Answers in the Form of Questions

September 15, 2020
A guide to the popular game show. Ringer columnist McNear's first book is an entertaining general overview of the popular "beacon of television stability." All-time Jeopardy! champion Ken Jennings notes in his foreword that the show has "been performed over eight thousand times...for the last three and a half decades." After the debacle of the rigged Twenty-One show in the 1950s, writes the author, "knowledge-based game shows understandably faltered." With its unique approach to the genre, the original version of Jeopardy! premiered in 1964 in a midday slot, with actor Art Fleming as host and Don Pardo as announcer; it ran for 12 years. Merv Griffin--who also wrote the show's theme music--brought it back in 1984, with Alex Trebek as host, partly because of Weird Al Jankovic's popular song, "I Lost on Jeopardy!" With behind-the-scenes access, McNear followed a group of hopeful contestants preparing for their show appearances, and she chronicles her interviews with past contestants and show staff. Trivia, no surprise, abounds. Fifteen staffers create 16,790 clues each season. Contestants cannot wager $69 or $666. After the show's five-game limit was lifted, "cultural phenomenon" Jennings' unbeaten streak lasted six months, winning him $2,520,700. "Every year," writes the author, "about eighty thousand people take the annual online Jeopardy! contestant test," and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is one of the "most successful contestants in the history of Celebrity Jeopardy!" McNear also delves into "clue selection" and wagering strategies and the secrets of how to increase buzzer speed. Numerous sidebars throughout the text examine topics like "Contestant Skulduggery" and the famous 2011 match between past uber-champions Brad Rutter and Jennings vs. IBM's Watson. She also discusses in funny detail the show's impact on popular culture--and its popularity continues. The 2020 Greatest of All Time tournament "topped the viewership for nearly all television programming in the previous year." Jeopardy! devotees will want to pair this with Trebek's recent memoir. Good reading for those who can't get enough of the TV "juggernaut."

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October 1, 2020
In the wake of both a biography of host Alex Trebek (Who Is Alex Trebek? by Lisa Rogan) and Trebek's own memoir, The Answer Is (2020), McNear extends Jeopardy! mania with a companion volume that is as fast-paced and trivia-packed as the show itself. Why is the show structured in a reverse answer-question format? What's the title of the show's iconic theme song? How old is announcer Johnny Gilbert? Providing answers to these and other essential questions, McNear takes readers (and wannabe Jeopardy! contestants) behind-the-scenes of the show itself, from prequalification tests to in-person auditions to getting the call to compete. Interviews with showrunners divulge backstage rituals, while former champions reveal buzzer-beating strategies and wagering wisdom. Few quiz shows in television history have garnered the enthusiasm or generated the mystique that Jeopardy! has. Indeed, anyone who has ever watched more than five episodes of the long-running quiz show has undoubtedly thought, I could do that. While McNear's engaging expose may quell such ambitions, it still provides fascinating and entertaining reading for devoted Jeopardy! fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

September 28, 2020
Journalist McNear debuts with a fast-paced and well-researched behind-the-scenes look into one of America’s most popular game shows. Drawing on interviews with Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek, hundreds of contestants, and the show’s writers and crew, she explores its enduring popularity and strategies for winning. While Jeopardy! appears to require deep knowledge in focused topics, McNear writes, the key to success is “to build a surface-level amount of knowledge about a wide array of subjects.” Suggestions from big winners like James Holhauzer and Ken Jennings include everything from building a Jeopardy! studio simulator at home to sculpting pens and children’s toys into practice buzzers. Buzzer timing, having a strategy for wagering, and choosing clues that might uncover a Daily Double are also important. McNear describes Trebek as a tireless worker who arrives on set early to read the day’s clues, and is funny, sharp, and self-deprecating off-camera. Digging into the mechanics of how the show comes together, McNear notes how games are built using color-coded categories such as academic subjects, pop culture, and wordplay. As Mike Gaberman, a longtime writer for the show, says, “I still can’t wait to see how my categories will play during that day’s shooting.” Game show lovers and aspiring contestants will definitely want to pick this up.