Tuesday TV Touchbase: Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy

This week’s Tuesday TV Touchbase takes a look at the game shows Andrea and I follow.

We’re old people so that means Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. 

I remember when watching Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy was catching it if I was home and not doing anything else when it’s on. 

Now we DVR them every day. God forbid we miss one.

Andrea and I watched Jeopardy Masters, the prime time special series where 6 of Jeopardy’s greatest players went up against each other. 

It points out again that nobody how good you are, James Holzhauer is a buzz saw. As good as Andrew He, Matt Amodio and Amy Schneider are, James remains a bulldozing force of nature.

Although Mattea Roach came pretty damn close to beating James on two occasions and came within a whisker of winning the whole damn thing.

But James Holzhauer prevailed in the end as the first ever winner of Jeopardy Masters.  

There’s a loose camaraderie on Jeopardy Masters similar to Celebrity Jeopardy but the players on Masters are celebrities but their fame comes from being great on Jeopardy.  

Unlike other prime time specials hosted by Mayim Bialik, Ken Jennings was behind the lectern for the Masters series where he was a perfect fit for this sort of contest.  His experience as not just a player but a record breaking champion helped him connect with and relate to the players. 

And the players were having fun interacting with Ken.  Sam Buttrey’s insistence on calling Ken anything other than Ken (“K-Dog!”?) or James’ constant roasting of his former GOAT competitor made for some hilarious moments.   

Ken and Mayim shared the stage for a special Celebrity Wheel of Fortune with Vanna White as the 3rd celebrity guest.  Pat’s daughter Maggie ran the letter board. 

Despite 40 years of being on the show, the wheel kicked Vanna’s butt and she even made the mistake (twice!) of calling for letters already called… which in both cases, she realized her error immediately.  

Both Mayim and Ken made it to the bonus round in each half of the show and both them did not guess the puzzle in each case.  Mayim seemed very anxious during game play while Ken had his classic game face on. 

Wheel of Fortune brought back some "fan favorites" for a week of special games.  Some were contestants who won big in their previous outings and in 1 game, all 3 players had shut out their competition in their prior appearances. And some of the players brought back as "fan favorites" were players who just had the worst luck with the wheel and got completely shut out. 

Turning over to Jeopardy for the regular show, Mayim Bialik has been behind the lectern as host and was supposed to be to the end of the season. But with two weeks of shows still left to shoot and the Writer's Guild strike still underway, Mayim chose not to do those last shows and join the striking writers on the picket line. Ken Jennings will return to host those last shows of the season which has earned him the wrath of Wil Wheaton.  

What the hell? 

Wheaton takes issue with Jennings crossing the picket line to host these shows and says the Hollywood community will not forget this transgression.

OK, normally, I like Wil Wheaton but in this case, he really needs to shut the fuck up.

1) The clues written by Guild members have already been written through the end of the season. The show is not using scab labor to write the show.  

2) Ken Jennings is not to my knowledge a member of the Writer's Guild. Yeah, he's written books but he is not a writer for film or television. Mayiam Bialik is a Guild member for her work as a writer on the film As They Made Us.

3) The contestants on Jeopardy come out to make the show on their own dime. They miss time from work and pay for their travel and lodging for their chance to be on the show. It would be unfair to these people if the show shut down due to both hosts supporting the strike. 

Look, if the strike is still going on when season 40 is supposed to start and Ken crosses the picket line to work with scab writers, then we'll have beef with Mr. Jennings. Until that happens, I repeat, Wil Wheaton needs to shut the fuck up.

Well, that is that for this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.  

Next week, we ponder the series finale of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Until next time, remember to be good to one another and try to keep it down in there, would ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here.