Featured J!Buzz

Jeopardy! Masters Reaches the Semifinals

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There are many extraordinary things about Jeopardy!, and so much that I have learned to appreciate since coming on board a few years ago. But the thing that has most impressed me, that has blown me away to be honest, is the quantity and quality of our categories and clues.

This week’s two Masters episodes featured four full games of material. 30 clues in the Jeopardy! Round plus 30 more in Double Jeopardy! plus one in Final: That’s 61 clues in every game. So, 122 per episode of Masters. This week, there are two episodes of Masters, which means 244 Masters clues. Plus five shows in syndication for another 305. So 549 Jeopardy! clues will have played on Jeopardy! just this week.

Last year, we put 25,687 clues on the air. And the vast majority of them are absolute bangers.

I spend so much time obsessed with and therefore lost in our categories.

But still, you ask me to remember a specific clue, and all I see is a flash flood of white text on blue - like jagged static, glitching memory, like a computer dreaming. Not because our material is forgettable, but more because it has become part of my mental wallpaper. Always on. Always scrolling. A beautiful blur of knowledge, wit, and craft.

Some examples….

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Jeopardy! Masters: Behind the Clues – Quarterfinal Game 5

BAKING WITH DAME PRUE - Debbie Griffin enjoyed writing the category for Dame Prue Leith, whose work she enjoys. One advantage of writing celebrity/video clues about food and cooking is that you avoid the perennial pitfall of alternative responses. There is no official body to define what goes into a given cocktail or recipe. Showing the item in question can eliminate a lot of those issues.

IT WILL ALL END WITH “Q” - Using abbreviations in the category IT WILL ALL END WITH “Q” was a simple but effective way that writer Jim Rhine got away from the undersupply of English words that have Q as their last letter. We rarely enjoy a stand-and-stare clue, but were amused that the Masters were unable to come up with “What is I.Q.”? And we were impressed with the correct response on the Marcel Duchamp title “L.H.O.O.Q.” 

20TH CENTURY FICTION - The Final about 20th Century Fiction “What is Goodbye Columbus”? was originally a regular clue in a J!/DJ! literature category, but when we went over it in “round table,” almost all the writers had the same immediate thought: This has to be a Final. It had exactly the quality needed: rather than knowing a fact about the story, you have to think over the clue and figure it out. Michele did a slight rewrite, and as we had hoped, it gave the contestants enough clues - 1959, record, Ohio State - to figure it out.

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Stats and Analysis: Quarterfinal Game 5

THIS EPISODE CONCLUDED THE QUARTERFINALS AND HAD OUR SECOND ELIMINATIONS OF THE SEASON

Victoria (3) - Yogesh (1) - Isaac (0)

Game Summary: Runaway win for Victoria. In the J! Round, Victoria had 15 correct responses and built a 4,200-point lead over Yogesh, who was in second place. In DJ!, Victoria dropped to 0 points after missing a 10,400 True DD on the second clue of the round. However, she managed to not only work her way back to the top but was able to secure a runaway by the end of the round! An absolutely staggering performance. Yogesh and Isaac battled throughout the round, but Yogesh entered Final in second place, with Isaac close behind in third. Victoria and Yogesh were both correct in Final (“Goodbye, Columbus”), and Yogesh secured 1 point for second place. At the conclusion of this game, all three of these players had locked up their spots in the Semis. And Victoria leads the head-to-head series against Yogesh 3-1 in this tournament.

One for the record books: We are checking all the records we have access to - but so far can find no example of a player missing a Daily Double and going to zero in Double and ending up with a runaway. To do it against such elite competition is even more unprecedented. Mattea certainly had a massive comeback win in Masters Season 1 against Andrew He and Matt Amodio from -400 points at the end of the Jeopardy! Round. But no runaway.

Two for the record books: Victoria's 15 correct responses in the J! Round is tied for the third most in a single round in Masters history. Her 53 buzzer attempts are the second-highest number of attempts in Masters history.

