WWTBAM Bored

With Kay out of the loop, it seems that I'm one of the first people here to see each episode. So here's a quick preview of today's show.

The best news is that they picked up the pace a bit from yesterday, with 17 questions instead of 10. That's almost up to last year's average of 17.8 questions per show.

Here's the breakdown of questions per segment.
5 questions before first commercial break.
4 questions before second commercial break.
6 questions before third commercial break.
2 questions before end of episode.

Here are a few minor spoilers.

Spoiler

The first contestant was badly Dursted by the audience on a really easy geography question.

Bill Nye was briefly introduced, but was never used as a lifeline.

I don't think they showed the contestant who was on deck today.

My take:

Spoiler

I also would like to axe the audience.

I mean -- that is Amerrcan geography too, even if it affects mostly big red states??

NB in the absence of a ticking egg-timer the contestant might have considered long enough in order to opt for the double drivel after the ATA , assuming one can still use more than one lifeline per question.

[/spoiler]

Judging by the spoilers, it looks like MBFFB® will be in action once again tonight.

Update:
One of today's 17 questions on WWTBAM was the FJ question on today's Jeopardy episode. Some factoids are predictable game show fodder.

I'm betting they only use the intro for the on-decker when the current contestant gets low on lifelines.

I saw the show. I don't like the clock. It makes the contestant have to think too fast.

Spoiler

I would have used Double Dip on the geography question. I could eliminate one of the answers right away (the one the audience thought was right-by a huge percentage). I doubt the science expert would know.

Kazoo65 wrote:

Spoiler

I would have used Double Dip on the geography question. I could eliminate one of the answers right away (the one the audience thought was right-by a huge percentage). I doubt the science expert would know.

Spoiler

I think Bill Nye would have gotten that easily.

I'm no slouch when it comes to the topic, but when I saw that question appear the immediate thought that popped into my head was a billy joel lyric from the song Leningrad:

Spoiler

"Stop 'em at the thirty-eighth parallel, blast those yellow reds to hell." (a song about growing up in the cold war era, so I'm thinking North and South Korea even before the answers appear)

Followed closely by the thought, "Am i remembering that lyric correctly? In particular, am I remembering that number correctly?

Spoiler

"forty-ninth parallel" also scans just fine in that song!

That might've been enough for me to end up going down the same path,

Spoiler

trotting out the ATA and getting enough reinforcement to go ahead and follow that line of thinking to my doom. This in spite of the fact that I *know* how far north the 49th parallel is! If I had gone down like that, I would've definitely blamed that ticking clock.

Lesson: trust my memory of song lyrics!

Three questions:

1. Do the categories change for your remaining questions if you're the carryover? You won't have time to study if your 2nd show taping is the same day, but what if you hold over to another day, or even another week? Knowing the categories can help, unless they're absurdly obscure with the titles.

2. Can you interrupt Meredith while she's giving the answers? I knew most of today's answers cold, and the others as soon as I finished reading the choices. Why should you have to wait for Meredith to finish reading, as today's people did? It would save that much more time for your $1MM question. If you don't think you're going to get that far and will want or need the extra few seconds, then you shouldn't be on the show.

3. Is Meredith allergic to the term "final answer"? She has never asked the entire question during all her time on SyndieBAM, and usually just asked it as "Final?" With the timer, it forces the contestant to say it without being asked at all.

gsabc wrote:2. Can you interrupt Meredith while she's giving the answers? I knew most of today's answers cold, and the others as soon as I finished reading the choices. Why should you have to wait for Meredith to finish reading, as today's people did? It would save that much more time for your $1MM question. If you don't think you're going to get that far and will want or need the extra few seconds, then you shouldn't be on the show.

This is the question that I'ld like to know the answer to - because if I were in the HS I'd be giving out the answer as soon as I saw it, unless specifically prohibited from doing so.

earendel wrote:

gsabc wrote:2. Can you interrupt Meredith while she's giving the answers? I knew most of today's answers cold, and the others as soon as I finished reading the choices. Why should you have to wait for Meredith to finish reading, as today's people did? It would save that much more time for your $1MM question. If you don't think you're going to get that far and will want or need the extra few seconds, then you shouldn't be on the show.

This is the question that I'ld like to know the answer to - because if I were in the HS I'd be giving out the answer as soon as I saw it, unless specifically prohibited from doing so.

The answer is yes, you can answer whenever the clock is running, whether or not Meredith is reading out the answers. If you use a lifeline, you cannot answer until the claock starts again. You may or may not be prompted by Meredith to say final answer = it is up to you to say it.

---Jay

frogman042 wrote:

earendel wrote:

gsabc wrote:2. Can you interrupt Meredith while she's giving the answers? I knew most of today's answers cold, and the others as soon as I finished reading the choices. Why should you have to wait for Meredith to finish reading, as today's people did? It would save that much more time for your $1MM question. If you don't think you're going to get that far and will want or need the extra few seconds, then you shouldn't be on the show.

This is the question that I'ld like to know the answer to - because if I were in the HS I'd be giving out the answer as soon as I saw it, unless specifically prohibited from doing so.

The answer is yes, you can answer whenever the clock is running, whether or not Meredith is reading out the answers. If you use a lifeline, you cannot answer until the claock starts again. You may or may not be prompted by Meredith to say final answer = it is up to you to say it.

---Jay

Yeah, just read the official rules, as posted at the show's web site. Oh wait, those are from 2007.