WWTBAM Bored

Melissa Rivers
TV talk host
Has a son, Cooper, in the fourth grade

Topic Tree (pre-randomized):
NASA Missions
Check, Please
Conversion Chart
Google It
Real Names
Hotel California
Movie Music
Scary Books
Metro Motto
TV Talk


Topic Tree: (Randomized)
Movie Music
NASA Missions
Metro Motto
Scary Books
Conversion Chart
Hotel California
Real Names
Google It
Check, Please
TV Talk



Question 1 - TV Talk
In the TV industry, which of these shows is often referred to as a "gaveler"?
A. Wheel of Fortune B. Top Chef
C. Judge Judy D. Dr. Phil

Answer and value

C. Judge Judy
Value: $25000
Bank: $25000

Question - 2 - Check, Please
As anyone who has received a refund from the IRS knows, what landmark is depicted on checks issued by the U.S. Treasury?
A. Mount Rushmore B. Empire State Building
C. Statue of Liberty D. Liberty Bell

JTQ #1

Answer and value

Melissa wishes she got refunds as she has to pay each year. JTQ 1
C. Statue of Liberty
Value: $15000 skipped
Bank: $25000

Commercial break

Flashback: Meredith says this question was worth $125,000 in 2001:
What piece of classical music is featured in the 1980 film "Ordinary People"?
a. The Rite of Spring b. Pachelbel's Canon
c. Ode to Joy d. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Mere said she would return with the answer at the end of the break.

Transcriber's note and answer

Fittingly, it was also from a celebrity stack. Ben Stiller, playing for Project A.L.S.

ATA: A-20% B-45% C-21% D-14%

Ben went with the audience and was correct.

Here is how he finished:

Ben used his 50/50, PAF, and then guessed wrong on the following:

$250K A loofah is the fibrous interior of which of the following?
a. Tropical gourd b. Sea animal
c. Sea plant d. Woodland fungus


50/50: left answers A and C.
PAF: thinks C is correct (50%)

.
.
.


Answer: A
So Ben left with $32,000.

Question 3 - Google It
On Google.com, users can execute Internet searches by clicking on "Google Search" or what other button?
A. Shoe Me Something B. I'm Feeling Lucky
C. One More Try D. Shot In The Dark

Answer and value

Melissa was pretty sure, but they showed her hemming and hawing before finally deciding to go for it.
B. I'm Feeling Lucky
Value: $1000
Bank: $26000

Question 4 -- Real Names
Who was born Mario Lavandeira?
A. Recording artist Prince B. Pro wrestler The Undertaker
C. Actor Vin Diesel D. Gossip blogger Perez Hilton

Answer and value

D. Gossip blogger Perez Hilton
Value: $10000
Bank: $36000

Time is up. Melissa Rivers returns tomorrow

Melissa Rivers
TV talk host
Has a son, Cooper, in the fourth grade

I wonder if she's smarter than a fourth grader?

BBTranscriptTeam wrote: Flashback: Meredith says this question was worth $125,000 in 2001:
What piece of classical music is featured in the 1980 film "Ordinary People"?
a. The Rite of Spring b. Pachelbel's Canon
c. Ode to Joy d. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Amazing! They actually acknowledged (sort of) WWTBAM's heyday in prime time. That has rarely, if ever, happened before. Of course, if they want to do a flashback to past high value questions on every episode, they would quickly run out of questions if they didn't tap into the prime time stacks.

ulysses5019 wrote:

Melissa Rivers
TV talk host
Has a son, Cooper, in the fourth grade

I wonder if she's smarter than a fourth grader?

Every celebrity so far this week has started with some statement about how out of their depths they are, or how they'd much rather just chat with Meredith instead of playing the game, (And, ironically, so far they'd have "earned" exactly as much for the Alzheimer's Association if they had done so.)

I wish Cooper could have played the game instead of his mom.

Since I'm not up-to-date on all of SyndieBAM's fabulous celebrities, Melissa Rivers is Joan Rivers' daughter, right?

TheConfessor wrote:

BBTranscriptTeam wrote: Flashback: Meredith says this question was worth $125,000 in 2001:
What piece of classical music is featured in the 1980 film "Ordinary People"?
a. The Rite of Spring b. Pachelbel's Canon
c. Ode to Joy d. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Amazing! They actually acknowledged (sort of) WWTBAM's heyday in prime time. That has rarely, if ever, happened before. Of course, if they want to do a flashback to past high value questions on every episode, they would quickly run out of questions if they didn't tap into the prime time stacks.

