WWTBAM Bored

The heavily advertised return of the ABC genius quizzer last night delivered the unthinkable in the first few minutes - Ken Jennings, quiz show champ, out with no winnings whatsoever after just four questions.

Jennings, best known for 'Jeopardy', was bested in the night's first 'Battle' round by neuroscientist and Stanford honors grad Monica Thieu.

The episode earned decent ratings, likely thanks in part to Jennings' brief appearance, but it may be the ratings for tonight's second episode that could indicate whether a third season is likely. (My call: )

Full Recap (Game Show Kingdom II)
https://bobbymgsk.wordpress.com/2016/05 ... ns-2nd-s-p





Pardon the nitpicking, but:

# of Questions Asked Last Night - 113 (Regular Gameplay/Lightning Rounds - 98/15)
Total # of Questions Asked So Far This Season - 113
Hours Aired This Season - 2/8 (Friday and Saturday are one hour only)

...so not much hope of reaching a total of 500 questions asked this season either (around 440 in Season One).
Hope they've got Brad Rutter on the line...

And to arrange for that big-ticket name on their premiere, TPTB apparently reneged on their promise that last season's final winner would get to continue his run. #‎WheresRichardMason‬

For all that this show likes to call it the toughest trivia game there is, it's still a confusing hodgepodge of rules ("Battles" that the "Challenger" can win, that hardly ever make any difference), with far too much banter about the questions to ever leave them time to get through 500 of them.

Brit Canuck wrote:The heavily advertised return of the ABC genius quizzer last night delivered the unthinkable in the first few minutes - Ken Jennings, quiz show champ, out with no winnings whatsoever after just four questions.

Not heavily advertised enough, unfortunately. I missed it. I believe Brandon Saunders was also on last night. Is it available online anywhere? I knew what was going to happen, since people who were at the taping in March told me about the questionable goings on. I tried out for Season One and had my hopes up for a while, but I'm glad I sat Season Two out. I also know that one principled contestant walked out of the taping after learning what was done to the (non)returning champion. But half of the people who were invited to be contestants and were in the studio still did not get to play. Most of the behind the scenes drama doesn't matter to the average viewer, but I hate to see any new prime time quiz show fail to live up to its potential, for whatever reason.

TheConfessor wrote:Is it available online anywhere?

I am an ATT U-Verse customer and it is available there in the free TV on Demand section for ABC shows. If you are a cable/satellite customer, you might want to check out their on Demand offerings for free TV, as well.

The following sequence of pages ends up on a page where you can view it online now if you are a customer of any of the listed providers, or, they say, a week after airing if you are not a customer.

http://abc.go.com/shows/500-questions

http://abc.go.com/shows/500-questions/episode-guide

http://abc.go.com/shows/500-questions/e ... re-night-1

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Estonut wrote:

TheConfessor wrote:Is it available online anywhere?

I am an ATT U-Verse customer and it is available there in the free TV on Demand section for ABC shows. If you are a cable/satellite customer, you might want to check out their on Demand offerings for free TV, as well.

The following sequence of pages ends up on a page where you can view it online now if you are a customer of any of the listed providers, or, they say, a week after airing if you are not a customer.

http://abc.go.com/shows/500-questions

http://abc.go.com/shows/500-questions/episode-guide

http://abc.go.com/shows/500-questions/e ... re-night-1

Spoiler

Missed your favorite new episode? Want to see it right now?

Thanks, Esto. I just watched the whole thing. Almost felt sorry for Ken, but not sorry for the bad Karma the producers got for ditching the defending champ. Overall, the show was a little better than last year's version. Still giving away tightwad prizes for a prime time network show. Brandon played okay, but never got much of a chance.

TheConfessor wrote:Thanks, Esto. I just watched the whole thing. Almost felt sorry for Ken, but not sorry for the bad Karma the producers got for ditching the defending champ. Overall, the show was a little better than last year's version. Still giving away tightwad prizes for a prime time network show. Brandon played okay, but never got much of a chance.

I wonder if Ken knew that Richard Mason was being stabbed in the back by TPTB in order to give Ken his guaranteed shot? Because this was the only way that Ken was sure to play. If Ken had appeared a mere challenger, there would have been little he could do to defeat the player he was challenging. I got sick of all the times the host has been telling the challengers that they're running out of chances. "Yeah Dan, what the hell can I do about it?"

