Featured J!Buzz

Inside the second episode and how Jeopardy! continues to attract, and appeal, to everyone

For the vast majority of my 35-year television career, I have been a control room producer. This means I like to produce from the control room, or the production truck, and not from the studio floor.

The control room, after all, is where the whole show comes together, you see all the images, all the stats, all the screens and you can speak to anyone, at almost any volume, on headset or in person, with the “front bench” or the “back bench” (more on who sits where and what they do in a later edition of this newsletter per multiple requests).

I also like being in the same space as the director. For Jeopardy! Masters, that is Russell Norman, a British-trained director who moved to Hollywood to direct huge entertainment shows like America’s Got Talent. I hired him to direct Talking Dead, the talk show that followed The Walking Dead, and I loved the class he brought to every camera move and cut, and the energy and warmth he enjoys with the staff and crew. He joined us at Jeopardy! three years ago, and now shares directing responsibilities with Lucinda Margolis, our technical director, who is a terrific multi-camera director herself. There is a wonderful energy these days in Control Room 10 just off the Alex Trebek Stage.

But for Jeopardy! Masters, and many of our biggest tournaments, I have decided to sit at the producer’s table, right at the end, just in front of the front row of the audience.

There are practical reasons why I sit in the studio for the Masters shows - too inside to get into (even for this newsletter) - but the principal reason is for me to be closer to the action. At the most elite level of Jeopardy! it’s like having a front row floor seat for the Celtics against the Knicks. I’m in the presence of superstars. And you just notice things you would never see on the screen, even multiple screens, in the control room.

And what I noticed right at the beginning of this episode were three things: Isaac’s shirt, how nervous they all seemed, and wow, they’re all really young.

I turned to former Master and Jeopardy!’s “bon vivant and man about town,” Sam Buttrey, who was sitting in “the VIP” right behind me, and we exchanged a look that men of a certain age give to each other when in the presence of the promise and brilliance of youth. We needed no words.

At 59, of course, everyone seems young. I remember so clearly my father telling me, at his 90th birthday dinner, that for the first 30 years of life, everyone seems really old, for the next 30 years, everyone seems about your age, and for the next 30 years, everyone seems really young. I seem to have arrived in the final phase a couple of years early.

Without a doubt, Neilesh, Isaac, and Adriana are young and emerged earlier this year from the show’s youngest-ever Tournament of Champions as the youngest-ever finalists. But I wanted to jump up on stage and tell them right then and there that they all deserved to be here.

It is certainly intimidating to be in the presence of some of the show’s greatest champions ever. But even younger players like Mattea Roach and Brad Rutter, when he broke through on Jeopardy!, have proved that very young people can compete at the most elite levels. And these three champions are no different. Between them, they have won more than 30 Jeopardy! games!

It does seem that the next generation of Jeopardy! contestants has arrived, and the contestant pool is getting younger and younger (Isaac is literally the next generation as his father, Steve Hirsch, played way back in Season 2 in 1985).

However, the statistics don’t really bear that out. Over the past five seasons, our average contestant age in the regular season has bounced around between 38.37 and 40.33. The youngest at 19 and the oldest at 74...

S37 – 38.89
S38 – 38.37
S39 – 38.93
S40 – 40.33
S41 – 39.76
 

But over the same period, the average age of Jeopardy! champions has gotten a little younger:

S37 – 40.98
S38 – 40.67
S39 – 39.78
S40 – 38.95
S41 – 37.0
 

But still, the youngest was 20. And the oldest was 73! 

However, the average age of all of the competitors in all of our postseason tournaments, including Masters, has followed the trend and become a little younger too.

Season 1 Masters: 39…With a 37-year age range between our youngest competitor, Mattea Roach, and our oldest, Sam Buttrey, 61. 
Season 2: 37. 
Season 3: 35.

We are still digging into all the reasons why this is happening. And both the expansion of our postseason and the growth of our social media deserve a lot of credit (there also must be something going on in the world outside of Jeopardy! that creates an anomaly like 20-year-old six-game champion, Liam Starnes).

But I guarantee that the biggest reason is the increased range and more dynamic nature of our categories, clues, and game material. We literally pose clues on a nightly basis on the entirety of world history and global culture from the Renaissance to Kendrick Lamar. So, that range in writing creates the range in our contestants and champions.

There was a sign on the desk of one of the most talented TV executives I ever worked for - It’s the writing, stupid. And this is as true of Jeopardy! as any other TV drama, comedy, or news show.

Everything derives from the writing.

