DANGER! producers admitted they may have been too hasty in messing with Final Jeopardy’s tried-and-true formula.
Recently, the beloved game show started using word games for the final round instead of just trivia-based questions.
6
Last week, fans were surprised by a Final Jeopardy! clue that involved wordplay.
The clue, in the new category “RHYME TIME: OPERA EDITION”, required the deciphering of “Rigoletto Libretto”.
Fans criticized the track as “evil” on social media, with contestant Allison Gross, who closed the game, calling it “horrible” on Reddit.
‘IT WASN’T THE GREATEST IDEA’
Executive producer Michael Davies and producer Sarah Foss addressed the change on the latest Inside Jeopardy! podcast.
Davies, who is the showrunner after Mike Richards was ousted in 2021, confessed that the wordplay in Final Jeopardy was a “mistake.”
Foss said: “We don’t have a lot of FJs wordplay; This is actually the first time we’ve rhymed Final Jeopardy.
“We once had opera anagrams that were a little better,” she added.
“If we’ve learned anything, maybe there’s a reason we don’t have wordplay endings, and let’s take note.”
Davies added: “Well, I think it’s amazing that we’ve made it into the dreaded opera category.
“We’re trying to take the Jeopardy! material to a wider reach.
“And word games give us the ability to reward people for thinking ability and puzzle/riddle solving, rather than just fact-based material.
“In doing so, we sometimes make mistakes with the material.
“Every time you push something, you learn that maybe that wasn’t the right thing to do.
“But we are trying to be less predictable and obvious.
“And that will mean looking back and saying ‘that wasn’t the best idea’.”
“But we have to keep moving forward with the writing of our program.”
‘IMPOSSIBLE EVIL’
Viewers were baffled by the “Rhyme Time: Opera Edition” clue when it aired last week and took to social media to vent about how difficult it was.
The clue read: “Telling the story of a duke, a jester and the jester’s daughter, it was written by the poet Francesco Maria Piave.”
No player came even close, and Ken Jennings awkwardly clarified the correct answer, saying: “No, that was a reference to Verdi.
“We are describing the ‘Rigoletto Libretto,'” he said, analyzing every word. “The Libretto of the opera Rigoletto.”
“I knew Rigoletto was the opera referenced, but I still would have missed it. What a horrible track,” wrote one YouTuber.
“Probably the cruelest final peril in recent memory…” wrote another.
“This was incredibly impossible. I couldn’t figure out the rhyming time part of the clue even though I was familiar with that opera. Very difficult,” wrote a third.
“They don’t normally do the more “creative” categories in the finals, very surprised by this,” noted a fourth.
About Danger! Masters, another Final Jeopardy word game clue, also appeared this week.
This left all three contestants perplexed and left Mattea Roach looking bewildered.
The clue tasked players with discovering the “Logarithm Algorithm”, and many said that the rhyme was an exaggeration and that the clue itself made no sense.
Fortunately, this didn’t affect who won, as Mattea came into Final Jeopardy with the most points.
“My life is dedicated to computer science and this question was almost impossible,” roared one YouTuber under the clip.
6
6
NEW QUEEN OF MASTERS
Meanwhile, Jeopardy! Masters Season 2 airs its penultimate round of two quarterfinal matches tonight on ABC.
The six elite-level competitors are defending champion James Holzhauer, Amy, Matt Amodio, Mattea and newcomers Victoria Groce and Yogesh Raut.
It was clear that the two rookies and James are head and shoulders above the other three and will be the finalists.
Meanwhile, the bottom two will be eliminated on Friday, and it looks like it will be goodbye for Matt – and either Mattea or Amy.
The Masters grand prize is $500,000, a flashy Alex Trebek trophy to honor the late iconic host and the title of Masters Champion.
Victoria, the 2005 One-Day Champion, qualified by winning the recent Jeopardy’s Invitational Tournament against Amy and Andrew He, and became the star of the special.
Meanwhile, James has already lost three times, and fans predict that fellow high scorer Victoria will win the entire event as she is seemingly unstoppable.
“I’m a fan of James but he’s fighting Victoria,” noted one social media user.
“I think he met his match,” wrote another.
“I know we’ve seen her do this multiple times, but Victoria plays this game on a whole different level,” wrote a third. “Those Masters signs are an easy job for her. Blocking James is no easy task.”
“Is there ANYTHING she doesn’t know?” she wrote a fourth.
Each Masters episode consists of two half-hour games, and the winner of each receives three points, while the runner-up receives one.
The four players with the most points will advance to the semifinals, and the top three will face each other in the finals.
The bottom two will be eliminated before the two semi-final episodes starting on Friday, May 17th.
After the elimination of the fourth placed team, the final will air on May 22nd.
The round-robin tournament sees all combinations of the celebrity contestants face off before any eliminations take place, and everything is determined by points rather than dollar values.
Danger! airs at 7pm ET, while the Masters continues on Wednesday, May 15th with Games 11 and 12 on ABC at 8pm ET. and on Hulu.
6
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
