Jeopardy spelling controversy

[mrkelley23]

A.) Nope. But if the umpire then stood over you and said, "Aw, if only you'd slid like you're SUPPOSED to, you might not have let your whole team down," people might be a little upset.

B.) Nope. But if the official then says, "Oh, sorry. I thought you understood that "hurdle" meant you were supposed to jump OVER them," people might be upset.

C.) Nope. But if your coach hands you the baton and says, "Wow, way to lose the state championship for your teammates," people might be upset.

D.) Nope. But if your opponent's father later tweets, "Queen sacrifice at move 15, epic fail lolz," people might be upset. In fact, at the mandatory training we've had recently, all these people would be considered bullies, and up for censure.

Look, I realize that there are people at the jboard who think the question shouldn't have been ruled incorrect. But nobody here has really made that claim.

Bingo.

And oh, BTW, in any of those examples, is the 13-year-old kid on national television?

I think this is the crux of the matter. However the article speaks to the ruling and not Alex's snotty attitude.

The ruling is consistant with other rulings of the past. And would not have changed the amount of money the kid earned.

Unfortunately Alex's superior attitude is also consistant and really obnoxious when displayed at the expense of a 13 yo kid.

I think there should be more said about the gutsy move of the winner. Bravo for deciding to go for it because you thought you knew your area of knowledge!

I don't know what article you're referring to, unless it's the jboard link that Ed posted. All my posts in this thread have been in response to either Buff's original post, or to other posters in the thread.

Would the gutsy move of the winner had been called a Claven if he'd missed it?

[mrkelley23]

So in the age 13 bracket, if you fall down two feet from home plate and get tagged out instead of scoring the winning run, you get a do-over? After all, you almost made it.

Or if you knock down your hurdles?

Or if you drop the baton on the relay on the way to a state championship?

Or, intellectually, if you make a really really dumb chess move and lose your queen, instead of immediately checkmating your opponent.?

The answer, of course, is "none of the above". And so should it be with "Emanciptation".

A.) Nope. But if the umpire then stood over you and said, "Aw, if only you'd slid like you're SUPPOSED to, you might not have let your whole team down," people might be a little upset.

B.) Nope. But if the official then says, "Oh, sorry. I thought you understood that "hurdle" meant you were supposed to jump OVER them," people might be upset.

C.) Nope. But if your coach hands you the baton and says, "Wow, way to lose the state championship for your teammates," people might be upset.

D.) Nope. But if your opponent's father later tweets, "Queen sacrifice at move 15, epic fail lolz," people might be upset. In fact, at the mandatory training we've had recently, all these people would be considered bullies, and up for censure.

Look, I realize that there are people at the jboard who think the question shouldn't have been ruled incorrect. But nobody here has really made that claim.

Come on, Mr. K - where did Alex say anything remotely akin to this type of snarky comment? I don't know what the winner's father tweeted, but surely Alex can't be blamed for that. Maybe I am missing something since all I have seen is the clip on youtube?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSvl7uKysaE
He said the answer was misspelled "badly" - probably could have chosen a better word, but I think the point was that it was misspelled in a way such that by long-standing Jeopardy practice it had to be ruled incorrect. Alex has very limited time for comments at the end of the show, and he wanted to leave time to comment on the winner, including the coincidence of him getting a topic that he had expressed interest in earlier on the show. So he didn't have time to explain the misspelling practice. He did say the misspelling was unfortunate. I don't interpret his comment that the winner had spelled his answer correctly as rubbing it in - it was just to emphasize that the correctly spelled answer could be counted correct even though it was otherwise no better than the answer that had to be counted wrong.

When a ruling has to be made on Jeopardy!, SOP is to stop the cameras, discuss and make the ruling, then edit in new audio and, if necessary, B roll video to smooth it out. They have effectively unlimited time for Alex to figure out what he's going to say. This is not a live broadcast.

etaoin's false analogies above were as relevant as the guy who posted on Youtube about 1+1 not equalling 3. After all, it's only off by one, right? So forgive me if my responses are exaggerated. I was trying to make a point.