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Jeopardy! Masters: Behind the Clues – Quarterfinal Game 6

OVERHEARD ON TIKTOK - Overheard on TikTok was a good opportunity to put some up-to-date references into the material. Marcus Brown is our newest writer and has done an amazing job of writing categories that are fun for younger players and accessible for our veteran audiences. Some of his greatest hits - INTERNET SLANG, HIP HOP LITERARY REFERENCES, MYTH AROUND AND FIND OUT, RAP GENRES, MOVIES BY GOOGLE SEARCH, GALACTIC VACATIONS, and, my personal favorite, PIGEON FACTS & LORE.

DOES THAT MAKE YOU UNCOMFORTABLE? - Writer Mark Gaberman got a kick out of making Juveria spell G-U-B-E-R-N-A-T-O-R-I-A-L in DOES THAT MAKE YOU UNCOMFORTABLE?, because, as he says, that would certainly have made him uncomfortable if he had to try and do that on national television. Actually, there was discomfort on our part because spelling long words can practically make the show run over time in a single clue. If the first player--or worse, a second or God forbid, a third--rings in and takes a while to end up spelling a word incorrectly, that’s just 30 seconds of pure TV death. But with players like these, we were pretty confident they’d nail it in one. Thankfully, it played well.

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Stats and Analysis: Quarterfinal Game 6

This was a do-or-die game for all three players. Whoever won this game was guaranteed the last spot in the Semis, and the other two would be heading home. This was also a rematch of the 2025 JIT Finals (Matt won) and Masters S3 Knockout Game 2 (Roger won). Juveria was the only one who had not won a game yet, but that changed here.

Juveria (3) - Matt (1) - Roger (0)

Game Summary: Juveria led entering Final and was correct for the win. Tight J! round between all three players. Matt took a 1,000-point lead into DJ! with Juveria and Roger tied for second place. Early in the DJ! Round, Roger and Matt both dropped to 0 points after they both responded incorrectly to their true Daily Doubles, which put Juveria in the lead with only 3,800 pts. Juveria and Matt battled back and forth for the rest of the round, but it was Juveria who took a narrow 200-point lead over Matt into Final. Unfortunately, Roger could not recover after his DD miss and did not have enough points to compete in FJ!. Matt and Juveria were both correct in Final (after both crossed out their initial responses), and Juveria secured an emotional win (Charles II) and grabbed the last spot into the Semis.

DJ! DD wagering scenarios: Roger was in second place and was only 800 pts off the lead when he found the first DD in DJ! (on the third clue of the round) when he went all-in. That seemed like a reasonable choice at that moment. Two clues later, Matt found the last Daily Double and, from the lead, went all-in for 8,000 points. Matt could have played this a little safer from the lead, but he had an opportunity and took it. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for him. Unlike Roger, he was able to recover but ended up 200 points off the lead heading into Final, and you could see from the look on his face after his final correct response - “The Righteous Gemstones” - that he knew this could be significant. Had he played the DD a little safer, he could have secured the lead entering Final and won this game. But the lesson in Masters tends to be: if you don’t play aggressively, you lose.

Matt’s efficiency: Matt had a 65% buzzer success rate (31 attempts / 20 successful buzzes)… that's tied for the third highest in Masters history. Thirty-one (31) attempts are low by Masters standards, and they were the lowest number of attempts in this game, however, he managed to obtain a high success rate, which kept him in the game. He lost to Isaac on the first tiebreaker (games won) but interestingly was ahead on all the other tiebreakers - correct responses, Coryat score, and score at end of DJ! cumulatively. Always sad to see Matt leave, but also always know that he’s going to be back.

Farewell Roger: I loved seeing Roger re-enter the “Jeopar-verse” at the JIT and here on Masters. I feel like he is really close to being back to his very best and, like the Terminator, he’ll be back.

One note for me: I have to stop slouching in my chair at the producer’s table. You see it so clearly in the shot going out under the credits. My parents would be so ashamed.

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Highlights of the Postgame Chat…

Juveria did very well in Marcus’s OVERHEARD ON TIKTOK category and explained how she knew about the “millennial pause”. Before the tournament, Original Recipe Jeopardy! Champion Alison Betts put together a video of Juveria’s friends and family wishing her good luck, and Alison’s son joked, “Mom, your friends all do the millennial pause!” Juveria said that this was the first time she had ever heard of this phrase, and it was only 36 hours prior!

