The Jeopardy Problem That Should Be Looked At, Part 1
It Has Nothing To Do With Mike Richards
Over the past couple of weeks there has been a lot of furor over who will replace Alex Trebek as the new host of Jeopardy. First, there was rage that after all the possibilities that had been floated over the last several months, the job was going to executive producer Mike Richards, who had lead much of the search and no doubt had people thinking in terms of Dick Cheney leading the search of George W. Bush’s running mate. Then in the past week, among revelations about Richards past history involving sexual harassment on previous series and comments he made on a webcast, Richards had to resign after already having taped five shows.
I have noticed that a large amount of the hostility over the last several months has been over succeeding Trebek as to who should be the new ‘face’ of Jeopardy. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I’ve cared less about this than a lot of people because in my mind, the faces of Jeopardy have always been the contestants and more importantly the champions. I said in my last post about the show that I would be watching more to see how eighteen-game winner Matt Adadio would do then how Richards did. That is still true.
What I omitted from the conversation is something that I really believe the lion’s share of criticism about Jeopardy has clearly missed. It is something that only people like me — who have been fans of the series for years, if not decades — have noticed over time, but really don’t want to talk about. Indeed, even now, I’m reluctantly to bring it up about the show I love. But as someone who knows more than his share about history, it’s that even the things we worship are not perfect. So in this article, I’m going to lay out some basic facts about what the people who critiqued Richards as host were either ignoring or didn’t care about.
And that’s the simple fact that the lion’s share of Jeopardy champions — and Tournament of Champions winners — are men. This hasn’t exactly been a secret — people have been talking about it as far as back as I’ve been studying the series, which is the early 1990s — but what has been ignored is that more thirty years later, little has changed. There have been thirty Jeopardy Tournament of Champions, and in that time, there have been only three female winners. (There’s a larger discussion to be had about the fact that there have been even fewer minority winners of any time, but for the purposes of this article, I’m going to stick with the gender divide, which is still significant.)
Now, to be clear, I am fully aware of the fact that, just like every other aspect of American society, the gender divide has no doubt affected just how many women can find the time to try out for any game show in the first place. I figure that a lot of women, be they full time workers, stay at home parents, or some combination of the two, may simply not have enough leisure time to watch Jeopardy, much less try out for it.
I’m also aware that are a lot of factors required to win a single game of Jeopardy in the first place, much less to qualify for a Tournament of Champions berth. In addition to intellect, you need reflexes, skill, and a fair amount of luck just that far. Anybody who has played Jeopardy knows that much. Hell, anybody who just watched the show knows that much.
And in all candor, given everything that I’ve seen on Jeopardy over nearly thirty years of watching it, there is only one group that truly has a poorer chance than most of winning a game in the first place — and ironically, it’s probably the last group you think needs help getting anywhere. It’s old people. Indeed, as those of us who have watched the show for a very long time know, from 1987 until 1995 Jeopardy actually had a Seniors Tournament designed specifically for contestants in their fifties or older. A lot of these tournaments would good, and a couple of the winners made it all the way to the Tournament of Champions finals. But like so many shows, the creators decided that thought they wanted seniors watching, they didn’t want them on the air and in 1996 the tournament was discontinued.
I imagine we’re also aware, to an extent, the weight that on-screen appearance may have to do with getting on Jeopardy in the first place. There’s actually a classic Golden Girls where Bea Arthur’s Dorothy passes the search and is told in no uncertain terms that people wouldn’t root for her. There was a time when I actually would have dismissed this as something of a cruel joke, but I have heard more than my share of former champions interviewed by Alex, where that may have been the determining factor of a couple of winners not making the show the first time they tested for just that reason. Indeed, on one of the special tournaments a few years back Brad Rutter, Jeopardy’s all-time money winner with nearly five million dollars in earnings, told Alex that he had tried out for the College Tournament, passed the test, and then didn’t make it because, as he put it, “I spent too much time talking about his shot-glass collection.” So there is precedent.
So given all of the x-factors to become a Jeopardy champion, and all of the other challenges that exist in are society to prevent a lot of people from having the time to even go so far as to travel to LA to try out, its hardly a wonder that more people are focused on the fact as to hosts Jeopardy then who ends up on winning on it. Besides, given all of the societal problems confronting the world today, does anyone really have the time and energy to raise a fuss about who ends up on a game show? Considering that, I’m actually stunned there are so many people upset about an African American being The Bachelor or The Bachelorette. These shows may be watched by more people, but Jeopardy’s been on longer.
And I could understand why so many people would be willing to write that all off. I might be willing to as well…if I didn’t know Jeopardy. And the fact as, after watching the show and particularly after following nearly thirty years of tournaments, there are certain things that are a lot harder to dismiss. In the next article, I’ll get to the specifics.