For women, for trans people, and for endangered species
And another thing, kids: you get to win in ALL the categories!
Schneider wins in the First Woman category AND the Trans category. Win win win win win! You might think that doesn’t make sense, that it should be one or the other, but NO – that kind of logic applies only to cis people. Check your thinking.
A more suspicious person than myself would wonder at the recent spate of long-term champions on Jeopardy. Something like this sure restores the shine (among the right-thinking people anway) of Jeopardy after that whole stupid blunder of a guy naming himself as host to replace Alex Trebek.
Schneider is about to milk this for lasting fame, I’m sure, and talk about how he could never be his authentic self growing up, and how he has opened doors for so many trans people. But not about how he stepped in line ahead of women to claim their prize for the number of consecutive games won.
Michael,
These long streaks on Jeopardy have been happening ever since they got rid of the rule that reigning champs had to leave after five wins (though of course they’re invited back for the Tournament of Champions).
Tom Nichols, himself a former champion, has an article in The Atlantic recently complaining about this rule. He argues that it’s a huge advantage to be a returning player, mainly because of increasing skill with the buzzer. Everybody who makes it on to Jeopardy is good at trivia; they have to pass a challenging test just to be considered. That’s the reason there are so few “triple stumpers” where no contestant responds correctly. Sending a couple of first-timers up against someone who’s just played umpteen games this week is not a fair fight.
Unfortunately, the fans seem to like these long streaks, so it’s doubtful anything will change.
Thanks for that explanation. I had asked someone about why Ken Jensen was not limited to 5 wins when he was streaking. I hadn’t watched the show for years since it’s on daytime tv and they tried to tell me that there had never been a rule that limited a player to 5 wins.
It probably drives viewership, true, since it gets headlines.
Here’s the link to that Tom Nichols piece.