Jeopardy! Masters: Behind the Clues – Knockout Game 3

And once again, the range and difficulty of material we ask our Masters to respond to is staggering. In just the first game tonight:

• The Battle of Boyacá was fought in Bogotá
• SCUBA is an abbreviation of Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus
• We went deep on the love songs of Snoop, Bob Marley, Tom Waits, David Bowie, and Kelly Clarkson
• We hid various Shakespearean characters in SVU-like plot descriptions
• And then some insane “Before, During, and After”s, including my personal favorite, “What is Much Ado About Nothing Compares to U-Boat?” Well done, Isaac.
• And finally, the name of Alexander the Great’s horse, Bucephalus 

W. Kamau Bell’s Bells Category

This was such a highlight for me for a few reasons:

• Kamau has been such a wonderful discovery for Jeopardy! and a passionate advocate for our show. Please take a minute and read his excellent Substack Post about his experience on Celebrity Jeopardy!, and also note how much love he’s given Jeopardy! Masters and the show in general on his social media accounts.
• He read this category beautifully, and it was wonderfully shot by our crew at W. Kamau’s home in Oakland, California.
• This category was crucial in the gameplay and outcome - see below.
• And then this from our Head Writers, Billy and Michele:
   

”Many years ago, both writers and researchers on the Jeopardy! staff had a weekly ‘library day’ at the public library, which obviously has many more resources than our in-house collection of a couple of thousand books. In the Internet era, trips to the library have become much less essential, but one time they do come in handy is when we are devoting a category to a celebrity! To start his journey writing a category for W. Kamau Bell, Marcus Brown went to the Los Angeles Public Library to pick up a copy of ‘The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell’. We talked about possibly doing a category about some of his interests, including martial arts, Denzel Washington movies, and stand-up comedy. Marcus mentioned that one of his early stand-up shows was a little like a Before & After Jeopardy! category, ‘The W. Kamau Bell Curve,’ and from there, we all brainstormed some questions with the word Bell in them. In addition to reading WKB’s memoir, Marcus scoured his podcasts and social media posts for a day and was able to find seven or eight clues about bells that somewhat related to his life, sort of 'Slumdog Millionaire’ style.”

Stats and Analysis: Knockout Game 3

Isaac (3), Adriana (1), Neilesh (0)

This was a rematch of the 2025 Tournament of Champions Finals, in which Neilesh won in five games back on February 13th, 2025. Neilesh earned three wins, and Isaac and Adriana each earned one win.

Game summary: Despite the runaway for Isaac, this was actually a fascinatingly close game that dramatically turned on a few key moments.

Isaac’s Blitz of Boldness: Neilesh started so strongly, bagging nine of the first 12 clues and racing to 6,600 points before either Isaac or Adriana had gotten to four figures. But then Isaac went on a five-clue tear, first deep in W. Kamau’s Bell’s Bells category, then bouncing over to Talking in Colors 800 for a true Daily Double (Scarlet Pimpernel), followed by the 1,000 pointer (Orange Free State). In about a minute and a half of bold, elite-level Jeopardy! play, he had taken the lead.

The Yada, Yada, Yada, Blah, Blah, Blah turnover: four clues into Double, Neilesh missed with a really good but incorrect response for the triple talk for going on endlessly - Yada x 3 - and Isaac stole with Blah x 3 - for a 3,200 point swing.

Potsdam for the last Daily Double: Isaac steadily built a lead and eventually found the last DD halfway through the round and added 4K to his lead. It was a relatively conservative wager by Masters' standards, but it proved to be the perfect amount to not put him at risk of losing the lead while edging him towards the runway. Before Isaac's 4K wager, the scores were  Isaac (15,200), Neilesh (8,000), Adriana (5,400). Had Neilesh found either of the DDs in DJ!, he likely would have gone all in and made this a much closer game.

Buzzer Mojo: Neilesh's buzzer conversion rate (65%) is the 3rd highest in Masters history (with at least 25 attempts). 34 attempts / 22 buzzes - A relatively low number of attempts but a great conversion rate. Adriana really found her BM in Double.  Nine buzz-ins on 15 attempts versus three of 19 in the Jeopardy! Round. This enabled her to enter Final crucially just 1,800 points behind Nielesh and forced a fascinating Final wagering decision for both players.

Columba, not Columbus: Final was a triple stumper (St. Columba). Neilesh had "Columba" but crossed it out and put "Columbus". Tough break, as that would have secured him 2nd place and one match point. He had to wager to cover Adriana’s potential double-up. She wagered less, anticipating this. So when they were both wrong, despite a much stronger game statistically from Neilesh, he ended the night with 0 match points.