[littlebeast13]

If the FJ answer is Phoenix and someone writes "What is Feenicks?" would they accept it? Grossly misspelled but still pronounced the same.

That's the question I posed visually. But I understand J! players are only good at responding to answers...

lb13

[etaoin22]

A.) Nope. But if the umpire then stood over you and said, "Aw, if only you'd slid like you're SUPPOSED to, you might not have let your whole team down," people might be a little upset.

B.) Nope. But if the official then says, "Oh, sorry. I thought you understood that "hurdle" meant you were supposed to jump OVER them," people might be upset.

C.) Nope. But if your coach hands you the baton and says, "Wow, way to lose the state championship for your teammates," people might be upset.

D.) Nope. But if your opponent's father later tweets, "Queen sacrifice at move 15, epic fail lolz," people might be upset. In fact, at the mandatory training we've had recently, all these people would be considered bullies, and up for censure.

Look, I realize that there are people at the jboard who think the question shouldn't have been ruled incorrect. But nobody here has really made that claim.

Come on, Mr. K - where did Alex say anything remotely akin to this type of snarky comment? I don't know what the winner's father tweeted, but surely Alex can't be blamed for that. Maybe I am missing something since all I have seen is the clip on youtube?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSvl7uKysaE
He said the answer was misspelled "badly" - probably could have chosen a better word, but I think the point was that it was misspelled in a way such that by long-standing Jeopardy practice it had to be ruled incorrect. Alex has very limited time for comments at the end of the show, and he wanted to leave time to comment on the winner, including the coincidence of him getting a topic that he had expressed interest in earlier on the show. So he didn't have time to explain the misspelling practice. He did say the misspelling was unfortunate. I don't interpret his comment that the winner had spelled his answer correctly as rubbing it in - it was just to emphasize that the correctly spelled answer could be counted correct even though it was otherwise no better than the answer that had to be counted wrong.

When a ruling has to be made on Jeopardy!, SOP is to stop the cameras, discuss and make the ruling, then edit in new audio and, if necessary, B roll video to smooth it out. They have effectively unlimited time for Alex to figure out what he's going to say. This is not a live broadcast.

etaoin's false analogies above were as relevant as the guy who posted on Youtube about 1+1 not equalling 3. After all, it's only off by one, right? So forgive me if my responses are exaggerated. I was trying to make a point.

Any of my sports examples could be on live TV, and neither umps nor announcers will be held to a standard of über-sensitivity.

Personally, i don't care for comparisons to 1+1 = 3; it reminds me of Rich Little's characterization of Reaaganomcs.

If I understand correctly the kids got to "keep" their exact winnings for college, rather than predetermined second and third prizes. This, if so, created a "hoist with your own petard" situation for J!, as otherwise, Mr. Trebek would have said something like "the judges rule against your spelling and your score will go down, but you are still the second-place finisher and get the second-place prize; congratulations!"

[mrkelley23]

Come on, Mr. K - where did Alex say anything remotely akin to this type of snarky comment? I don't know what the winner's father tweeted, but surely Alex can't be blamed for that. Maybe I am missing something since all I have seen is the clip on youtube?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSvl7uKysaE
He said the answer was misspelled "badly" - probably could have chosen a better word, but I think the point was that it was misspelled in a way such that by long-standing Jeopardy practice it had to be ruled incorrect. Alex has very limited time for comments at the end of the show, and he wanted to leave time to comment on the winner, including the coincidence of him getting a topic that he had expressed interest in earlier on the show. So he didn't have time to explain the misspelling practice. He did say the misspelling was unfortunate. I don't interpret his comment that the winner had spelled his answer correctly as rubbing it in - it was just to emphasize that the correctly spelled answer could be counted correct even though it was otherwise no better than the answer that had to be counted wrong.

When a ruling has to be made on Jeopardy!, SOP is to stop the cameras, discuss and make the ruling, then edit in new audio and, if necessary, B roll video to smooth it out. They have effectively unlimited time for Alex to figure out what he's going to say. This is not a live broadcast.

etaoin's false analogies above were as relevant as the guy who posted on Youtube about 1+1 not equalling 3. After all, it's only off by one, right? So forgive me if my responses are exaggerated. I was trying to make a point.