I still don't understand why they couldn't just get rid of the sneak peak without replacing it with these flashbacks. When they come back through the break, Meredith immediately breezes through the answer and the video screen is at a angle making it difficult to read it. This is just one more sign that the questions and answers aren't nearly as important, this season, as the random value reveals.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:Melissa Rivers
TV talk host
Has a son, Cooper, in the fourth grade

She bears a strong resemblance to her mother.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:Question - 2 - Check, Please
As anyone who has received a refund from the IRS knows, what landmark is depicted on checks issued by the U.S. Treasury?
A. Mount Rushmore B. Empire State Building
C. Statue of Liberty D. Liberty Bell

JTQ #1

Answer and value

Melissa wishes she got refunds as she has to pay each year. JTQ 1
C. Statue of Liberty
Value: $15000 skipped
Bank: $25000

Don't most people get their refunds electronically these days?

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:Question 3 - Google It
On Google.com, users can execute Internet searches by clicking on "Google Search" or what other button?
A. Shoe Me Something B. I'm Feeling Lucky
C. One More Try D. Shot In The Dark

Answer and value

Melissa was pretty sure, but they showed her hemming and hawing before finally deciding to go for it.
B. I'm Feeling Lucky
Value: $1000
Bank: $26000

As many times as people use Google around here this should have been a no-brainer.

I hope Melissa makes it to the "NASA missions" question. I'm curious to see what it is.

earendel wrote:

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:Question - 2 - Check, Please
As anyone who has received a refund from the IRS knows, what landmark is depicted on checks issued by the U.S. Treasury?
A. Mount Rushmore B. Empire State Building
C. Statue of Liberty D. Liberty Bell

JTQ #1

Answer and value

Melissa wishes she got refunds as she has to pay each year. JTQ 1
C. Statue of Liberty
Value: $15000 skipped
Bank: $25000

Don't most people get their refunds electronically these days?

I don't know the statistics on that. I still get my refund by check.

Does it seem odd to anyone else that they mix up the dollar amounts and question difficulties, but then act like the contestant did something exciting when the first question turns out to randomly be a high-dollar value? Something about that just seems odd to me. One minor adjustment would change that though, why not have the contestant call out the category of the question they want to answer up until the second part of the game (if they ever get there). That way, it would seem more like the contestant did something to earn the excitement of a lucky choice.

TheSearchIsOn wrote:Does it seem odd to anyone else that they mix up the dollar amounts and question difficulties, but then act like the contestant did something exciting when the first question turns out to randomly be a high-dollar value? Something about that just seems odd to me. One minor adjustment would change that though, why not have the contestant call out the category of the question they want to answer up until the second part of the game (if they ever get there). That way, it would seem more like the contestant did something to earn the excitement of a lucky choice.

Absolutely, it's odd. And ridiculous. But TPTB want Meredith to play up these new rules as "more exciting" so she's got to play it up.

They could keep the new lifelines, but ditch all of the randomization. Go back to climbing the ladder.

TheSearchIsOn wrote:Does it seem odd to anyone else that they mix up the dollar amounts and question difficulties, but then act like the contestant did something exciting when the first question turns out to randomly be a high-dollar value? Something about that just seems odd to me. One minor adjustment would change that though, why not have the contestant call out the category of the question they want to answer up until the second part of the game (if they ever get there). That way, it would seem more like the contestant did something to earn the excitement of a lucky choice.

So far, to me at least, the initial question stack is not in easist to hardest order. So what is the point of randomizing it at all - except for maybe they think it looks cool.

I agree that if they are going to randomize the amounts and questions then let the contestant pick them in the order they want - that would allow some strategy - either saving their wheelhouse to the end or trying for them early and using the jumps to get them to the 2nd round. Also, as amounts get displayed - knowing what amounts are left could infulence their choices. I think that would make it much more interesting.

earendel wrote:

BBTranscriptTeaml wrote:
On Google.com, users can execute Internet searches by clicking on "Google Search" or what other button?
A. Shoe Me Something B. I'm Feeling Lucky
C. One More Try D. Shot In The Dark

Answer and value

Melissa was pretty sure, but they showed her hemming and hawing before finally deciding to go for it.
B. I'm Feeling Lucky
Value: $1000
Bank: $26000

As many times as people use Google around here this should have been a no-brainer.