Highlights of the Postgame Chat…

In his interview, Isaac talked about buying a buzzer and practicing at home before the tournament, but we actually cut this for time. In the postgame, he talked about how he planned to switch up his strategy and try to go off sound, “but that was horrible and it didn’t work at all, so I went back to just looking at the lights again and it worked a lot better.”

Behind the Clues: Wordplay. Games 3 and 4

A word on Wordplay categories from our Head Writers:

”Before and After is a classic Jeopardy! category, originally borrowed from Wheel of Fortune for a theme board of all-WOF categories. Some years ago (OK, in Season 18), we started souping it up with a tournament version that has a third element in the response: Before, During, and After. But even though it sounds complicated, BD&A is still basically a knowledge category. It is just asking for three bits of information per clue instead of one. To balance that category featured in the first game of the evening, we put in Constructing the Word in the second, which is more of a brain-teaser type of category. Both categories proved challenging, with the bottom two clues going unanswered. With contestants who are in many ways full-time quiz players and have absorbed so much information, sometimes the only way to really stretch their limits is to have categories that require more than recalling facts.”

Stats and Analysis: Knockout Game 4

Yogesh (3), Isaac (0), Roger (1)

This was the first time any of these players had ever played each other. But they matched up here as winners of their opening games, and with very little to lose, as all three of them already qualified for the Quarterfinals.

Game summary: This was an absolute masterclass from Yogesh with all the hallmarks that have made him one of the top Jeopardy! players on Planet Earth.

Lightning fast start: Yogesh always comes ready to play. I referred to him as the Fernando Alonso of Jeopardy! last week. But in this game, he went next level. 15 clues in, just half the Jeopardy! Round gameboard completed, he already had a 7,600-point lead over Isaac and a 10,600-point lead over Roger.

Bringing the Hammer: Wagering 6,500 of his 6,600 points (an “almost true Daily Double” said Ken with a smile) after finding gold with the 16th clue, Yogesh came up with the correct response “......Who is Nike?” - thanks for the dramatic pause, Yogesh - and the game was basically over.

Another J! Round of dominance: Yet another dominant J! Round for Yogesh - 14,900 pts - That's the 2nd highest J! Round score in Masters history, 2nd only to his J! Round score in the J! Round of last week’s episode.

Never letting up: In case Isaac and Roger had any notion of catching up in Double Jeopardy! (and from their responses during the interviews, I don’t think they did) Yogesh opened the round with three straight responses for another 4,800 points. What is bigger than a runaway? He ended the round with almost six times Isaac’s score and more than 9 times Roger’s.

Fun fact, but not for Roger: Roger had eight incorrect responses in this game. That is the most single-game incorrects in Masters history. Roger asked if it was the most incorrect in the postgame chat, and we verified it was. Previously, it was six. Fortunately, Roger is a man with phenomenal taste in soccer podcasts and a wonderful sense of humor.

Final Thoughts

This past Friday night, I found myself at a wonderful fundraising event for UCLA Health’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Ken had graciously agreed to introduce the night’s honoree, a senior Sony executive, and at our table, all the talk was about how generous Ken had been with his time and attention to everyone who wanted a word or a photo with the GOAT.

And then the conversation turned to Masters, which many of them had watched on Wednesday. “I haven’t watched in years,” said the wife of a talent manager to my left, “but my twins are home from college studying for finals and they insisted we watch. And we all loved it!”. I confirmed that college-age kids are watching the show in record numbers. “Jeopardy! is getting younger!” I exclaimed, at which point my dining companion to my right jumped in, “You also get a lot of 50-something trial lawyers!!!” We all laughed. “We want all of you kids!” I insisted. And we all turned our attention to the auctioneer who had just grabbed the mic on the stage.

“Before we begin, I want to just thank Ken Jennings,” he began, “Not just for being here to honor this life-changing cause, but because my grandfather, who is 97 years old, is alive because every day he so looks forward to 7 p.m. when his favorite show, Jeopardy!, comes on KABC. You are changing lives and prolonging lives too, Ken, so don’t ever forget it”.

I hear these kinds of stories all the time, and yet they always hit me so hard. 

My job, our job, is not to make Jeopardy! younger. It is to make Jeopardy!, literally,  for everyone.

Kids and college students, to spark their thirst for knowledge with the thrill of competition.

Families in all their glorious combinations to bring them together around a piece of positive

For everyone, like my new trial lawyer friend, who believes that “facts still matter”. 

And let us never forget our most experienced viewers.

Jeopardy! means so much to so many people, and it is such an honor, and a huge responsibility, to preside over the institution for all of our contestants and all of our viewers.

Whether you’re reading on Jeopardy.com or my personal Substack, www.substack.com/@embassydavies, thank you so much for your time and for all of your comments and notes!

Stay in charge,
Michael