How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

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Rate Dr. Oz on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is best

1
3
4%
2
4
5%
3
7
9%
4
3
4%
5
11
14%
6
14
18%
7
18
23%
8
12
16%
9
3
4%
10
2
3%
 
Total votes: 77

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alietr
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How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

Post by alietr »

How do you think Dr. Oz did as host?

I will add: aside from any feelings you may have about him. His actual performance.
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Re: How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

Post by seaborgium »

I haven't actually been keeping track, so I have to say this with the disclaimer that confirmation bias may have come into play: I think Dr. Oz has had the most clue intonation errors of the guest hosts so far. By that I mean that several of his readings indicated (to my ears, anyway) that he hadn't fully parsed out the intended meaning of the clue as written, and it showed through in his inflections. He was vulnerable to reading punctuation into line breaks, which at best made for awkward readings and at worst could change the meanings of the clues (though that didn't happen substantially in these ten episodes). The one example that stuck out to me enough that I can cite it is from this past Tuesday's game, for $800 in PARK THEMES:

"Rapper Lil Wayne has made no secret of his main hobby, as in a 2016 video set among the ramps of this kind of park"

There was a line break between "set" and "among," and Dr. Oz read it as though the object of the preposition had been "video set," that is, with "set" being a noun and "video" modifying it; I don't think I'm wrong in reading "set" as a past participle, initiating a phrase modifying "video." In other words, the clue was saying the video was set among the ramps, and Dr. Oz said the video set was among the ramps. Overall this isn't a drastic change in meaning (probably still accurate to the facts), but it's indicative of a major issue for someone hosting a game show. On this basis, I put Dr. Oz at the bottom, Ken at the top, and Mike and Katie in the middle (I don't have enough confidence in my memory of their stints to put one over the other).

P.S. Alex wasn't immune to that kind of error himself; for example, there was a clue in my first game that he had to re-record because he read "in the '80s" as modifying the preceding words when it modified the following words (which threw me enough to cause me to clam on a correct response).
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Re: How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

Post by Robert K S »

He was fine.

My only annoyance with his performance was he kept announcing "You are a Jeopardy! champion!" when the returning champion won.
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alietr
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Re: How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

Post by alietr »

Interesting observation, Sg, but he's reading the clue off the card, and do we know that the line breaks are the same on his card as they are on the board?
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Re: How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

Post by MarkBarrett »

Dr. Oz as we saw him was okay as a host and I suspect redos helped. I went with a 6 while also considering a 7, as 6.5 was what I really felt overall. In some of the game threads I mentioned things I noticed Mehmet said that were different than previous hosts's phraseology.

Chat segments seemed off for the 10 games and that is a place where hosts with the right kind of skills can make that portion of the show not too boring. These past two weeks had me not getting extra enjoyment from the little talks where usually I'm glad to have had the minute and a half to hear from the contestants.

Dr. Oz can go back to his regular show. Sometimes I have it on for background noise and sometimes I actually watch when he covers interesting true crime stories. It was two weeks & 10 shows. It's over and I'm ready for the heat to be turned down for the upcoming hosts. Never have I seen such strong lasting negativity surrounding J! as happened concerning Dr. Oz as guest host.
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Re: How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

Post by seaborgium »

alietr wrote: Sat Apr 03, 2021 10:15 am Interesting observation, Sg, but he's reading the clue off the card, and do we know that the line breaks are the same on his card as they are on the board?
Enough of his weird readings have coincided with the line breaks as seen by us that it's a conclusion I'm willing to draw.
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Re: How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

Post by Sherm »

seaborgium wrote: Sat Apr 03, 2021 9:50 am I haven't actually been keeping track, so I have to say this with the disclaimer that confirmation bias may have come into play: I think Dr. Oz has had the most clue intonation errors of the guest hosts so far. By that I mean that several of his readings indicated (to my ears, anyway) that he hadn't fully parsed out the intended meaning of the clue as written, and it showed through in his inflections........

P.S. Alex wasn't immune to that kind of error himself; for example, there was a clue in my first game that he had to re-record because he read "in the '80s" as modifying the preceding words when it modified the following words (which threw me enough to cause me to clam on a correct response).
Here is my take. He actually had voice inflection with regularity while the others rarely did, and the longer he went the better he was getting. I thought Katie Couric was almost robotic. His first show, I didn't think Oz was very strong. His last show. I think he was the closest to Trebek of the 4 we've seen.

