the most beautiful game show moment: Scott Weiss breaks Jeopardy!

[selinker]

What: The end of the March 16, 2007, episode of the quiz show Jeopardy!, which featured the only nonzero three-way tie in the program's history. Here is the Final Jeopardy showdown.

Click to view

Why: As it headed to commercial before Final Jeopardy, the March 16 episode looked to be like most others in the four decades since Jeopardy! debuted: one contestant

Comments

[gearhead69]

This is awesome and hilarious, but the sand animation was unbelievably moving.

[selinker]

If you want to see more of Simonova (or Xenia Simonoff, depending on what transliteration strikes your fancy), here is her qualifying round on Ukraine's Got Talent (fair warning: this too will punch you in the gut). For lots more, look at her YouTube channel. Lots of great work.

By the way, she's only been animating for a year.

[rubrick]

You sound nothing like yourself through the filters of telephone and internet audio.

[selinker]

That's my radio voice, which was trained on better signals than podcasting allows. Trust me, I'm tres stentorian.

[squonk_npl]

Thanks, Slik. This is the second coolest tribute I've gotten this week. :-)

While Alex's story about how I overheard a child's question in the audience is certainly compelling, it's not really true. I honestly don't remember hearing anything from the audience during the wagering period. I've watched the show for years, I knew there had never been a 3-way tie, and I had always rooted for one to happen. So the bet seemed like the natural thing to do. Maybe the kid's question influenced me subliminally?

Anyway, thanks again for the post! And for plugging the NPL.

[selinker]

I don't know, I'm gonna need some proof that... oh. What is this, Mike Believes Everything The Internet Tells Him Day? I have edited out the apocryphal child.

And Scott, next time you make history, I will write a musical for you, I promise.

[beabibliophile]

Thank you so much for mentioning the 'sand animation video.' It's sublime...

[selinker]

She's at least the best entertainer to come out of the Ukraine since Lilia Podkopayeva, and maybe even since Sergey Bubka.

[anonymous]

Wow, I'm actually connected somehow to the Jeopardy! contestant who did the three way tie?

I'm pretty amazed. I remember seeing that in first-run (and reading the arguments over it on Television Without Pity afterward). To think I actually know someone who knows him is pretty surprising. :)

Anyway, there's not many other moments I can think of as good as what you already have. There's the perfect Showcase Showdown bid on The Price is Right, but the fact that the guy who did it was "helped" from the audience by a TPiR superfan who practically memorizes the prices of frequently used items sort of taints it in my eyes. (There's an entire website full of those fans, in fact.)

- Rei

[selinker]

You know more people than you know who know Scott, you know? Tanis, Mark, etc. (FYI, Wombat's blasting me for enticing him to read two blog entries in a row. Must go for three.)

I did know about the perfect showcase, but the clip is so flat and boring that I didn't even consider it. Now I know why. Drew Carey even called it a dark day in the program's history. (Also, it involves Drew Carey. No, I kid. I like Carey. But he does seem to have the follow-a-legend problem. No matter what changes he wants to make to that show, the show's fans will hate it. (Also, I don't like The Price is Right.))