{"id":442506,"date":"2022-05-05T19:52:18","date_gmt":"2022-05-05T16:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/this-jeopardy-superfan-and-archivist-has-helped-train-the-all-time-greats\/"},"modified":"2022-05-05T19:52:18","modified_gmt":"2022-05-05T16:52:18","slug":"this-jeopardy-superfan-and-archivist-has-helped-train-the-all-time-greats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/this-jeopardy-superfan-and-archivist-has-helped-train-the-all-time-greats\/","title":{"rendered":"#This Jeopardy! superfan and archivist has helped train the all-time greats"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3c402f47bfa\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3c402f47bfa\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/this-jeopardy-superfan-and-archivist-has-helped-train-the-all-time-greats\/#%E2%80%9CThis_Jeopardy_superfan_and_archivist_has_helped_train_the_all-time_greats%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;This Jeopardy! superfan and archivist has helped train the all-time greats&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CThis_Jeopardy_superfan_and_archivist_has_helped_train_the_all-time_greats%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;This Jeopardy! superfan and archivist has helped train the all-time greats&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n                            Andy Saunders, from Guelph, Ontario, runs the internet\u2019s pre-eminent Jeopardy! fan site and never misses an episode.\n                        <\/div>\n<div>\n                                                                        <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Andy Saunders watches each episode of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jeopardy! <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">only once and without pausing the TV, which in itself is an achievement considering all the work going on behind the scenes at his home in Guelph, Ont.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Armed with an Excel spreadsheet and a website, <\/span><a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/thejeopardyfan.com\/\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Jeopardy! Fan<\/span><\/i><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, Saunders recaps every show with nuanced statistics, such as what percentage of the time each contestant is first on the buzzer; what each player\u2019s score would have been if all wagering on Daily Doubles were disregarded (better known to hardcore fans as the \u201cCoryat score\u201d, named after a former contestant); and mathematical simulations to predict, for example, that fellow Canadian and 22-day <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jeopardy! <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">champion Mattea Roach has a 46 per cent chance of extending her current win streak to 25 <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/game\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"7\" title=\"Game\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">game<\/a>s.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Final Jeopardy!: National Anthems | JEOPARDY!\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vDAcOH7sxl4?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And that\u2019s not counting all the time spent shouting out responses to the clues he thinks he knows, while updating his nearly <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/mobile.twitter.com\/_thejeopardyfan\">11,000 Twitter followers<\/a> that include former <em>Jeopardy!<\/em> guests hosts, tournament of champions winners and even the official <em>Jeopardy!<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social media<\/a> account.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI usually watch by myself,\u201d Saunders says. \u201cIf there were other people, I think they\u2019d be concerned by all of this stuff that goes on.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>RELATED: Clue: This Jeopardy! contestant from Nova Scotia is on an all-time hot-streak\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It wasn\u2019t always a solo affair. Saunders was in diapers when the daily syndicated version of the show premiered with Alex Trebek as host in 1984. Saunders\u2019 dad, a trivia buff, became such a fan that he would record every episode on VCR so the family could binge watch on weekends together. By the early 1990s, they were so invested in the show that the category reveals became part of the fun: the words started as a jumble, so his dad would pause the tape and skip forward frame-by-frame to see who could correctly guess the category first.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Saunders joined trivia competitions like <em>Reach For The Top<\/em> in high school and by university graduated to <em>Quiz Bowl<\/em>. But it wasn\u2019t until he was studying at Brock University in 2004, as Ken Jennings started his historic 74-game winning streak <em>Jeopardy!<\/em>, that Saunders says he evolved into\u00a0 a superfan of the show.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Why Does Ken Jennings Play Quiz Bowl?\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Y5ku181Zm8I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That same year, Saunders became one of the founding archivists of <em>J! Archive<\/em>, a fan-maintained database tracking every single <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jeopardy! <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">clue, dollar amount and contestant\u2019s response dating back to season 1 of the game show in 1984. It\u2019s a website that Jennings used for research and former <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jeopardy!<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> champion Amy Schneider credited as the best preparation for her 40-game win streak in which her total earnings exceeded US$1million. Meanwhile, when Trebek was first told about the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">J! Archive<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, he reportedly replied: \u201cCome on, people. Get a life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAlex, being slightly more old-school, probably would have thought: \u2018Why do they care so much about <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jeopardy<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">?\u2019 Saunders says. \u201cWhich is fine. I had no problem with him thinking that at all.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>MORE: Alex Trebek reinvented the role of game-show host with \u2018accessible sophistication\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Saunders\u2019 time spent maintaining\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Jeopardy! Fan<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014a site he took over from Jeanie Kenkel in 2015 (who once finished as runner-up during her lone <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>earance on the show in 2012)\u2014now encompasses the majority of his work thanks to Patreon support, merchandise sales and advertising.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>READ: What answer eluded Jeopardy\u2019s winningest female contestant?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He has witnessed firsthand the impact hard-core fans like himself can have. When Michael Davies took over as executive producer in 2021, for example, Saunders says the game show took better notice of the grassroots effort to compile statistics, as if it were some kind of sporting event. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jeopardy!\u2019<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> recently added daily post-game <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.jeopardy.com\/jbuzz\/news-events\/jeopardy-daily-box-scores\">box scores<\/a> on its own website, including data on each contestant\u2019s longest streak controlling the board.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Saunders, however, has never controlled the board himself. He\u2019s auditioned several times\u2014and even met Trebek once in person during a 2017 audition in Toronto when the late <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jeopardy!<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> host made a surprise audition appearance\u2014but he has yet to be selected as a contestant.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"under-article-widget-nl\">\n<p class=\"under-article-widget-title\">Looking for more?<\/p>\n<p class=\"under-article-widget-description\">Get the best of <em>Maclean<\/em>&#8216;s sent straight to your inbox. 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Andy Saunders watches each episode of Jeopardy! only once and without pausing the TV, which in itself is an achievement considering all the work going on behind&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":442507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Jeopardy-Super-Fan-766x431.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[128874,40509,1525],"class_list":["post-442506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-game-show","tag-jeopardy","tag-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}