SPOILER POLICY ENACTED:

Chico:  Now, over the past week, TV Week leaked out a report that Ken Jennings is to lose after 75 matches.
Gordon: As a matter of fact, we actually have a spy in our midst who was at the taping that he lost. Would the spy please reveal himself?
Jason:  *whistles incoherently*
Alex:   lol
Chico:  *looks around*
Jason:  Oh....not a spy.....just a well-wisher
Gordon: You are a Spy! J'Accuse!
Alex:   Ken didn't even deny the fact that he lost to me when we talked last Saturday.
Chico:  But he DID deny it to the Early Show.
Gordon: Well, he sort of has to, to keep the mystique going.
Alex:   Yeah, Ken said Sony made him do stuff like that. He said any mass publication right now, he has to lead people to believe it is a false rumor because if people knew he lost for sure, the ratings would go back down - and then peak when he loses.
Chico:  Yeah, understandable with confidentiality agreements and such.
Gordon: But since we have proof that it wasn't a rumor - Jason, would you kindly give us details as to how Ken loses?
Jason:  .....well.....he was just off his game that day. I had seen previous recordings, and he was kicking butt pretty consistently....except one episode (and I won't say when) where he is actually in THIRD place at the beginning of Double Jeopardy.
Alex:   Do you think he was just off of his game, or he was doing some of it on his own will to end his run?
Jason:  I really think he was off his game that day. He seemed more relieved than anything, especially when he was in the audience for the last three shows!
Chico:  The likely scenario would have Ken trailing going into Final Jeopardy.
Gordon: According to my other spy who was there (we all have backup spies), Jennings was in the lead going into Final Jeopardy and blows it.
Jason:  Oh, come on now....I don't want to TOTALLY spoil it. :-p Like Ken said, we have to leave some mystique in this
Alex:   I will say that Ken was equally as mad at the media as I was about this situation with all the spoilers.
Chico:  Well, in the information age, nothing's really a secret anymore.
Alex:   And the bad thing is Sony can't do a thing - which sucks
Gordon: That leads me to this...What is your opinion about the media spoiling shows taped in advance? Do they have the right to do it because it's the public's right to know?
Alex:   I think its just bad.
Jason:  Short answer: No, I don't like it.
Alex:   I know they can't help it, but some people don't like to know. I avoided it for a long time. Then I was watching GMA, and they just had it on the bottom line, which didn't make me happy.
Jason:  I was there, so it wasn't spoiling me.
Chico:  It's just one of those Catch 22's. There's the news aspect, and then there's the whole mystique.
Alex:   This makes me remember what ABC did with Mega Millionaire a while ago with Olmstead.
Chico:  And what NBC said with 21.
Jason:  oh yeah.
Alex:   There was little publicity about this and then one week, ABC promotes BIG MONEY week. Hmm, I wonder what's going to happen?
Jason:  Gee, I wonder.
Chico:  Hmmmm.
Josh:   Do you realize we're spoiling it just as all these people we're talking down upon are?
Gordon: I'll have to disagree here. I think the difference is that #1. We didn't break the news, so we aren't going to cause a lawsuit and #2, And more importantly, we are warning people about a spoiler, so if they don't want to know, they won't read it. We are not mentioning it on the main page of the website, nor will we force-feed people to see the spoiler when they go into the site Vs. people who are forced to read the spoiler, like Good Morning America.
Jason:  Yeah, I thought that was pretty terrible.
Alex:   This was one reason I was happy Russian Roulette was on such a small network with no giant media outlets - so we couldn't know if someone won or not. Basically every other show you could find out easily because of the media.
Jason:  The only people I told, honestly, was Gordon.... and Jacky (my sis), and that's about all. I didn't want the news to spread around like it did.
Chico:  Personally, I think it reeks of sensationalism. I mean we live in a world where everything is done in advance and there is so much pressure to scoop a story such as this.
Jason:  Very true.
Alex:   This is why I still think Jeopardy shouldn't be taped so far in advance.
Chico:  If this was back in the 1950s when everything was done live, you couldn't have that.
Gordon: In this age that we live in, I am convinced that there were media people in the audience waiting for him to lose.
Alex:   I loved what Millionaire use to do - taping the day before. There was basically no time for spoilers to get out.
