Opinion: Jeopardy!’s James Holzhauer is a menace
By Charles Lane Charles Lane Editorial writer and columnist specializing in economic and fiscal policy Email Bio Follow Opinion writer April 29 at 6:26 PM Night after night for more than two weeks, “Jeopardy!” champion James Holzhauer has crushed two opponents on the venerable game show like a pair of bugs. By the time you read this, his streak may have ended, but it doesn’t seem likely: As of Monday, he had won 18 games in a row, amassing more than $1.
People seem not to care that Holzhauer’s streak reflects the same grim, data-driven approach to competition that has spoiled baseball, where it has given us the “shift,” “wins above replacement,” “swing trajectories” and other statistically valid but unholy innovations. In short, this professional gambler from Las Vegas does not so much play the game as beat the system. What’s entertaining about that? And beyond a certain point, what’s admirable?
I took comfort not only in the consolation prizes but also in knowing that late-20th-century “Jeopardy!” was an amateur event, open to everyman and everywoman, governed by rules both written and unwritten . Okay, okay: There are more of you than there are of me. Viewers like “Jeopardy!” prodigies, which is why the show advertises them even as they drain its prize-money reserves. The show’s Nielsen ratings were 22 percent higher during Jennings’s 2004 run than during the same period in 2003.
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