Power Players announced

[Bamaman]

Just saw this via the L.A. Times:

The celebrities, appearing on "Jeopardy's" special week of shows being taped in DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., will include CNN's Anderson Cooper, former L.A. Laker Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Fox News' Chris Wallace, comedian Lewis Black, CNBC's David Faber, the New York Times' Thomas Friedman, former White House press secretaries Robert Gibbs and Dana Perino, BBC's Katty Kay, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, NBC News' Kelly O'Donnell and Chuck Todd, CNN's Lizzie O'Leary, Dr. Mehmet Oz and the Chicago Tribune's Clarence Page.

PLEASE let Lewis Black be at the early taping Saturday!



http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2012/04/anderson-cooper-kareem-abdul-jabbar-jeopardy.html

The linked article had the following comment.......

Though "Celebrity Jeopardy!" has become a tradition, this is only the third Power Players week in the show's 28 years. In past years, Sen. Al Franken, Bob Woodard and White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer have participated. And one can presume that the questions will be a couple of degrees more difficult than the kind tossed at such "Celebrity Jeopardy" participants as Andy Richter and "Desperate Housewives'" Dana Delany.

Obviously the writer has never watched the show if he thinks the clues will be tougher than normal celebrity shows. Cooper, Abdul-Jabbar and Matthews all played in the tournament with Richter and none got out of the first round.

[John Boy]

My question for the good folks at Sony (apart from the question of why have this "tournament" at all) is, why do they keep bringing players back instead of finding all-new fields? I have all the respect in the world for guys like Kareem and Anderson Cooper, who are seriously bright, well-informed, and likeable. But they never let "regular" players return (I know, rare exceptions only for questionable rulings), so why them?

[dhkendall]

My question for the good folks at Sony (apart from the question of why have this "tournament" at all) is, why do they keep bringing players back instead of finding all-new fields? I have all the respect in the world for guys like Kareem and Anderson Cooper, who are seriously bright, well-informed, and likeable. But they never let "regular" players return (I know, rare exceptions only for questionable rulings), so why them?

a) because they will bring viewers, and b) they said "yes" (but mostly a)). Remember that they are in the business of putting on a show to bring ratings, and putting on people that people would watch is key to that. Yes, there are some one-and-dones that are indeed entertaining and might have brought more viewers were they returned, but there's a wide swath of people they know will say yes (people who passed the test) that they only scratch the surface of to see if they're also interesting (audition process) and give them as much encouragement as they can to be a repeat performer to bring eyeballs, whereas there's only a limited number of Power Players available, and not all make good television (C-SPAN isn't a top ratings king for a reason.)

[harrumph]

I'd like to see 5Xer Rush Holt (my congressman) compete.

[Roadgeek Adam]

I'd like to see 5Xer Rush Holt (my congressman) compete.

Eek, put ours with him. (Frank Pallone).

[GregK]

I was in the audience for two of the tapings. I also wondered why they brought back some repeaters. Also wondering why having folks like former press secretaries helps with ratings - most folks out there in tvland probably have no idea who these Power players are. Of course, politicians are fearful of "gotcha" reporters asking them who the president of Whatsitstan is and them not knowing so they would never be enticed to play. Politico has some videos from the press opportunity.

I enjoyed much more watching the tapings of the teen tourney on Friday. Those are some amazing kids - and the girls really know how to dress to the nines - poor guys sported the standard khakies shirt and tie.

Jimmy from the clue crew did the practice rounds - wonder if he is Alex's understudy??

[alietr]

I asked Maggie about JBoard, and her response was "We like it!" before scurrying off to take care of yet one more thing. Robert said "We love it! It builds community! I read it all the time!" I was much relieved, since I've never been too sure of what they thought about our little corner of the Internet.

Maggie was very lucky. Alex took a lot of questions, and I was going to ask "What would you do without Maggie?" (I have a habit of embarrassing women on Jeopardy) but resisted the urge. I'll provide more details on the tapings when I have more time.

[bpmod]

I met Robert. He knew immediately who I was. I was dumbfounded that he even knew about JBoard, but to know me, well, that was just bizarre.

I loved the encouragement I got from both Robert and Maggie, and was very pleased that Kelly and Sarah both welcomed me "back" on Saturday, indicating that thy had remembered me from Friday. Aw shucks!

All around great experience.

