Well, the writers strike is over and apparently TV and movie writers are collectively satisfied with what they got. The late night hosts are back on the job.
Last night's Late Night With Seth Meyers came back with an entire hour long Closer Look to catch up on the news stories Seth missed out during the strike.
While I'm writing this, I'm listening to an episode of Strike Force Five. I'm gonna miss this conversation with these guys now that the strike is over.
Meanwhile most scripted TV comedies and dramas are in a holding pattern while the actors strike still needs to be resolved. Hopefully this won't take too long as the actors are looking for pretty much what the writers wanted, more money for stuff that goes to streaming and assurances that actors are replaced by AI and robots.
Well, we still have game shows and that brings us to this week's Tuesday TV Touchbase.
So last week Celebrity Jeopardy and Celebrity Wheel of Fortune kicked off in prime time last week.
The biggest change for Celebrity Jeopardy from season 1 to season 2 is the change in host from Mayim Bialik to Ken Jennings. While I thought Mayim had a good report with the celebrities in season 1, Ken is more than up to the task of wrangling these (admittedly minor) celebrities.
The expectation seems to be that Jeopardy is now just Ken's show although I am unaware of any formal announcement. If that truly is the case, then Jeopardy is finally where it should've been from day 1 after Alex Trebek's death, with Ken as the sole host of the show.
Also in deference to the rules of the Screen Actor's Guild, actors can appear but not promote active works the guild is on strike against. So Utkarsh Ambudkar who plays Jay on Ghosts can appear on Jeopardy, he can't promote his role on Ghosts and neither Ken or announce Johnny Gilbert could identify as starring on Ghosts.
Congratulations to he who shall not be called "Jay" on winning the first match of season 2.
And it always seems to be the case with these celebrity editions that you get someone who begs the question, "How the hell did they get an invite?" Last week that person was Emily Hampshire.
Some of her responses bordered on SNL Celebrity Jeopardy parody standards.
In a category of ANTS, the clue was "This is the only continent where these little creatures can't be found even though 'ANT' is in the name." If you're thinking the response is obvious, "What is Antartica?", well you're on up on Emily Hampshire who said, "What is Antopolis?"
Antopolis? Really?
In Final Jeopardy which Emily got to play in because the producers spotted her $500 as she spent virtually the entire game in the hole, here was the clue: "This is a gravitational phenomenon in space where even light can't escape".
For God's sake! "What is a black hole?"
Unless you're Emily Hampshire whose response was "What is stars?" To which she added some poorly scrawled doodles.
Ken gamely made some "compliments" on her doodles but damn...
It was embarrassing!
Meanwhile on "regular" Jeopardy, to adjust for the impact of the writer's strike, they've been doing a "second chance" tournament with previous contestants who got beat in season 37 and have a chance to win. Which gives 9 of them a chance to actually be a Jeopardy champion. And 18 of them get a chance to be TWO TIME Jeopardy losers.
The second chance tournament is being sponsored by the fine folks who make COVID vaccines, Moderna. Over the three weeks of this second chance tournament, I've said the following line at least a dozen times.
"Funky cold Moderna!"
And Andrea has laughed every single damn time!!
Which is why I love her.
Yesterday was our anniversary. How did we celebrate?
We watched TV.
Which included Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.
Now that I think about it, that's not really a celebration as it is just what we've do every day.
C'mon, did we do anything for our anniversary? Let's just assume Olive Garden is involved somehow.
Anyway...
What's up with Wheel Of Fortune?
Apparently Pat Sajak ISN'T leaving? So far, no one has said anything about this being Pat's last season.
And Brendan Hunt won big on the season premiere of Celebrity Wheel Of Fortune.
And I do not know who that is.
For future editions of the touchbase, man we've got a lot of TV ground to cover.
Tonight we've got the season finales:
- Only Murders in the Building
- Star Wars: Ashoka
And this week we've got season 2 debuts of not one, not two but THREE series:
- Our Flag Means Death
- Quantum Leap
- Loki
And if that isn't enough TV, I've started watching reruns of Modern Family.
The Tuesday TV Touchbase is gonna be biz-zay!.
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.
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