I use Google all the time, but rarely see the home page that includes "I'm Feeling Lucky." About the only times I ever go there is when someone says they have an interesting Google doodle logo that day.

earendel wrote:

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:Melissa Rivers
TV talk host
Has a son, Cooper, in the fourth grade

She bears a strong resemblance to her mother.

I think they have the same surgeon.

MarleysGh0st wrote:

earendel wrote:

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:Question - 2 - Check, Please
As anyone who has received a refund from the IRS knows, what landmark is depicted on checks issued by the U.S. Treasury?
A. Mount Rushmore B. Empire State Building
C. Statue of Liberty D. Liberty Bell

JTQ #1

Answer and value

Melissa wishes she got refunds as she has to pay each year. JTQ 1
C. Statue of Liberty
Value: $15000 skipped
Bank: $25000

Don't most people get their refunds electronically these days?

I don't know the statistics on that. I still get my refund by check.

What's this thing called a "refund"?

frogman042 wrote: So far, to me at least, the initial question stack is not in easist to hardest order. So what is the point of randomizing it at all - except for maybe they think it looks cool.

I think it's a little early to say one way or the other if the initial topic tree is ordered in the same way as last year's show. Do you have a specific example? To me they seem to be fairly consistent. Check out Victor Garber's stack. He answered the bottom 6 of his initial stack without a lifeline, but for the 4 (possibly) most difficult questions he either needed a lifeline or missed. I also think the "gaveler" question is likely to be the easiest question in Melissa Rivers' stack. Compare its wrong answers to the wrong answers for the IRS check question and its clear which is the harder question. To disprove the hypothesis, I would need to see questions of this disparity in difficult in opposite positions in the non-randomized tree. So far I have not seen this.

megaaddict wrote:

frogman042 wrote: So far, to me at least, the initial question stack is not in easist to hardest order. So what is the point of randomizing it at all - except for maybe they think it looks cool.

I think it's a little early to say one way or the other if the initial topic tree is ordered in the same way as last year's show. Do you have a specific example? To me they seem to be fairly consistent. Check out Victor Garber's stack. He answered the bottom 6 of his initial stack without a lifeline, but for the 4 (possibly) most difficult questions he either needed a lifeline or missed. I also think the "gaveler" question is likely to be the easiest question in Melissa Rivers' stack. Compare its wrong answers to the wrong answers for the IRS check question and its clear which is the harder question. To disprove the hypothesis, I would need to see questions of this disparity in difficult in opposite positions in the non-randomized tree. So far I have not seen this.

You might be right - I was going by memory and I thought I saw some low entries (would be 3rd, 4th or 5th Q's that struck me as harder then normal, but I haven't done a real analysis yet.

If it does hold that the original list indicates it's relative difficulty - then spend a few moments to at least remember which ones where on the top and bottom.

Question 4 needs to be added to this transcript. Unfortunately, the show deleted from my TiVo before I realized the question was missing from the transcript. --Bob

Bob78164 wrote:Question 4 needs to be added to this transcript. Unfortunately, the show deleted from my TiVo before I realized the question was missing from the transcript. --Bob

Hi Bob - sent you a PM with the question, but I got a bored error. Here's Melissa Rivers' question 4:

Who was born Mario Lavandeira?
a: Recording artist Prince
b: Pro wrestler The Undertaker
c: Actor Vin Diesel
d: Gossip blogger Perez Hilton

The correct answer is d. Perez Hilton. The question was worth $10,000.

15QuestionsAway wrote:

Bob78164 wrote:Question 4 needs to be added to this transcript. Unfortunately, the show deleted from my TiVo before I realized the question was missing from the transcript. --Bob

Hi Bob - sent you a PM with the question, but I got a bored error. Here's Melissa Rivers' question 4:

Who was born Mario Lavandeira?
a: Recording artist Prince
b: Pro wrestler The Undertaker
c: Actor Vin Diesel
d: Gossip blogger Perez Hilton

The correct answer is d. Perez Hilton. The question was worth $10,000.

Thanks. PMs also go through, even though they always trigger error messages. I've added the information to the transcript. --Bob