MarleysGh0st wrote:

TheConfessor wrote:Thanks, Esto. I just watched the whole thing. Almost felt sorry for Ken, but not sorry for the bad Karma the producers got for ditching the defending champ. Overall, the show was a little better than last year's version. Still giving away tightwad prizes for a prime time network show. Brandon played okay, but never got much of a chance.

I wonder if Ken knew that Richard Mason was being stabbed in the back by TPTB in order to give Ken his guaranteed shot? Because this was the only way that Ken was sure to play. If Ken had appeared a mere challenger, there would have been little he could do to defeat the player he was challenging. I got sick of all the times the host has been telling the challengers that they're running out of chances. "Yeah Dan, what the hell can I do about it?"

You're right about a guarantee, but all they had to do to substantially increase Ken's odds of playing as the champ were (a) make him the first challenger, and (b) make the first board insanely difficult. --Bob

The new formatting (30 questions per round) doesn't work, either, it just drags the whole thing out longer, gives the challenger less chances (save your b***hing for your own show, Dan), and if you do the math, you realize that renaming the show to '510 Questions' (or even '300' Questions') is the only logical solution to maintain the show's premise (trust me, no one's gonna last 17 rounds on this show).

And yes, there's apparently a #‎WheresRichardMason hashtag now trending on Twitter. There's even speculation that Jennings intentionally threw the game over to Monica to protest Mason's omission from Season Two. Just speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised (four questions???).

It's yet another example of recent mismanagement by ABC following the switchover of their head honcho. All you have to do is look at the recent controversy over 'Castle' which sealed that show's fate. The network tried to let female leads Stana Katic and Tamala Jones go 'for budgetary reasons', which might make sense on any other major network, but not the one owned by the biggest and most profitable entertainment empire on the planet. And ABC's (for want of a better word) massacre of nearly a dozen of its primetime shows earlier this month will, IMO, leave the network struggling this Fall. *cough* PrimetimeBAM *cough*

Brit Canuck wrote:The new formatting (30 questions per round) doesn't work, either, it just drags the whole thing out longer, gives the challenger less chances (save your b***hing for your own show, Dan), and if you do the math, you realize that renaming the show to '510 Questions' (or even '300' Questions') is the only logical solution to maintain the show's premise (trust me, no one's gonna last 17 rounds on this show).

And yes, there's apparently a #‎WheresRichardMason hashtag now trending on Twitter. There's even speculation that Jennings intentionally threw the game over to Monica to protest Mason's omission from Season Two. Just speculation, but I wouldn't be surprised (four questions???).

It's yet another example of recent mismanagement by ABC following the switchover of their head honcho. All you have to do is look at the recent controversy over 'Castle' which sealed that show's fate. The network tried to let female leads Stana Katic and Tamala Jones go 'for budgetary reasons', which might make sense on any other major network, but not the one owned by the biggest and most profitable entertainment empire on the planet. And ABC's (for want of a better word) massacre of nearly a dozen of its primetime shows earlier this month will, IMO, leave the network struggling this Fall. *cough* PrimetimeBAM *cough*

Any bets on how long it will take for ABC to realize that all the network's ills could be solved by Celebrity 500 Questions?

Spock wrote:Any bets on how long it will take for ABC to realize that all the network's ills could be solved by Celebrity 500 Questions?

*Expletives deleted*

Spock wrote: Any bets on how long it will take for ABC to realize that all the network's ills could be solved by Celebrity 500 Questions?

You don't consider Ken Jennings a celebrity?

TheConfessor wrote:

Spock wrote: Any bets on how long it will take for ABC to realize that all the network's ills could be solved by Celebrity 500 Questions?

You don't consider Ken Jennings a celebrity?

Sure, he's a celebrity as a trivia game contestant. Even when TPTB don't mention it on air, it appears that having a accomplished record on another game show, whether on J! or WWTBAM or The Million Second Quiz, was a major factor in being cast on this one.

But you know darn well what Spock means--it's the other celebrities, the TV and movie stars, the athletes and hip-hop artists, and the Kim Kardashians of the world (who are famous for--uhhh--being famous) who TPTB are all too likely to decide are the appropriate contestants for a show like this.

Unfamous people are so...ordinary.

I was going to binge watch this after the weekend. Guess I can skip through this part now.

Ray