Will that guy on Jeopardy ever lose?

ha, i saw that too

well, yeah

And seriously, "The Two Penny Opera?"

Ugh, that made me think he was throwing the game on purpose, mainly because the name of the category was something like "Everything in Threes."

Although this explains a lot:
http://www.cleveland.com/tipoff/index.ssf/2014/03/arthur_chu_is_beaten_on_jeopar.html

Chu said fatigue took a toll on him. What most people don't know is that Jeopardy! tapes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. His first four wins were on a Wednesday and he went home to Broadview Heights until the following Tuesday. On that day, he won five straight games. Then returned Wednesday for more.

"At one point, I was kind of mad because Alex is like, 'Our champion Arthur had two weeks to rest.' No I didn't. I had NO time to rest."

"And seriously, "The Two Penny Opera?"

― nickn, Thursday, March 13, 2014 1:22 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink"

YES. That was surprising.

Felt like Alex could have big upped the guy a little more at the end tbh. I mean that was a pretty impressive streak and he was basically just like see yea later, dude.

Trebek had to establish who was the big dog there without Sean Connery around to correct him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-qYubSv_Qhw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qYubSv_Qhw#t=59

hahaha

Reddit AMA: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/20cyz7/i_am_arthur_chu_3_winningest_jeopardy_contestant/

On the "McDarmand" controversy:

Oh, losing $10,000 on a judgment call is infuriating and leaves a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach. I'm amazed I was able to come back from that and still win that game.

What makes it worse is that Trebek didn't "shut me down" -- he initially GAVE me that Daily Double, congratulated me, everyone applauded me, etc., and then the producers shouted "CUT!" and stopped taping while they conferred with each other and then said they were taking it away from me. That's a really nerve-racking process, and it really really sucks to go "back in time" and have Alex basically undo the victory he just gave you and "rule you wrong" for the cameras.

And yes, I did kind of act like a dick after that but I'd challenge all of you to ask yourselves how you'd feel if you just lost $10,000 for pronouncing a syllable wrong.

Especially with the "Peptide, . . . Peptic" answer on his last day.

He talked about that, too. As long as you correct yourself within the allotted time, you're ok -- it's the second answer that counts (and apparently, this has been the rule on the show from the beginning).

OK, I didn't know that rule. I was expecting more of a jaw-drop from Chu after that that I didn't see. Wasn't sure if that meant it was OK to do that or if he just didn't want to get upset and throw off his game.

On the episode where Arthur lost to Diana, they had all three contestants place their wagers, then suddenly stopped everything. At this point, while not home-free, Diana couldn't be caught by Arthur. She was visibly shaking and had to hold on to the podium to steady herself.

They suddenly announce that they're erasing the wagers, and Arthur's score jumped up, putting him in striking distance. They asked all three to wager again and then held tape again to review another answer.

After several moments, Diana slowly turned to the contestant wranglers and waved. One of them came over to her, and Diana whispered something. The PA ran off to the greenroom and quickly came back with a folding chair and bottle of orange juice... just as Diana went timbeeeer.

She fell straight into the chair and almost completely passed out from the stress.

After a few minutes, she'd recovered enough to complete the game, and was the only contestant to correctly answer Final Jeopardy!. The whole place went nuts, and both she and Arthur got standing ovations at the end of taping.

The whole time this was happening, Diana's mom was in the audience, barely coherent from the stress and literally crying with joy. Arthur's family was practically luminescent with pride at the end as Alex taped a special clip inviting Arthur to the tournament of champions and the show's executive producer came to shake Arthur's hand.

[–]firstordercondition 115 points 23 hours ago

You seemed off your game in that last show. Was it fatigue?

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[–]ThisIsArthurChu[S] 301 points 20 hours ago

Alex said to me during one of those credits segments "I think fatigue will be the thing that takes you down" and he was right.

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[–]PorcupineTheory 399 points 18 hours ago

Did he brush his hand against your cheek and whisper this?

hahahaha

that's some dude arthur beat posting that anecdote, don't want ppl to think arthur was going third person on us

miss u dude but what a soldier

One of the things that Arthur's streak illustrated is how insanely difficult what Jennings did was. Even if you accept that other guys were as smart/fast on the buzzer/poised as him, it's getting hard to imagine that anyone else will top his streak at this point.

i think there was a point where having clocked more hours playing real jeopardy than any of the newcomers gives jennings an advantage, i.e. the streak was more likely to continue the longer it got. did arthur ever get to the point where he could be relaxed and just coast through?

Right I'm sure that helps a bit (also after a while I imagine that the longer the streak the greater the intimidation factor) but at the same time exhaustion and bad luck (which is basically what happened to Arthur) is bound to set in for anyone (Jennings even talks about that in his book IIRC).