Chico:  Agreed.
Josh:   They still do that for Super Mill.
Alex:   Yeah, and I really enjoyed that. Taping a few months in advance really hurts. And to be honest, Jeopardy is the only show I am happy with this season.
Gordon: That leads me up to the next question - Should Jeopardy have changed their taping procedures for Ken to tape it a day in advance?
Alex:   They should have done it a long time ago.
Jason:  .....oh yeah.
Chico:  They should've done it when Millionaire was doing it.
Josh:   But then they'd have to tape one show a day.
Josh:   As opposed to 45.
Jason:  Well, they should tape a set of shows closer to the air date.... although that would suck for me, because I have school now. :-p
Alex:   I may be out of the loop, but why exactly do shows tape so far in advance?
Chico:  I'm not sure myself. Gordon?
Jason:  I have a few cents, but I want to hear what Gordon has to say first
Gordon: Easy - $$. You pay a crew much less if you only have them working for 3-4 months of the year, instead of 9-10 months of the year doing weekly production shoots and tapings. Millionaire, for instance, tapes through December, and that's it - they have all of the episodes for the season through June.
Alex:   Yeah, true.
Jason:  Good answer.
Gordon: Letterman tapes at around 3-4pm for is late night show, which airs the same day.
Chico:  But the same general principle holds, you know?
Jason:  But then I won't get to spoil that somebody answered in the form of a question. :-D
Alex:   And I doubt anything like this will happen again on Jeopardy, at least for a while, so I guess it's just too late. But something needs to be done.
Jason:  See, for shows like Wheel, there are some things that are edited down quite a bit.
Alex:   Yeah, I'm trying to block out WOF as much as I can recently.
Jason:  Yeah....in a way, it's kinda like video crack....
Josh:   Anyone remember when the Wheel episodes the GSC saw are going to air?
Gordon: Oct 4-8.
Josh:   I'm interested in hearing how far the lady who beat Ken Jennings goes.
Alex:   Yeah, that would be funny - Ken wins 74 games... The lady wins 1. There would be a lot of jokes about that.
Jason:  I won't say anything.
Gordon: I won't say anything if you don't, Jason.
Jason:  *whistles and slowly backs away*
Chico:  I bet people are writing that up as we speak.
Gordon: Already written - I will sell it to GMA for one... meeeelion... dollaaaarrrrs.
Jason:  *gasp*
Josh:   What day did he tape his last episode?
Alex:   Last Tuesday?
Jason:  It was.... Tuesday, the 7th
Alex:   Ken is back at home now with his family.
Josh:   Ha.  He did the Ellen show AFTER he had lost.
Jason:  Of course!
Chico:  You know the funny thing is, reports over the summer did say Ken would eventually lose.
Gordon: With the Tournament of Champions for the next 2 weeks, and an extra bonus week thrown in, Jennings's loss will place the episode right at... the end of November, right through November sweeps.
Jason:  It's through the sweeps, as Ken's last day will be November 30th. On the VERY next episode, there is a category devoted to "December 1st"
Gordon: Is Ken's ouster at the end of sweeps convenient or planned?
Alex:   Planned
Chico:  A little TOO convenient.
Jason:  Convenient
Alex:   All TV is today is for ratings - which gets advertisers. I can't wait to see what they do for the ToC with Ken. Usually, the ToC is for a lot of money, more than what the contestants usually have. Ken will basically win a portion of his taxes if he wins the ToC next year.
Josh:   How many tournaments is Ken qualified for?
Alex:   Only 1, Josh.
Josh:   I'd like to see Ed Toutant go against Jennings.
Alex:   Yeah, that would be interesting. Do you think Ken is the best J! player ever? Or his timing was just good, that he got on when the Skys the Limit rule came in.
Chico:  Hmm... this is a tough question, because he knows how to play the game, but he too is a victim of circumstance.
Alex:   I'm stuck on the question too.
Jason:  He definitely knows how to play this game
Alex:   I think a portion of it is just his timing of going on the show.
Jason:  It's the whole timing of the buzzer thing.
Alex:   But honestly, I don't know how many people could win 74 games out of past contestants.
Jason:  Me, neither
Chico:  Consistency is the key.
