Jeopardy! Season 39 Changes

Hey eagle! Nice to see some cross-representation between the two forums. I've also seen the show taped a few times in the past, once in 2007 in Culver City and twice in 2016 when they did road shows in DC. I even got to briefly chat with Alex during a break the second time!

I was sitting near the front on the right side of the audience section. I don't think we interacted with each other during the day, but I distinctly remember hearing a voice a few rows back (your voice, apparently!) shouting out Ken during the intro of the first show. Were you the same person who cheered on a contestant after the conclusion of the second show? I don't want to spoil what happened or the result, so I will leave it at that.

Having seen tapings a few times in the past, I know there are often technical difficulties, but this one had a glitch I don't remember from before. At the end of the first round of the first game, there was a discrepancy in the game board and the display Ken was using as reference, the latter of which showed an extra clue. That confused him and got him to read a phantom final clue in the round, which caused a stopdown and a brief reshoot. Just another thing fixed by TV magic that nobody will see at home, but we will remember seeing in the studio.

Unfortunately, I couldn't stay for the afternoon session to catch my flight, so my party left during the lunch break. Were there enough standby tickets for everyone who wanted to stay? I'm glad Ken finally got the opportunity to interact with the crowd near the end.

That first shoutout to Ken during game 1 was me. The second shoutout to the inconsolable contestant after game 2 was a guy sitting two seats over from me. He was wearing a T-shirt with 1984 Alex Trebek's head on it, perm, moustache and all. I was so glad he said that because I think the contestant needed the pick me
up after realizing they'd made a terrible mistake in calculating their wager. It must have been terrifying to have 150 people sitting in silence... staring at you wondering what was going on.

I also noticed the glitch on the game board. The big board showed one category left, but the little monitors showed two partial categories remaining. Ken said "two categories to go."

When the last clue had been called, the contestant said nothing. There was a long pause until Ken finally looked and said, "oh, I guess the round must be over!".

Another glitch during game 5 was that a Video clue was called, but the picture failed to appear on the secondary monitors. Somehow the challenger got the first one from the clue alone, and they didn't stop the game. They kept going. It happened AGAIN in the same round and they still didn't stop the game, and another challenger picked it up from the clue alone.

I was at Jason Zuffranieri's 12-14th games and there was a game stoppage when a clue failed to display. I would have thought they'd stop the game for a video clue glitch since it puts some players at a disadvantage without all the information.

It was about 60-70% full.  They filled up the stage left and center sections, but not stage right (audience's left).  

They *could* have been at full capacity; however, the audience coordinator I spoke to said he was regrettably having to cancel ticket reservations left and right due to Sony's extremely strict COVID-19 protocols.  In addition to wearing KF-94, KN-95, or N-95 masks indoors, guests had be fully inoculated according to current CDC guidelines.  This meant that anyone aged 50+ had to have received not only the initial vaccine series offered in early 2021, but both booster shots, as they were technically eligible for booster #1 since November 2021, and booster #2 since March 29, 2022.  Adults under 50 are not eligible for the second booster unless they are immunocompromised or work in a high-risk setting.

The last requirement was causing issues for families and larger groups where one more guests over 50 got 1 booster, but not both, and they were unwilling to split up their party or leave that person behind.  It's also Sony's fault for not giving Jeopardy this guidance sooner, and Jeopardy's fault for not publishing it on the website more prominently and clearly when reserving tickets.  

If you were considering attending a Jeopardy taping and wanted to know the latest COVID-19 information, here's what you'd have to do today:

1. Click "Important Info" on the tickets page. A pop-up window appears.
   
2. Buried in the fine print is a line about COVID 19 policies. Click the link: www.jeopardy.com/taping-info.
3. You are now at the "Be on J!" page under "Contestant FAQs."  This is confusing because the info is meant for audiences.
   
4. From this page, you have to click to disclose the item called "What are the audience COVID-19 policies?"
5. In the information that appears, it says "All attendees must provide proof that they are "up to date" with COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters as defined by the CDC...
6. To learn what "up to date" means, you have to click the link to the CDC site and read the "What you need to know" section.
7. On this site, you have to click through the various pages to confirm what boosters you need.

Granted, someone might be unaware of the first and second boosters if they've been living under a rock the last year or so... but I think it would have saved the Jeopardy staff and audience members a lot of grief if the information were simply published on the ticket page up front.

You want to make it four?

I also was at opening day, but only for the morning session. It's great to hear that Ken is now starting to take questions!

I can confirm most of the stuff that was reported in the thread (Ken saying Welcome to *mumble*... dammit!, graphics haven't changed, the reworked intro, hand sanitizer, Corina being awesome both physically and emotionally, Wheel of Fortune XL, Ken rerecording 3-4 clues a game, Sarah being the in-house announcer, COVID protocol, Lisa being in tears).

I guess great minds think alike eaglebtc , because I also conspired to yell "WE LOVE YOU KEN", and tried to do it subtly in the first intro. I was sitting in the second row, directly across to the contestants' families, and I remember someone shouting that same thing behind me after Ken apologized. I still yelled it the second time though. I also remember your shirt, lol.

I guess I can give a clarification and minor correction, since practically everything else was mentioned:

Along with the maingame board, there's a digital representation of the board that they use to always get that shot of the clue popping out of the board. The contestants are able to see that on a smaller monitor to the left of the board whenever a clue isn't in play, and I suspect that's what was on Ken's podium as well. After the first commercial break, for some odd reason, it started readding clues to that digital board.

Stolen from a copy of the 8/2/2022 rerun, going into clue 15, the board looked normal, kind of like this:



...but at the end of the round, it looked similar to this:



It happened again in DJ! as well, but for once, thankfully they ran out of time to go through all the clues. There was a long stopdown between the Monday and Tuesday games, where I believe they just pointed a camera at the digital board instead of using it as a reference.

Somewhere in this thread, someone said only one game ended with all 60 clues played. I recall both games I watched ending with a clue or more on the board. I think the only time Ken gave the "one minute left" warning was in the J! round of game 2; I was surprised when the out of time bells rang both times (and selfishly wanted both games to continue, for different reasons).

EDIT:




That's great to hear that they actually sung Happy Birthday! I remember their family asking Jimmy if they could do something during the stopdown between the two morning games, and I'm glad to hear it was resolved.

^Jeopardy required a booster for those under 50 and two for those over 50. We weren't allowed to remove our mask at all inside the studio. The intros still had us wearing masks.


Wheel and Jeopardy had this sign at the entrance.

The WOF/J! ticket hotline listed August 28 as a tape date for CJ!, but none following that (compared to four tape dates for CWOF). Dates listed overall didn't go past September 1, though, so they could very well be taping the whole season over two days. CWOF will still be the same 12/3:15 sessions as regular Wheel, so those days will probably be only two hour-long episodes.

At least for the morning session, we were instructed to keep our masks on the entire time, audience shots included. And yes, the first booster is required for any guest under 50.

edit: woffan9821 beat me to it and I missed his post. 

I won't divulge my source from the staff, but I trust that they had up-to-date information.  I suspect CJ! will have fewer edits or reshoots because they'll want to keep the laughter and absurd moments for television—it's not a mistake; it's a feature!—and that they can afford a shorter turnaround to the affiliates.

Since Michael Davies announced the ToC will be held annually every November, I wonder if this means they're going to reinstate the 5-day limit for returning champions (especially because during Amy's run, some people – including one former contestant – wanted it to be brought back).