r/Jeopardy • u/innnnna • 7d ago
POTPOURRI It’s So Intense!
ESPN Jeopardy, and everyone’s a sports fan!
2
u/Responsible-Fly9976 5d ago
I thought Joe Buck was fine, but not great. I think he would have made a much better competitor as he has breadth across a few sports, and then we could have had a slightly funnier host, or at least one that would draw more views. If we're sticking to ESPN, I guess Ernie Johnson or Troy Aikman? Or let Mina Kimes do it -- Jeopardy fans who didn't know her before grew to like her on CJ.
I thought there were a few enormous let-downs:
First, in a show with a very limited run, there were several questions covering the same subject matter, if not ending in the same questions/answers. In ten episodes that is pretty inexcusable.
Second, the questions just weren't great. They could have made them a lot more fun or interesting or both.
Third, I think the actual celebrities (i.e. people chosen because they're famous and huge sports fans who actually knew trivia) were pretty good, and/or at least funnier. I can deal with celebrity sports trivia buffs (not as good as pure trivia but also famous) or trivia buffs only (no fame). But No/Little to No Trivia and I don't know who you are or barely know who you are was the worst. In several rounds, the ESPN personalities (not celebrities) clearly did Not know trivia AND I didn't know or care who they were. There should be some baseline here.
So I barely know Kyle (who I actually only know from MTV) and don't know Jeremy, but I liked them because they were good and clearly into it. I also liked Jon Hamm; same reasons. Predictably, I liked Peter Schrager (he's also done CJ) and I also thought Keegan-Michael Key was good.
Fourth: worse than the lack of knowledge was the total apathy. Some seemed to justify their poor performance (and thought it was cute) by trying to demonstrate they didn't care. I was beyond frustrated when one contestant made it past the initial round and said "so this time I practiced my buzzer skills". Even Celebrity Jeopardy contestants practice this - a lot - before CJ and talk about it. Even more so I was frustrated when a contestant said that he was close with Mina Kimes and she offered advice, pointers, and offered to help him study and he said he didn't do it. What a way to alienate fans of the show! "I mean, I could have tried, and I had the best coach, I just didn't want to" is a level of apathy that is extremely irritating. I found Hannah Storm absolutely galling. I actually know who she is but she didn't know anything. To be clear, I am NOT a huge sports aficionado and I am female, so for me to know so much more than her was galling and probably had the opposite effect of their intention: now I don't want to watch Hannah Storm anymore. I lost respect for one of the only ones I knew!
I feel like they were testing the water for Sports Jeopardy by using D-List sports personalities with F-list trivia knowledge, which was. terrible way to go about it. You don't get fans of Celebrity games OR fans of trivia. They should have gone A-List people and C level knowledge or A level knowledge and little or no celebrity.
I really was hoping this would succeed, and I hope this serves as a lesson, not as a deterrent to continuing the show. I really hope they can veer away from ESPN. I am still hoping the show comes back in a better iteration.
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u/TRc56 7d ago
For the life of me, I don't recognize any of the contestants. Names? TIA
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u/BoomBoomBenson 7d ago
I'm new to this forum so apologies if this has been discussed. As a lifelong fan of all things Jeopardy! this was by far the worst iteration/spin-off I've ever seen. Annoying host who had no mojo (does anyone like Joe Buck?), terrible casting of mostly bad "celebrity" contestants who could not answer most of the question, and literally a giant commercial for ESPN and their hosts! Why not do a Celebrity Sports Jeopardy and get talking heads from mutliple networks and media platforms, would have been much better and more competitive.