Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments
Search

News for nerds, stuff that matters

Jeopardy! Tryout Screenings Go Online

Posted by samzenpus on Thu Mar 23, 2006 08:38 AM
from the what-is-what-could-go-wrong-alex dept.
Television The Internet
KingSkippus writes "According to a CNN article, the television game show Jeopardy! is now offering online contestant screenings in addition to conducting contestant searches in various cities across the country. Potential contestants will still have to pass an interview and an additional test in person to be considered for the pool of 400 contestants each year, but now the next Ken Jennings can apply without leaving the comfort of his or her own chair. The first online screenings begin March 28."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Jeopardy! Tryout Screenings Go Online | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 102 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold:
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • Great... (Score:5, Funny)

    by dark_15 (962590) on Thursday March 23 2006, @08:41AM (#14979824)
    So now I can scream the answers at my computer instead of the TV! Gotta love technology...

  • Easier and Cheaper for People (Score:3, Interesting)

    by brian23 (962399) on Thursday March 23 2006, @08:42AM (#14979828)
    Finally, a shift away from having to fly to California and waste about $500 on room and board for a chance that you may not get on the show.

  • 'I'll take "The-Rapists" for $200, Alex' (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 23 2006, @08:48AM (#14979861)
    That's Therapists

  • All I hope... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Heem (448667) on Thursday March 23 2006, @08:48AM (#14979863)
    (http://slashdot.org/ | Last Journal: Thursday August 29 2002, @02:04PM)
    I just hope that the website works cross platform. I'd hate to miss my chance to appear on Jeopardy (not that I have much of one) just because I refuse to run IE and/or Windows
  • man was it hard. we assembled in a hotel conference room in midtown manhattan. the staff played a little intro tape of the talking head of trebek wishing us good luck and giving us the intructions, then it was off to questions: 50 fill-in-the-blank questions

    you needed to get 35 right to move onward. stuff onvloving the minutiae of the battle of bull run, and various french names for certain foot movements in ballet. very hard

    i would say out of a roomful of 200 people, 5 moved forward

    no, i wasn't one of them ;-P

    i can only wonder at what sort of cheating preventatives they'll employ for online: like a huge pool of questions (so repeating the test won't yeild value), and a 5 second countdown to answer questions... i hope

    or we won't be seeing the next ken jennings from online jeopardy applications, we'll be seeing the next script kiddie

  • Prediction (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Slightly Askew (638918) on Thursday March 23 2006, @08:54AM (#14979900)
    (Last Journal: Friday June 08, @01:42PM)

    This will last all of 2 weeks before the list of questions and answers is published in its entirety on the Internet and the spike in successful entries causes Jeopardy to shut down the program.

    On a side note, I took one of these tests when the Jeopardy bus was touring the US and thought the questions were very age-biased. There were a disproportionate number of questions about events about late 60's / early 70's pop culture. I wonder if they target those in their mid 30's to mid 50's, as this is probably their target viewing audience as well. As a child of the 80's, I could have told them who shot John Lennon or Ronald Reagan, but not who shot Andy Warhol. I also would have preferred they ask about bumbling superheros with suits from outer space and not superheros with the powers of an Egyptian goddess.

    • Re:Prediction by hal2814 (Score:3) Thursday March 23 2006, @09:06AM
      • Re:Prediction by Otter (Score:2) Thursday March 23 2006, @09:40AM
      • Re:Prediction by CastrTroy (Score:2) Thursday March 23 2006, @10:00AM
        • Re:Prediction by Buran (Score:2) Thursday March 23 2006, @11:21AM
      • What the hell? by GuloGulo (Score:1) Thursday March 23 2006, @10:36AM
      • Re:Prediction by Bemopolis (Score:1) Thursday March 23 2006, @11:29AM
    • Re:Prediction by DerGeist (Score:2) Thursday March 23 2006, @09:15AM
    • Re:Prediction by B3ryllium (Score:2) Thursday March 23 2006, @09:20AM
    • Re:Prediction by British (Score:3) Thursday March 23 2006, @09:31AM
    • Re:Prediction by Philosinfinity (Score:2) Thursday March 23 2006, @11:41AM

  • My sincere apologies... (Score:5, Funny)

    by D3r1v3D (526854) on Thursday March 23 2006, @08:58AM (#14979919)
    Alex Trebek: And in last place with negative 120,000 (sighs and pauses) Sean Connery.

    Sean Connery: Well, well, well Trebek. Fancy seeing you here. It's been a while.

    Alex Trebek: Not long enough.

    Sean Connery: That's not what your mother said last night.

    Alex Trebek: Okay Here are the categories for double jeopardy. (Board appears)

    They are: POTENT POTABLES, COLORS THAT ARE RED, JAPAN US RELATIONS; I have no idea what that category is doing up there.

