WWTBAM Bored

a great point.

May you all be an overnight carry-over and have your next 4 categories be easy to study!

This could be a 6th LL for people!

This suggestion was raised a month ago, when the changes were announced. We were wondering if TPTB would change the remaining questions in the stack, to eliminate that possibility.

MarleysGh0st wrote:This suggestion was raised a month ago, when the changes were announced. We were wondering if TPTB would change the remaining questions in the stack, to eliminate that possibility.

Did any of the people who taped this year mention any conversation about that?

Didn't we just see a change of categories in-between games?

Bob Juch wrote:Didn't we just see a change of categories in-between games?

The questions aren't being changed, but the words used to identify the topics apparently do, occasionally. There's been no explanation for that.

Bob Juch wrote:Didn't we just see a change of categories in-between games?

If we did, then maybe that is the rule.

MarleysGh0st wrote:

Bob Juch wrote:Didn't we just see a change of categories in-between games?

The questions aren't being changed, but the words used to identify the topics apparently do, occasionally. There's been no explanation for that.

How can we know the questions aren't being changed?

Bob Juch wrote:

MarleysGh0st wrote:

Bob Juch wrote:Didn't we just see a change of categories in-between games?

The questions aren't being changed, but the words used to identify the topics apparently do, occasionally. There's been no explanation for that.

How can we know the questions aren't being changed?

We can't, really; that'd be like the "is the 50/50 really random" question. But what we've noticed a couple times is two different topic labels that can both fit the same question. For instance, in Patrick Pugh's stack, this question was identified as "Writers" on Friday's episode and "Funny People" yesterday:

$16,000
Which of these authors is best known as a humorist?

A: Frank McCourt B: David Sedaris
C: Mitch Albom D: David McCullough

The $25K question was alternately described as "Words" and "Italian".

MarleysGh0st wrote:

Bob Juch wrote:

MarleysGh0st wrote: The questions aren't being changed, but the words used to identify the topics apparently do, occasionally. There's been no explanation for that.

How can we know the questions aren't being changed?

We can't, really; that'd be like the "is the 50/50 really random" question. But what we've noticed a couple times is two different topic labels that can both fit the same question. For instance, in Patrick Pugh's stack, this question was identified as "Writers" on Friday's episode and "Funny People" yesterday:

$16,000
Which of these authors is best known as a humorist?

A: Frank McCourt B: David Sedaris
C: Mitch Albom D: David McCullough

The $25K question was alternately described as "Words" and "Italian".

In both of those examples, the first clue was way too broad to be studied. I wonder if they use generic words like "Writers" and "Words" on high level questions for a contestant who might carry over and then substitute it with something more specific when they are in the hotseat as a carryover.

starfish1113 wrote:

MarleysGh0st wrote:

Bob Juch wrote: How can we know the questions aren't being changed?

We can't, really; that'd be like the "is the 50/50 really random" question. But what we've noticed a couple times is two different topic labels that can both fit the same question. For instance, in Patrick Pugh's stack, this question was identified as "Writers" on Friday's episode and "Funny People" yesterday:

$16,000
Which of these authors is best known as a humorist?

A: Frank McCourt B: David Sedaris
C: Mitch Albom D: David McCullough

The $25K question was alternately described as "Words" and "Italian".

In both of those examples, the first clue was way too broad to be studied. I wonder if they use generic words like "Writers" and "Words" on high level questions for a contestant who might carry over and then substitute it with something more specific when they are in the hotseat as a carryover.

Why bother changing it at all, though? "Words" still describes that question and any strategic advantage that there might be in changing it to "Italian" is negated by the fact that the contestant doesn't have any time to think about it, in between the banter with Meredith and the relentless pressure of the damned clock.

And for the audience, there's barely time to look at the whole list, if you're not recording the show and hitting the pause button.

If they changed the questions in a stack after the contestant had started answering the questions, that could easily be interpreted as rigging the game. I'm sure they wouldn't want to take that risk, and the independent compliance enforcers wouldn't allow that. Changing the subject description without changing the actual question is more of a gray area. It looks fishy, and I don't know what motivation they would have for doing that.