Any of my sports examples could be on live TV, and neither umps nor announcers will be held to a standard of über-sensitivity.

Personally, i don't care for comparisons to 1+1 = 3; it reminds me of Rich Little's characterization of Reaaganomcs.

If I understand correctly the kids got to "keep" their exact winnings for college, rather than predetermined second and third prizes. This, if so, created a "hoist with your own petard" situation for J!, as otherwise, Mr. Trebek would have said something like "the judges rule against your spelling and your score will go down, but you are still the second-place finisher and get the second-place prize; congratulations!"

With 12 year olds? Other than the Little League World Series, which does indeed have demonstrably different standards for umpires and announcers, I find that highly unlikely.

According to the articles I have read, like this one,the prizes for 2nd and third place were $2000 and $1000, just like on the regular show. Only the winner got to "keep" his winnings. The fact that Alex did NOT say what you posit, above, is exactly the point Buff is trying to make. Why did he NOT say something like this?

Unlike the child and many of his defenders, I don't believe he was cheated. The precedent is well-known for any follower of the show.

[plasticene]

If I understand correctly the kids got to "keep" their exact winnings for college, rather than predetermined second and third prizes. This, if so, created a "hoist with your own petard" situation for J!, as otherwise, Mr. Trebek would have said something like "the judges rule against your spelling and your score will go down, but you are still the second-place finisher and get the second-place prize; congratulations!"

Nope, they got pre-determined second and third prizes. Which makes this whole "controversy" even more ridiculous than it otherwise would be.

I re-watched the ending of this episode last night to see what sins Alex committed. As I saw it, he wasn't snarky in the least, but his performance was pretty clumsy because he was caught off guard by the misspelling and the judges' ruling. He didn't declare that it was misspelled badly; he was asking the judges, "Because it's misspelled badly?" He didn't praise the correct spelling of the champions' response; he was just confirming out loud that--thank goodness--it was spelled correctly.

When I was Thomas' age, I spelled "sickeningly" S-I-C-K-E-N-L-I-N-G-L-Y in a Spelling Bee. I'm sure no one in attendance believed for a second that I didn't know how to spell that word, but nobody could have thought I deserved another chance, since by the rules, I was out. Jeopardy isn't a Spelling Bee, but it has rules of its own that are just as strict, and sometimes those rules end up disqualifying an almost-correct answer. Any twelve-year-old, not to mention any adult, should understand that.

[TheConfessor]

So in the age 13 bracket, if you fall down two feet from home plate and get tagged out instead of scoring the winning run, you get a do-over? After all, you almost made it.

What if you almost guess the number of rows of stars on the American flag?

Yeah, I knew what you meant to say. You were robbed! Or maybe jipted.

[TheConfessor]

Here's what a man of the cloth thinks about it. He's also a former J! and WWTBAM winner.
http://theunexpectedpastor.wordpress.co ... f-defeatt/

[Kazoo65]

I've been a J! fan for years (and have auditioned 6 times to get on it). Alex is always saying that spelling is very important in FJ because, as we have seen time and time again, misspelling a word can cost a contestant dearly-no matter how old they are.

I enjoyed watching Skyler-he was BRILLIANT. I hope BAM is around when he's older-I think he would be a great contestant!

[DadofTwins]

To me, this is a breakdown in the casting process.

I just watched the video today. The kid was already about to lose it even before the response was revealed. Then to get so close and come up short . . . well, he's 12.

The judging was correct. Alex could have handled it better, but he probably didn't want to distract too much from the big win that was about to happen. Maybe he rushed through the first two players a bit, but that's understandable.

But if you're casting kids for a game show, and it's up to you whether they get on or not, one of the things you need to look for is the ability to "handle it" if/when things don't go their way.

Plus, I'm sure there is some extent to which we're seeing the influence of the adult(s) in this kid's life in his reaction and the media feeding frenzy that has followed. If they were taking advice form me, I would suggest that the contestant selection people include Mom/Dad/whoever in the audition process.