    Sean Connery: I had relations this morning Trebek, hope we didn't wake you. Your mother's a screamer.

    Alex Trebek: For your information my mother's in a nursing home in Alberta, Canada.

    Sean Connery: Oh she was nursing it alright.

  • Not the strangest thing I've seen on a game show. (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 23 2006, @09:06AM (#14979942)
    KEBERT XELA

  • Hopefully... (Score:5, Funny)

    by TheNoxx (412624) on Thursday March 23 2006, @09:11AM (#14979968)
    (http://thenoxx.deviantart.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday November 30 2005, @04:14PM)
    This will bring whole new meaning to the term "slashdotted":

    Trebek: "You wagered everything you had and your answer is... CowboyNeal? The hell...?"

  • Ken Who? (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 23 2006, @09:14AM (#14979985)
    Not to be a stickler - but it amazes me that Ken Jennings is always quoted in stories that relate to Jeopardy - like he's the greatest ever or something. Brad Rutter was actually the winningest Jeopardy contestant before Ken Jennings came along and there were restrictions on how long a contestant could be on the show. Then he proceeded to kick Jennings' a$$ on the Jeopardy Master's tournament and reclaimed the title. So - in fairness - we really ought to say "the next Brad Rutter". I'm just sayin....
    • Re:Ken Who? by TheLongshot (Score:1) Thursday March 23 2006, @02:36PM

  • In Soviet Russia (Score:1)

    by jlebrech (810586) on Thursday March 23 2006, @09:24AM (#14980046)
    (http://i.nt.ro/)
    They answer the answers

  • Interesting... (Score:1)

    by cosmotron (900510) on Thursday March 23 2006, @10:31AM (#14980477)
    (http://www.thecosmotron.com/ | Last Journal: Wednesday February 22 2006, @08:36PM)
    According to the Contest Overview [jeopardy.com], you can't "PHRASE YOUR RESPONSE IN THE FORM OF A QUESTION!" What are they changing the rules?

  • Did this already (Score:3, Informative)

    by The_Steel_General (196801) on Thursday March 23 2006, @11:07AM (#14980821)
    I was one of the test subjects for this process. I'd signed up for future auditions on their website, and got an email one day: Go to this website on this day - at this specific time - to take an online test.

    They had a page with a Flash application that gave you questions and a place to enter your answer. Didn't have to be in the form of a question, which was fortunate, because you didn't get much time to enter it. There were plenty I barely answered, so I can't imagine typing it into Google first. (Just realized: Because it was Flash, you couldn't copy and paste it there, either.) No going back to previous questions, either.

    I evidently did well enough, because I was called to an in-person audition as well. It sounds like it was about the same as previous auditions as mentioned elsewhere in this thread. In any case, the people there said they were testing this to do the initial filter on contestants - previously, they'd pull dozens (hundreds?) of hopefuls, they'd take the test, wait an hour to get them tested, and most wouldn't do well enough to go to the next step. (One audition was mentioned where NOBODY did well enough on the test to move forward.)

    The one I was at had maybe 30-40 people, and everyone passed the written: They made us take another test, similar to the online one but written rather than electronic. Different questions, just the answers again, and not a lot of time to get it right. (But you could, if you wanted, go back and change your answers. Not that you had time for that.)

    Evidently, the rest of the audition was just like it used to be: Take people three at a time to play a mock game, to see how you handle being in front of people. I thought I did okay...but haven't heard back yet. And they said that the only way we'd know how we did was if we heard back within a year. Still waiting...

    TSG

  • PC Only (Score:1)

    by BodhiCat (925309) on Friday March 24 2006, @10:14AM (#14987779)
    The page says you have to have a PC with Explorer to take the test. Grrr, no Mac/Safari. I guess they know that the average Mac user is smarter and will blow the other contestants away.
  • There is no longer a $500 value question ;)
    [ Parent ]

  • Re:Google help (Score:2, Informative)

    by DerGeist (956018) on Thursday March 23 2006, @09:07AM (#14979947)
    If you look on the linked page, you'll see you only have 15 seconds per question.

    Also the article summary clearly states that you still must pass an interview and another written test.

    Good luck making those into a "googling-contest."

    [ Parent ]

  • Nonsense! (Score:2)

    by brian0918 (638904) on Thursday March 23 2006, @09:16AM (#14979991)
    Everyone knows that true knowledge is measured by how many names of people/places/things you know. I doubt Einstein would've come up with his theories of relativity without knowing the names of his predecessors.
    [ Parent ]

  • Re:I'll take... (Score:1)

    by pedalman (958492) on Thursday March 23 2006, @11:42AM (#14981113)
    Ooo!!!! Ooo!!! Ooo!!! I know this one!!!!!!!!!!!
    [ Parent ]
  • 14 replies beneath your current threshold.

All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-2008 SourceForge, Inc.