Was Jennings as public and vocal during his winning streak? Could Arthur have jinxed himself by talking so much, taking to Twitter, whatever, rather than staying in the mental competition zone? Not that there is a way around that for most. He's called Jennings a mutant and a robot, which maybe is what it takes.

Chu's shows were filmed over 3 days last November. All the tweeting and media attention didn't happen until months after his run was over.

Wow, I guess that's right. For some reason it never clicked with me that these shows were filmed that long ago. So he's known four or five months how long his streak lasts? Well, then, kudos to the guy for talking so much without giving the game away!

they sign ndas not to discuss the outcomes until after everything airs

The ones before that one tournament in February were filmed in November; I think the rest were filmed somewhat recently, at least in 2014?

According to Chu, all his shows were taped over three days in November. They tape five shows a day, and only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Chu taped four shows on a Wednesday, taped five the next Tuesday, and then his final two the next day. There was no break for the tournaments, and it annoyed him that Trebek said "he's had two weeks to study" -- he thought, "fuck you, I was here yesterday."

Ah ok, gotcha

i'd like to think trebek just exists in a jeopardy time vortex

I just assume he does, yeah.

The funny thing is, because of how far in advance they tape, we won't see if Arthur's strategy has caught on among contestants for at least another couple of months.

just watched arthur's loss, which i had dvr'd while i was in austin. he did look tired; he was even rattled by the innocuous question alex asked him during the player introductions. but i thought it was weird that he bet wrong in final jeopardy, considering how much of a jeopardy strategist he was. he wasn't going to win anyway since diana, who was in the lead, had the correct answer. but he bet everything, which is the wrong bet in 99.9 percent of final jeopardy circumstances, and wasn't even close to what he should have bet. he should have bid $2200 or $2201, which would have been enough to nose out diana if he got it right and she got it wrong, which is the only way a player in third place has even a chance of winning. but i guess he had had little or no experience at betting from behind in final jeop.

Arthur's Loss

One of the things that Arthur's streak illustrated is how insanely difficult what Jennings did was.

This was my thought too. He's like the Wilt Chamberlain of Jeopardy.

but i thought it was weird that he bet wrong in final jeopardy, considering how much of a jeopardy strategist he was.

True, but his strategy was also "if I know something, I'm going all-in." His answer didn't seem like a random guess; I think he was maybe 60% sure of his answer.

OMG COLBY IS BACK

smulders?

Are they doing the 2000's tourney already? Cause no Stephanie Jass, no cred.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BkGaPAwCEAAkuNA.png

i can't parse that

horribly formed?

look for the "we build this city" tweet for a treat

No talk about Julia Collins, huh? Yet Arthur Chu is your bff? Yall are a buncha Elliott Rodgerses.

i caught her the other night, trebek called her 'julia the giant of jeopardy' which came off kinda like a fat joke tbh

tnr did a profile on him that's amusing - http://www.newrepublic.com/article/117694/alex-trebek-last-king-american-middlebrow

Seems like the kind of thing Alex Trebek would say, being a huge asshole and all.

But anyway, about Julia Collins...

one thing from that piece - According to head writer Billy Wisse, “Jeopardy!” is merely adjusting along with the evolving canon. His team needs to write the games so that contestants will still have a shot at knowing the answers; just as important, they have to ensure that the people playing along at home still get to feel good about their intellects.

when i was looking at jeopardy's facebook wall when chumania was going down what struck me is how many ppl, esp how many of the angry ppl who felt chu was 'ruining' it for them, generally watched jeopardy so they could tell themselves they were smart even though it was very apparent from their posts they were not smart, not at all. chu gave them some tangible things to direct that hatred towards - 'smug', 'rude', 'asian' - but if you went back you'd find pretty much anyone who won say more than three days in a row drew crazy hate. thinking of scorsese's character in quiz show, how says ppl weren't interested in the displays of intellect or whatever they just liked watching the money, and there's something to that (cf. 30 rock's gold case) but jeopardy does something different than most other shows where the prize is central (even w/ the price is right where some sort of supermarket savviness is key the focus is on the showcase), or even another trivia show like who wants to be a millionaire where the questions initially are ridiculously easy (as trebek bitched about once) and the 'game' comes in w/ when and how to risk the money, w/ jeopardy the prize is secondary (it can come into play w/ strategy but even this is seen as poor form or playing the game wrong somehow as chu demonstrated) and not particularly impressive really and yet it has generally been the most popular game show of the past thirty or so years by effectively pandering to the viewers' egos.

Haven't been watching regularly but have LOVED Julia on all the shows I've seen her on. Total pro.

So is somebody on a new run? I snooze alarmed this after the tourney

Thanks for the heads up on julia btw, i watched her utterly demolish her opponents before the first commercial break and it was a thing of beauty. She bets conservatively but wisely on daily doubles and sorta steamrolls ahead at a healthy pace. I really only like watching jeopardy when a contestant is on a jag and i'm hoping julia can keep it going!