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Jeopardy! Masters: Behind the Clues – Semifinal Game 1

THE MOTORCYCLE OF THESEUS - The idea for The Motorcycle of Theseus came about because Co-Head Writer Billy Wisse just happened to hear someone use the phrase “the ship of Theseus” in casual conversation. It was just a matter of plugging in the word that would give the category the right spin and dash of humor.

BOOKS & BOOK SERIES - Writing Books and Book Series for Rebecca Yarros was a little tricky because when asking one writer to read a clue about another writer’s work (or one director about another director, etc.) you always run the risk that writer A thinks writer B is a semiliterate hack with whom A would not be associated in a million years. Fortunately, we were able to do enough research that we avoided that issue, and Ms. Yarros read the clues beautifully (and, we assume, willingly).

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Stats and Analysis: Semifinal Game 1

MATCH POINTS & TIEBREAKER STATS RESET FOR THE SEMIS

Victoria (3) - Yogesh (1) - Juveria (0)

Game Summary: Victoria led entering Final and was correct for the win. Tight J! Round between Victoria and Yogesh, but Victoria took a narrow lead into DJ!. In DJ!, Juveria found the first DD on the very first clue and went all-in to close the gap between herself and Yogesh. Yogesh missed a 5,000-point Daily Double halfway through the round, allowing Victoria to further extend her lead. However, Yogesh managed to keep it from being a runaway game after he responded correctly to the last clue (400 pts.) of the game. All three players were in it for Final, and all three were correct (Luanda). Victoria secured the win from the lead, and Yogesh finished in second place.

Yogesh DD #3 wagering scenario: Yogesh was in second place, trailing Victoria by 4,800 points, when he found the last DD. He opted for a 5,000-point wager. It was a sensible wager that, if correct, he would have taken the lead, and if incorrect, he wouldn’t be totally out of it. He was incorrect and momentarily dropped to third place a few clues later. He was able to bounce back into second place heading into Final and secured 1 match point. Yogesh could have been more aggressive on his DD wager, but he seemed to be more cautious than you'd expect from him. My guess is that his game plan was to secure at least 1 match point since this was the first semifinal game. 

Yogesh Holding Back? The more this tournament went on, the more I sensed that Yogesh was holding something back for the final, which he was very confident he would make. Like an elite athlete at the Olympics, pacing himself through the heats and semis. Yes, he fell 4-1 behind in the head-to-head series in this competition against Victoria with this loss. But ultimately, this would not be where the medals would be decided. And then he surprised me in Semifinal Game 2 (see below)

Stats: This was a close game statistically between Victoria and Yogesh. The missed DD for Yogesh really swung the game in Victoria's favor. Juveria appeared overmatched as she ended the game with only 8 correct responses and 9 total buzzes on 36 attempts (25% buzzer success rate). But now, at least she understands the true level of the competition.

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Jeopardy! Masters: Behind the Clues – Semifinal Game 2

MODERN COMMUNICATION - Sometimes we know what we want to go for as the response, we have the fact we want to state about it, we have the element that “pins” the single correct response – and then all that remains is what should be the easy work of the phrase following “this” that leads to the correct response. The writers’ meeting over the Modern Communication category included a remarkably extended discussion of how to describe “sliding into someone’s DMs”. We all thought we understood it, but how exactly to define it? Several minutes of debate produced “make this smooth online move,” which, happily, proved to be enough to lead the contestants to the response.

TRIPLE RHYME TIME - Triple Rhyme Time is a perennial winner in tournaments – tough and silly at the same time. Not really getting into the fun/silly spirit are the rear guard of the writers who always bring up the point that it really should be called Double Rhyme Time. After all, just Rhyme Time has two words in the response, and we’re only adding one, so….you get the idea, but Triple Rhyme Time it shall remain.

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Stats and Analysis: Semifinal Game 2

This was a rematch of Quarterfinal Game 5 and produced the same exact results.

