ANSWERS IN THE FORM OF QUESTIONS

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."