Brian

[dhkendall]

I asked Maggie about JBoard, and her response was "We like it!" before scurrying off to take care of yet one more thing. Robert said "We love it! It builds community! I read it all the time!" I was much relieved, since I've never been too sure of what they thought about our little corner of the Internet.

Pleasant surprise (hi, Robert!) I must say that I don't know if I'd be able to keep quiet with all this scintillating discussion going on (says the first poster to hit 1,000 posts), as it is, I'm worried about "staying clam" between my tape and air dates - for when The Call comes. I try to practice by going on the Sony board, some of the stuff there *really* makes me want to reply, but I'm forced not to (due to my Canadian-ness, guess they don't want polite people there), I guess the feeling must be the same for Robert et. al.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Went up to the Saturday morning session (thanks alietr!); didn't have a ticket for the afternoon (more on that later), but hoped I might get lucky there.

Met a bunch of swell folks, most of whom I'll botch up here (chime in if you were there!). Me - I was the large fellow with the navy blue "Jeopardy!" polo shirt, which proved to be handy later on. Sat next to Nick Condon for the morning session, and in front of Liz Murphy and her parents. I won't give away anything specific, but for those of you looking for "Kareem Adbul-Jabbar moments" will be happy. The practice games were even more entertaining, with those who had done this before being a lot more comical about it.

After the session, BPmod and I went towards the Metro station to get a Subway (the sandwich shop, that is). On the way a lady saw my shirt and asked if I had come from the first taping. I said I had, but was likely going home since I didn't have a ticket for the next one. They were going to the afternoon session, and she kindly offered me a spare one that they had. Needless to say, I was thrilled.

So, BPMod and I went back to the next taping, though I had to sit in "general admission" (which ended up in the nosebleed section). The VIP tickets were on the floor, but the ushers had that guarded like Fort Knox. So I watched the first game of the second session from on high. At the break, I did manage to beat the ushers and get down on the floor, where there were a few spare seats in the section for us boardies. I sat next to Periwinkle, and in front of Rex, and met some more J! contestants who weren't at the first session. Maggie came out and chatted up with us for a few in between these episodes, so that was fun as always.

All of the games were entertaining, and the audience questions to Alex were very interesting.

At that point, though, since I had a long drive ahead (and a long Metro ride - due to weekend rail work, the normal 18 minute trip took over an hour each way), so I decided to head home. But.... not before I returned a favor. The lady who had kindly given me the ticket for the second session came down and asked how I managed to get in the VIP section, and I told her. Then I remembered there were two people who opted out of staying for the last session, and Rex had one spare still. So, I did some quick horse-trading and got their group of three tickets to sit downstairs for the evening session. They were thrilled, and they gave their upstairs tickets to the folks at will-call in case someone showed up that needed tix for that taping.

Was a lot of fun, and glad to see everyone up there!

[bpmod]

I try to practice by going on the Sony board, some of the stuff there *really* makes me want to reply, but I'm forced not to (due to my Canadian-ness, guess they don't want polite people there), I guess the feeling must be the same for Robert et. al.

Ditto on the Sony board thoughts, but they should know that not all of us are equally polite. If forced, I can be as rude as the next guy.

Brian

[alietr]

Pretty long video piece with Robert Gibbs on the set:

Celebrity Jeopardy

[alietr]

The schedule has been announced:

MONDAY: Robert Gibbs, Chris Matthews, Lizzie O’Leary

TUESDAY: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, David Faber, Dana Perino

WEDNESDAY: Katty Kay, Mehmet Oz, Chris Wallace

THURSDAY: Lewis Black, Clarence Page, Chuck Todd

FRIDAY: Anderson Cooper, Thomas L. Friedman, Kelly O’Donnell

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/arts-post/post/dc-episodes-of-jeopardy-air-this-week/2012/05/08/gIQApDIKDU_blog.html?hpid=z3

[Johnblue]

I'm rooting for the last name listed on each day. I met Kelly O'Donnell at a Cleveland bar when she was just starting out.

[Peggles]

Alex: Ooh, sorry. It was "George Washington.". Washington was the first President of the United States.

Bill O'Reilly: Well, Alex, you are entitled to your opinion. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, no matter how wrongheaded it may be. Now, in my opinion, Ronald Reagan was the first President, but if your "world view" makes you say "Washington", then we'll just have to agree to disagree.