Victoria (3) - Yogesh (1) - Isaac (0)

Game Summary: Come-from-behind win for Victoria. Yogesh took the lead into DJ! with the help of a 2,400-point Daily Double, with Victoria in second place and Isaac in third. Isaac found the first DD on the very first clue of DJ! but responded incorrectly, losing almost everything. It was about midway through the DJ! Round when Isaac found the last DD and went all-in. He was correct to put himself in second place behind Yogesh. With just three clues remaining in the DJ! Round, Yogesh was close to making it a runaway game, as he had exactly double the number of points that Victoria, who was in second, had. The second-to-last clue was a Triple Stumper, and then Victoria responded correctly to the last clue, keeping the game from being a runaway. Victoria was the only player correct in Final (Anaphylaxis) for the come-from-behind win.

Isaac DD wagering scenarios: Isaac found both DDs in DJ! and bet big. He really had no choice if he wanted to compete against Victoria and Yogesh.

A Statement Game for Yogesh: Yogesh had the strongest stats in this game. 24 correct responses against Victoria just isn't easy. But it was also exactly what he did against her in the first game of the entire competition. It was just the FJ! clue that won it for Victoria. 

So close for Isaac: Like Juveria in the previous game, Isaac appeared somewhat overmatched and was getting severely outbuzzed throughout (Total Buzz%: Yogesh 57%, Victoria 51%, Isaac 34%). However, had he responded correctly on his first DD, he likely would have ended DJ! in second place instead of third.

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Highlights of the Postgame Chat…

307 - SEMIFINAL GAME 2
Ken immediately pointed out Yogesh’s strong stats (24 correct responses on 42 attempts) and Yogesh joked, “A lot of good it did me”. He also revealed that he tends not to look at the scores throughout the game, so, in the moment, he was not aware that he had almost secured a runaway against Victoria.

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The Anatomy of a Clue

So, more than twenty thousand clues make it to air every year on Jeopardy!. But what does the life cycle of just one clue look like on our program?