We know that they changed the subject of the question about a "pony keg" from "vegetables" to "vocabulary," but I assume that was just fixing an error. I wasn't aware of the more recent changes. If they took place with a Friday contestant who carried over to Monday, that implies that it happened at the end of a taping day, and it's plausible that they were trying to prevent overnight studying.

MarleysGh0st wrote:

starfish1113 wrote:

MarleysGh0st wrote: We can't, really; that'd be like the "is the 50/50 really random" question. But what we've noticed a couple times is two different topic labels that can both fit the same question. For instance, in Patrick Pugh's stack, this question was identified as "Writers" on Friday's episode and "Funny People" yesterday:


The $25K question was alternately described as "Words" and "Italian".

In both of those examples, the first clue was way too broad to be studied. I wonder if they use generic words like "Writers" and "Words" on high level questions for a contestant who might carry over and then substitute it with something more specific when they are in the hotseat as a carryover.

Why bother changing it at all, though? "Words" still describes that question and any strategic advantage that there might be in changing it to "Italian" is negated by the fact that the contestant doesn't have any time to think about it, in between the banter with Meredith and the relentless pressure of the damned clock.

And for the audience, there's barely time to look at the whole list, if you're not recording the show and hitting the pause button.

I have to wonder if they lost the categories and had to recreate them from the questions.

starfish1113 wrote:

MarleysGh0st wrote:

Bob Juch wrote: How can we know the questions aren't being changed?

We can't, really; that'd be like the "is the 50/50 really random" question. But what we've noticed a couple times is two different topic labels that can both fit the same question. For instance, in Patrick Pugh's stack, this question was identified as "Writers" on Friday's episode and "Funny People" yesterday:

$16,000
Which of these authors is best known as a humorist?

A: Frank McCourt B: David Sedaris
C: Mitch Albom D: David McCullough

The $25K question was alternately described as "Words" and "Italian".

In both of those examples, the first clue was way too broad to be studied. I wonder if they use generic words like "Writers" and "Words" on high level questions for a contestant who might carry over and then substitute it with something more specific when they are in the hotseat as a carryover.

Great thought!

I think you just might be on to something.

Bob Juch wrote: I have to wonder if they lost the categories and had to recreate them from the questions.

Huh? Even if they had them on a computer file that they accidentally deleted, didn't they just make a tape of the original episode?

MarleysGh0st wrote:

Bob Juch wrote: I have to wonder if they lost the categories and had to recreate them from the questions.

Huh? Even if they had them on a computer file that they accidentally deleted, didn't they just make a tape of the original episode?

Didn't that happen over the weekend? (I don't have time to go check.)

Bob Juch wrote:

MarleysGh0st wrote:

Bob Juch wrote: I have to wonder if they lost the categories and had to recreate them from the questions.

Huh? Even if they had them on a computer file that they accidentally deleted, didn't they just make a tape of the original episode?

Didn't that happen over the weekend? (I don't have time to go check.)

Yes, some of the descriptions in the topic list changed between Friday's and Monday's show, but I'm saying it's a little far-fetched that they lost the original list, when, as a last resort, they could always review the tape from that Friday episode.

MarleysGh0st wrote:

Bob Juch wrote:

MarleysGh0st wrote: Huh? Even if they had them on a computer file that they accidentally deleted, didn't they just make a tape of the original episode?

Didn't that happen over the weekend? (I don't have time to go check.)

Yes, some of the descriptions in the topic list changed between Friday's and Monday's show, but I'm saying it's a little far-fetched that they lost the original list, when, as a last resort, they could always review the tape from that Friday episode.

They probably don't leave the tape sitting around overnight.

peacock2121 wrote:a great point.

May you all be an overnight carry-over and have your next 4 categories be easy to study!

This could be a 6th LL for people!

I think there's another facet that hasn't been raised yet. I, for one, would love to know what my categories will be in time to ask my lifelines to have appropriate reference material handy. It may even be possible to select members of the PAF team based on that knowledge. --Bob

I read somewhere else that the categories at a recent taping were much less direct about what the question is actually asking.

When I saw the category yesterday of "Canadian Cuisine" I pretty much guessed what the question would be about and I was right.

Spoiler

It's too bad that Jay hadn't spent many hours in chat discussing the virtues of poutine and cheese curds with AD.