In the earliest days of the show back in the 60s, it was very much like your hypothetical - very brief answers provided to the contestants and an even faster-paced game. The tendency toward long-winded answers developed over time.

I'm OK with Leslie winning people over to an extent, mixed in with a reasonable amount of pushback from characters other than cartoon villains such as Jamm.

At the time, bonus games with a substantial cash prize were all the rage, as seen in 70s hits such as Pyramid, Family Feud and Match Game. I guess it was just an attempt to update Jeopardy! with the times. That version of the show wasn't bad, but as you said, the changes felt forced and unnecessary.

I'm fine with Leslie being weird and competent. I'm saying the show should watch it about being too "rah rah" with the other characters supporting Leslie in everything she does, since it would be expected that she would rub some people she works with the wrong way.

The smaller totals in a DJ/FJ only game would impact the potential leverage provided by hitting Daily Doubles, especially early in the round. In that way, the outcome might be more determined by pure knowledge than DD wagering strategy.

The first round matters primarily if the points accumulated there provide the difference to enable a player to hold the lead at the end of DJ, prevent another player from a runaway, or create a runaway for themselves.

I felt sorry for her because she truly did face a couple of fast, far-above-average players, so it probably made her look worse than she really was.

Jeopardy! thread for Thur., Dec. 26 - In a fast-paced, terrifically-played game by Jerry, he darted away to a $7,200 lead at the first commercial break, survived a brief rally by champ Anthony early in DJ and drew off to a runaway advantage into this Final:

Maybe they'll show tonight's game tomorrow then put Friday's on sometime over the weekend.

Anthony did seem to have a bit of an attitude in the early going, which turned to concern once it appeared that Larry was going to pull away.

Ideally, they would phrase clue that as "This 1998 Oscar Winner for Best Picture was the most recent to include a person's name", so you could get it directly from straight knowledge of the winners by year or by figuring it out from the "name" hint. The best FJ clues can be solved both ways.

In this case "good" means "good by the standards of broadcast network television", which is generally is the same as "not feeling the need to change stations or poke my eyes out".

Well, Poehler's character is *supposed* to be wacky and kinda annoying, which is fine as long as the other characters acknowledge that and react to it appropriately.

I'm amazed that Larry missed it. I'd think you'd have to be pretty far out of the popular culture loop not to know that guy after essentially being given the middle initials.

There's a lot of stuff on Thursdays that A.V. Club reviews (Community, Parks, MJF, Parenthood, OUATIW, Scandal, Big Bang Theory, Elementary, Glee, Vampire Diaries).

Yeah, I understand that anyone who watches the show on an ABC affiliate was pretty much screwed last night because of basketball.

FJ can vary widely in its level of difficulty, but most of the time it presents a little puzzle that the player can figure out, even if they don't know it off the bat from the clue.

OK, I'll also share a contestant tip: check out the wagering calculator on the j-archive site and enter in all manner of possible scenarios for scores going into FJ, then study up on the reasoning behind their recommended wagers.

Jeopardy! thread for Wed., Dec. 25 - It was obvious early on that Anthony was a sharp player and that champ Larry would finally have a contest on his hands after two runaway wins. Larry tried to break the game open with a strong $6,000 score on a DD early in DJ, but Anthony managed to get the next-to-last clue correct…

Even Alex commented a few days ago about how often Final is being missed this season. It really makes you wonder what's going on with the contestants.