Gordon: I think the older Veteran Jep! guys, like Forrest and Spangenberg, who I think have a more general knowledgeable base than Jennings, could beat him.
Jason:  Maybe Spangenberg, Forrest could certainly beat Ken.
Chico:  It would be interesting to see them in another Masters tourney.
Alex:   they probably will have him in it
Jason:  How about Verini and Timanus?
Gordon: Verini? eh. Timanus I think would be a good challenge
Jason:  I think so, too.
Alex:   I am having a tiny bit of doubt that the next ToC with Jennings will be for $250,000. They are going to do something...like may the next ToC a million dollar masters.
Jason:  Pfft, only a million??
Chico:  Heh.
Jason:  That's chunk change for Ken. :p
Alex:   One thing I honestly didn't like which was stressed was the fact that the Million Dollar Masters player was the first millionaire on that show. I thought that was a bit unfair to always stress that.
Gordon: Should be fun, whatever they do. Let's get the people who don't want to be spoiled back into the conversation.

SPOILER ENDS...

Gordon: Lets talk about something that's also chump change considered to a million...A billion. Did anyone see Pepsi's Play for a Billion? What did you think?
Alex:   No, I didn't see that.
Jason:  LOL
Alex:   So I'll just listen.
Chico:  I saw it.
Jason:  Didn't see it, either. I HAVE a life, hello? :-p
Alex:   I went to see a movie.
Jason:  When the heck was that, anyway?
Chico:  Sept. 12.
Jason:  Ohh
Gordon: Way to be reading our GSNN boards, Jason.
Jason:  Sorry, but that was the weekend I missed out on, with it being my 21st and all.
Chico:  Oh! Happy belated, J :)
Gordon: So you can now play Super Pan 9 legally
Jason:  .....yes...that's right! So far, I have lost $5 total to the PiR slots. I think I played that thing for a couple hours. THAT is your video crack, right there
Alex:   lol
Gordon: Just as a personal note - the California casinos policy in terms of making sure you are over 21 is.. shall we say...nonexistent.
Jason:  ...I think that was pretty evident when you were here. :)
Gordon: Well, Chico, that leaves you and me. what did you think?
Chico:  I have a life.. and a DVR. Anyway, you have to admire ABC for teaming a rookie with a veteran. Kinda like the buddy cops of game showdom.
Gordon: I thought that it was fun, but not nearly as good as last year, and ABC clearly cut costs on this.
Chico:  They had to pay off Destiny's Child is what it was.
Gordon: Nonsense. They had more stars when it was on the WB.
Alex:   ABC might be the most idiotic network ever.
Jason:  As an aside.... Recently, Disney's California Adventure had their "ABC Preview Weekend" and it was.... terrible! WAY too much "extreme
makeover".
Gordon: Well, this is ABC's way, isn't it  - take a hit show, ruin it into the ground and not worry about creating new shows to foster it.
Alex:   I am actually going to watch a show on the WB this year... which is scary.
Jason:  Which show would that be?
Alex:   I am really looking forward to Green Screen In October.
Jason:  Personally, I watch "7th Heaven" just coz I like watching Bev Mitchell. :-p
Alex:   I am a huge fan of Whose Line. So any show like that, I'll be watching.
Jason:  Same here.
Gordon: Green Screen is on when? Thursday at 9?
Alex:   Yep.
Jason:  There's TV on Thursdays???
Gordon: Airing against Apprentice, CSI, Extreme Makeover, Tru Calling and the WWE?
Chico:  Yep.
Gordon: Enjoy your two episodes of Green Screen before is gets yanked after getting pummeled by everything else on at the same time.
Chico:  In any event, while we're on the subject of lame decisions, we had TWO this week. 1) The Apprentice. Two bad decisions there.
Gordon: Do tell.
Chico:  First one was on the part of Bradford, who was a lock for round 3... but chose to waive his immunity. This is when his team lost, mind you. And he was not supposed to be fired if that happened again.
Gordon: Agreed - that was an incredible stupid move on his part.
Chico:  He waives immunity and is taken to the board.
Gordon: and bad decision #2?
Chico:  Never mind the fact that he now has guns for days due to the fact that he was carrying his team on his back for the past two weeks.
Gordon: Was he? I disagree with that.