You could tell he got more comfortable the longer he was doing it.
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Re: How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

Post by CharlieD »

I think Dr Oz had good pacing and speaking skills. His pacing was better than Mike, who I think was often too fast. He was more efficient than Katie. Perhaps slightly better than Ken at pacing and speaking.

One big error by Dr Oz was his omission in his 2nd-Monday FJ of explaining the correct response of P.L. Travers. He never explained who Travers is, or what book/film the clue referred to. Ken would not have made that mistake. He forgot that one of his main jobs is explaining the game to the home audience. I think he lost his focus for a moment.

On his overall effectiveness as host, I would rank Ken 1st, Oz 2nd, Mike 3rd, Katie last.

I predict Oz will permanently go back to his snake-oil business.
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Re: How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

Post by yclept »

A solid 7. To me, the best part about his run is that it kinda was unmemorable. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing for a Jeopardy host.

While the host has little to do with it, there were some solid performances during his time. Good short-term champs who couldn’t get on a roll (likely because this appeared to be a relatively strong contestant pool for his run)
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Re: How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

Post by seaborgium »

Sherm wrote: Sat Apr 03, 2021 10:47 am
seaborgium wrote: Sat Apr 03, 2021 9:50 am I haven't actually been keeping track, so I have to say this with the disclaimer that confirmation bias may have come into play: I think Dr. Oz has had the most clue intonation errors of the guest hosts so far. By that I mean that several of his readings indicated (to my ears, anyway) that he hadn't fully parsed out the intended meaning of the clue as written, and it showed through in his inflections........

P.S. Alex wasn't immune to that kind of error himself; for example, there was a clue in my first game that he had to re-record because he read "in the '80s" as modifying the preceding words when it modified the following words (which threw me enough to cause me to clam on a correct response).
Here is my take. He actually had voice inflection with regularity while the others rarely did, and the longer he went the better he was getting. I thought Katie Couric was almost robotic. His first show, I didn't think Oz was very strong. His last show. I think he was the closest to Trebek of the 4 we've seen.

You could tell he got more comfortable the longer he was doing it.
Inflection in itself is not a good thing if it hinders proper conveyance of a clue's meaning. For me that alone wouldn't matter much since I usually understand the clue as written before it's out of the host's mouth, but much of my buzzer timing depends on a predictable reading of the clue, and several of Dr. Oz's readings have had these "I wouldn't have said it like that" moments that would have surprised me to the point of being less ready to ring in when the time came.

(Actually, there was a moment like that with Alex when I taped, though it didn't have to do with inflection: he read Royce Gracie's first name like the second name in the car company, and I can't be certain but I might have lost the buzzer race on that clue because my internal monologue went, "I think it's pronounced 'hoyce'" while he was finishing the clue. He re-recorded it with the correct pronunciation, but my buzzer timing cost me the lead and nearly $16,000 when all was said and done.)
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Re: How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

Post by tddeveryday »

He's obviously too controversial to be a serious candidate, but if we could somehow put that aside, he would be the new ideal host for me, even moreso than Ken.

My politics are liberal and I don't support his most extreme opinions. But his phrasing is fresher and more original than Ken's. He proves that you can do a good job hosting this show without copying Alex.

Ken: 9
Mike: 6
Katie Couric: 4
Dr. Oz: 10 (downgraded to 8 after some more thought)
Last edited by tddeveryday on Sat Apr 17, 2021 5:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

Post by This Is Kirk! »

Huh, I didn't really like his intonation at all. I gave him a five. He wasn't terrible, just not good.
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Re: How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

Post by AFRET CMS »

This Is Kirk! wrote: Sat Apr 03, 2021 12:14 pm Huh, I didn't really like his intonation at all. I gave him a five. He wasn't terrible, just not good.
I thought he was "OK" for the most part, but for some reason his intonation and timbre just seemed to start to grate on me by the end of each episode. His inflections just started to seem repetitive. Some people may have found his voice smooth and soothing; I did not.
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Re: How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