• One of our writers conceives each clue that plays on the gameboard as part of a category. That may sound obvious, but actually, we’ll backtrack right away, not always. Categories are written with seven clues. That way, the head writer going over it has some options. The category will eventually go into the studio on tape day with at least six clues, in case of any last-minute technical or other mishaps. This means that every one of the categories written spins off at least two unused clues. So there are tens of thousands of unused clues in our database. OK, now let’s start the paragraph again. A clue is written as part of a category…or maybe it’s taken from the heap of leftovers and put into a new category.
• One of our two head writers goes over the category, possibly drops one of the seven original clues, puts the clues in easy-to-hard order, makes edits to improve the material, and sends the category on to research.
• A researcher looks at each clue, makes sure that every fact in it is supported by two sources, makes sure that it is written so that there is only one correct response (or that any also-acceptable responses are noted), and sends the category along.
• The head writers assemble the categories into games, trying for a roughly equal level of difficulty, covering as wide a variety of topics as possible, and balancing categories that are current vs. could have played 20 seasons ago, narrow vs. broad, written straightforwardly vs. written cute, etc.
• The games are grouped into pools of five, which are looked at to make sure no too-similar clues are airing in the same week.
• The writers' “round table” the games to fine-tune the order, the writing, the style, and add any flourishes that will make the show more interesting, etc.
• All the researchers look over the games for roughly the same issues they deal with when doing original category research – accuracy and “pinning”.
• The games are sent to me for notes. I rarely have any.
• Finally, Ken gets the scripts the evening before tape day. On tape morning, he and the head writers go over all the material. This is where Ken points out clues that he feels need changing. They may be too similar to something we’ve done recently, worded awkwardly, open to alternate responses, or any number of other concerns.
• By 9:30 on tape morning, the games are in final form and sent to the stage to be taped.
• Physical scripts are printed and distributed to Producers and staff
• Games are loaded on the control computer in our game system (Vista)
• The control computer transfers the clues to the chyron character generator
• Andrew Price (Segment Producer) and Michele Hampton (Game Board Operator) verify clues and categories (they verify accent marks, math symbols, daily double locations, and lower thirds)
• An annotated script from the host and writers’ meeting is ingested into the host script system. Each clue location is captured for later display, including extra clues for each category
• Three contestants take their place behind their podiums – (The lifecycle of a contestant will feature in a future newsletter)
• A contestant calls for a category and value
  • The gameboard operator selects the requested clue on the control system.
  • The control system calls up the pre-rendered clue on the chyron.
  • The control system triggers the production switcher to blow out the clue over a virtual version of the gameboard.
  • The control system triggers the LED controller to switch from the gameboard to the clue text and media (photo/video, etc.), if any, large in the gameboard, below the categories.
  • The control system triggers the host script to show a split screen of the ingested clue with notes and the gameboard with highlighted clue location, for the host to read the selected clue.
  • The control system sends the value of the clue to scoring.
  • Once the host reads the clue, Michael Harris (Head Researcher and “The Enabler”) enables the contestant signaling devices, which flash light blue lights on either side of the gameboard
  • Based on contestant response, the score is adjusted and the clue cleared.
  • When the clue is cleared, the control system sends a clear command to the production switcher, virtual game board, LED controller, and host script.
• Meanwhile, in the control room:
  • The clue is routed to the control room, where it blows out from a virtual game board to full screen (This is how the home audience's view of the clue is generated). The contestants have three seconds to buzz in to respond to the clue. If the clue is responded to correctly, the player who responded selects the next clue, and the process is repeated. If no one buzzes in within 3 seconds, the AD presses a “times-up” button, which triggers a beep, beep, beep sound effect on stage, indicating that the clue is no longer available to play. The player who last responded correctly then selects the next clue to play, and the process repeats…
• Producer Sarah Foss annotates the script with the order in which clues are played, who responded, and potential host pick-ups and notes.
• At the end of the tape day, all clue-related paperwork is picked up and shredded.
• Footage is routed from the stage to Post Production to edit and deliver.
  • Shows are grouped by the Assistant Editors (AEs). The AEs then lay out the timelines to prepare for the Edit.
  • The Associate Director (AD) and Post Associate Producer (AP) then do their “booth notes” and fixes with the Editors. If a clue was misread by Ken, we record a pickup on the shoot day and insert the fix at this step in the editing process.
  • Once the booth notes are complete, the shows are cut to time by the editors.
  • Often, individual frames are removed from the blowout of the clue to speed the show along
  • After the shows are cut to time, they are sent to producers/researchers for a quality control check (QC). After the QC, research might come back with a note that a clue needed to be fixed…this might be a punctuation, grammar, or spelling fix, etc.
  • After QC fixes are made, the shows are sent to our Closed Captioning (CC) vendor to have captions created. 
    After the shows are sent to CC, shows are prepped for final delivery. Ads, promotions, and voiceovers are added, and a final audio mixdown is done.
  • The AD, AP, and an editor then do one final QC/watch down, and then the shows are sent to distribution.
  • The distributor does one more audio/video QC to make sure the show is FCC compliant, and then the shows are sent out to the various local affiliates.
• Our 211 affiliates receive and ingest the shows to air.
• And each clue gets its full-screen moment in the limelight.

Final Thoughts

So every time you see one of our clues - maybe you know the correct response, maybe it made you laugh, think, rack your brain for a name you can’t recall - just remember the journey it has been on. Just imagine the number of people who have been involved in getting it to air.

And the painstaking attention to detail that has made it possible.

I often think that Jeopardy! is the last place where people agree about facts. And how we represent and write those facts, one clue at a time. It is a large part of what makes Jeopardy! so special. 

But it’s also all the people who touch that clue along the way - from the writer’s room to research to the gameboard to Ken to the control room to the edit. 

So many people work so hard to protect and care for our most precious assets. About getting everything right. 

And making each clue the best it can be right up until the moment it plays, and is cleared, and becomes just another white and blue memory.

Stay in charge,
Michael

P.S. Whether you’re reading on Jeopardy.com or my personal Substack, https://substack.com/@embassydavies, thank you so much for your time and for all of your comments, kind words, and helpful notes!

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