Chico:  Well, he did better than the other two that were carried into the board room.
Gordon: I think he was going to carry them to doom in the first episode until the team overruled him on the toy. The car was a much better idea than the football gig. I think his ego got in his way in both this and the second episode.
Chico:  #2 - Stacie and Ivana completely screwed the pooch, but Bradford's cojones overrode any good he did, as the Donald put him out of his misery.
Gordon: Do you think the Donald made the right choice?
Chico:  Not by a freaking longshot. He just wanted the attention.
Gordon: So you think the Donald made a bad decision.
Chico:  By not going for the weakest link, yes.
Gordon: I completely disagree. I think the Donald made the right choice. You have someone who is blowing off both the group and the boss's authority, completely not listening to his group - and then waiving off the rules. You don't want someone like that running a business. I think Trump did that for 2 reasons - 1. He knew he wasn't going to hire him, so he figured to get rid of him, and 2 - He sent a message to the team that that sort of behavior will not be tolerated.
Chico:  Sometimes going against the grain works.
Gordon: Going against the grain is good. Doing it by setting the silo on fire is bad.
Chico:  Well the way he was going about it, you'd think otherwise. We'll see when the extra footage comes in. Meanwhile, we go to second lame mistake of
the week. The Play-Op is revealed... as Boston Rob.
Gordon: Rob is the player operator - at least we know where their budget went to now.
Chico:  Dawn's dresses! But believe it or not, there could've been other choices.
Gordon: I'm sensing a Big Board coming on...
Chico:  You sense correctly.
Gordon: Light it up!
Chico:  Today's topic: End of the Line. I'll explain this for JD and Alex: on the game, there was a player operator that basically acted as ...the Inquizitor... A Charlie, if you will. This Big Board will explore what would be different if there were other people on the line. Feel free to jump in with suggestions.
Alex:   OK
Chico:  Gordon, please begin..
Gordon: For example, if Ken Jennings was the Player Operator - then you'd either have Computer Geeks or Mormons as the contestants.
Chico:  Personally, I've never heard a geek outside myself say "spit mad game" before.
Gordon: It could be fun to see that - even worse than Average Joe.
Chico:  WORSE?! How could it get any worse?
Gordon: My next PO could make it worse =)
Chico:  Okay, I got one. Mark Thompson. The voice of Fox could resound in a booming voice and have the players do something incredibly stupid (and more than likely ripped off from another show) for money.
Gordon: What about Phyllis Diller? Then we can have dating for 80 year olds. The Bachelor - Octogenarian Style.
Jason:  *shudders*
Alex:   I think I would literally scoop out of my eyeballs.
Chico:  I stand corrected. That was worse.
Gordon: Would you like to dance - or would you rather suck face?
Josh:   Depends whose face I'm sucking.
Gordon: Anyone have any other suggestions?
Chico:  Ben Stein. He's got the cred, you know.
Gordon: A show with Smart Republicans...do we have enough people to fill that show?
Alex:   Get Kennedy then. Give me a reason to watch.
Jason:  Kennedy!!!!
Chico:  Of course!
Gordon: Who would she fill the show up with?
Chico:  I'm sure she has female.. Republican... friends..
Alex:   I would hope so. Then lets put it on Pay Per View.
Gordon: The Player - Republican Lingerie Edition featuring Kennedy! Brilliant!
Josh:   I'd suck Kennedy's face.
Alex:   Who wouldn't?
Chico:  Or here's a switch-up. How about Gordon as the Play-Operator?
Gordon: I am sick of the dopey Bachelor shows. Since no one is looking for love anymore, let's throw a nasty twist into the genre. I would make STEVE from MY BIG FAT OBNOXIOUS FIANCE the player and then the game would be to try to get eliminated from the show so that you DON'T get married to him.
Chico:  Seppuku is allowed, right?
Gordon: no - no Seppuku allowed.
Chico:  Damn.
Gordon: The person who is eliminated the last wins $50,000 - and the person who he picks has to live with Steve - forever!
Jason:  .....maybe he's a good cook. :p
Chico:  Go to commercial! GO TO COMMERCIAL!

(This commercial has been brought to you by MY BIG FAT OBNOXIOUS BACHELOR - You DON'T want him to pick you!)

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