Post by MattKnowles »

There were several times when I thought he acted like he was the smartest person on the stage. Maybe body language and tone more than actual words. The words he used to describe the contestants were appropriate but it didn’t feel genuine. In the interview with the Oncology Nurse he said something like “Everything makes a contribution” and it read to me that he was comparing the contribution of a nurse and a doctor and put himself in a position of superiority while acknowledging the nurse was helping. There were some triple stumpers where I thought he looked down on the contestants for not getting them. The audience is supposed to do that from home but not the host. To his credit he spoke clearly and kept a good pace. My least favorite of the guest hosts so far. My ranking so far is Ken, Katie, Mike, Mehmet. With Mehmet far behind.
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Re: How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

Post by Bamaman »

I gave him a 7. He seemed to get better as he went on.

My biggest problem for me was he seemed to go overboard in kissing everyone’s butt. The players are supersmart. (Dude, you’re a heart surgeon and a Harvard grad. You have been around smart people before). The staff is wonderful. Alex was a wonderful person. I’m sure he felt he was being sincere but it came off to me as canned.

I have never watched more than a few minutes of his show here and there and only because it was ending before a show I was watching next or just background noise. I knew nothing about his views or advice prior to his hosting gig. The negative feedback against him (as well as Couric) went way overboard. Hopefully it calms down with Aaron Rodgers. But we will probably have people say he is a dumb jock or won’t watch because they are boycotting the NFL due to political reasons.

I am interested to see how he does. Ken, while not a pro, had played over a hundred games so he knew the routine. Mike runs the show and had hosted other games. Katie and Oz have had long careers hosting TV shows. But this is new for Aaron. He has been on camera a lot due to being a star QB but hasn’t hosted anything as far as I know.
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Re: How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

Post by DysonSphere »

I have no opinion of Dr. Oz outside of Jeopardy. (I'm vaguely aware of the controversies. I just choose not to care.) He was my favorite host so far. I thought he had the best announcer quality and I admired how he was to the point and did things his own way. I know it won't happen, but I would be happy if he were made permanent.
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Re: How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

Post by Peter the accountant »

I will start by saying I do not like Dr. Oz as a television personality. I have no basis to judge him as a doctor, so I will not. But I can - as requested - stick to his performance as a Jeopardy! guest host.

I thought he did quite well. As others have noted, the pace at which he read the clues was fine. Quick enough, but not too quick. A fair number of boards were fully completed during the two weeks, so he's certainly not too slow. Perhaps a quibble with a pronunciation or emphasis here and there, but those are always going to exist.

My scale has 10 as the reincarnation of Alex and 9 as good enough to be a full time replacement. I gave Dr. Oz an 8. In terms of overall ranking as a host I'd like to see again, I put him #2 behind Katie, with Ken a close 3rd and Mike clearly at the back of the pack.

Putting my bias back in, I'm glad to get him off of one of my favorite shows.
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Re: How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

Post by AntmanB »

i Thought he was fine, but you could tell especially in those first couple episodes he was dubbed.

1, Ken
2. Mike
3. Katie
4. Dr Oz

But honestly i liked Katie and Mike about the same.
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Re: How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

Post by Leander »

AFRET CMS wrote: Sat Apr 03, 2021 12:18 pm
This Is Kirk! wrote: Sat Apr 03, 2021 12:14 pm Huh, I didn't really like his intonation at all. I gave him a five. He wasn't terrible, just not good.
I thought he was "OK" for the most part, but for some reason his intonation and timbre just seemed to start to grate on me by the end of each episode. His inflections just started to seem repetitive. Some people may have found his voice smooth and soothing; I did not.
I gave him a 7. I thought he was OK, but in the second week I seemed to find him grating as well.
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Re: How Did Dr. Oz Do as Host? (His actual performance, not your opinion of him)

Post by mas3cf »

My rankings would go:

1. Ken
2. Katie
3. Mike
4. Watson (IBM)
5. Charlie Brown's teacher
6. Dr. Oz

Technically, he didn't do an absolutely disastrous job, I suppose... but part of the job is getting the audience to have a good time watching the show, and if they're constantly grossed out by having a snake oil salesman where Alex Trebek once stood, that ain't cutting it.
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