Originally Posted by Maritime Q-Scout
I have the PVR set to record Jeopardy!
I recently got back into it when Netflix uploaded a bunch of tournaments.
There are a few things that James Holzhauer does that would irk people and make him not as likable as some others.
(1) He tends to go across the board, right-to-left or left-to-right as opposed to start at the top and work down a category. I'd say viewers at home like contestants going down a category as the clues are designed to have the responses the first thing you guess, and this is easier when you're in a groove. Jumping categories you may forget the category, especially if the contestant abbreviates it.
(2) He doesn't bet values in denominations of 100. Seeing $12,316 as a person's score just seems wrong. It's not symmetrical with the standard scoring system or other players.
(3) He is monotone, and has little banter. Very robotic, it's more difficult to get behind someone who doesn't have their personality come across the screen.
(4) His smile is really forced. You can tell he's 'smiling for the camera' and is not naturally smiling.
Ken Jennings was laid back, relaxed, and charismatic.
Brad Rutter, the winningest Jeopardy! player, also is very relaxed, and charismatic. Both Rutter and Jennings loved to banter with Alex, something Holzhauer doesn't do.
Roger Craig, the former record holder of a single day winning score, while not as charismatic as Rutter and Jennings, still was laid back, and would banter a little bit (during one of the Tournaments of Champions, Alex mentioned to Craig that he was within reach of setting the single day winning record, to which Craig responded "what's the amount?" When they came back from commercial Alex said that Roger Craig was likely joking as HE was the record holder at $77,000, to which Craig had a sly smile.
Holzhauer just doesn't have those intangibles.
That said, he seems like a good guy. His wagers all reference important dates for his family, his Final Jeopardy! answer always has a shout out to a family member. It comes across as awkward but I like the kiss and heart tap to the person he does the shout out to when Alex references it. Family is clearly important to him, which is endearing.
That said, has anyone ever done the Jeopardy! test? I think today's the last day to try out for the next run. I did... not... do so great on it, haha. Made up for it with an HQ win yesterday. $0.56 USD is better than nothing.
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