overconfident that he had no idea every other member of his tribe would vote him out at their first tribal council.
The other was Bhanu, who claimed to be a longtime fan of the show but, once he got to Fiji, proved he had learned nothing from watching previous seasons — had no idea about even the most elemental “Survivor” strategy. All he had was a constant flow of tears because he was sure he was about to be voted out. He also couldn’t keep his mouth shut about what he learned about his tribe-mates, even spilling the details to members of other tribes the first chance he got.
Bhanu is still in the game because another player was evacuated for a medical emergency last week, cancelling that night’s tribal council, in which he would certainly have gone home. Unfortunately, that means he’s around for another week of whining and moaning.
Kind of like I just did about these shows I can’t stop watching.