MaddenWatch Thought for the Day Archive
5/10/06
The
MADDENWATCH is back in the h-h-h-h-house!
As many of you Jeopardy fans know, we are in the middle of the annual
Tournament of Champions. Of course,
David Madden is scheduled to compete tomorrow, according to the official Jeopardy! Website. But we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to
know if he’s got what it takes to beat the best of the best. One poster to the Guestbook even speculates
that although he can beat anyone in regular play, he’ll be crushed by the elite
champions that he’ll have to face. Stay
tuned to Jeopardy, and stay tuned to maddenwatch.com to find out what really
happens.
9/17/05 David Madden Loses
Well,
it looks like the rumors flying around the internet were true. David Madden has lost his 20th game. Although he responded to the Final Jeopardy clue
correctly, Victoria did as well, so it came down to the fact that Madden was
trailing prior to Final Jeopardy. In
any case, he walks away with over $400,000 and although he doesn’t join the
ranks of Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, he won a number of games that very few
people have surpassed. Congratulations,
David Madden!
9/16/05
All
three players got off to a rather slow start, as we saw them all in the red in
the Jeopardy round. However, David
zoomed ahead rather quickly by finding the Daily Doubles in Double
Jeopardy. Alex even said that David is
good at finding them. With $24,000
going into Final Jeopardy, David once again “could not be caught.”
9/15/05
Today’s game was not quite a runaway,
but David’s usual strategy of a small wager on final Jeopardy paid off once
again.
9/14/05
Today’s
game was really close throughout, but David Madden pulled off a victory once
again. No one had the correct response
in Final Jeopardy, but because David had a big lead and made a small wager, he
emerged victorious once again.
9/13/05
Today’s
game seemed to be much better for David Madden than some of his previous
ones. He dominated from the start by
sweeping the first category he selected in the Jeopardy round to take an early
$3,000 lead. From there, he could not
be caught as he grabbed many of the clues from the bottom of the board in both
the Jeopardy and Double Jeopardy rounds to finish up at $22,000. His nearest competitor had only $10,000, so
it was a clear runaway this time around.
He answered correctly in Final Jeopardy and padded his total with
another $1,999 to sweeten the victory.
We even learned how many of the Canadian provinces (only one) border the
Great Lakes.
9/12/05
Welcome back to our coverage of the MADDENWATCH!
Today
was quite an amazing game. Although the
game was interrupted with a special report, I was able to see what happened,
and it was quite exciting. Alex called
David and Willie “buzz saws” in today’s game.
Although Willie built up a score of $2,200 before David was able to get
ahead on the buzzer for the first time, David got lucky and found the Daily
Double and caught up quickly. When the
special report concluded and the program resumed in the middle of Double
Jeopardy, however, David was quite far behind.
However, David’s knowledge of the Baltic and quickness on the buzzer
saved him and he quickly caught up.
David and Willie were almost neck-and-neck coming into Final Jeopardy,
with David slightly behind, but it was interesting that David and Willie both
missed the Final Jeopardy clue. David,
however, won the game because of Willie’s huge wager. In any case, David pulled off another victory because of good
wagering strategy and he will be back again tomorrow.
8/20/05
Unfortunately, Jeopardy is in the middle of a hiatus, and at
this point, we have two more weeks until the regular season starts up again and
David Madden continues his reign as champion.
During this long period, we Jeopardy fans are forced to watch old
tournament episodes. We’ve seen Kids’
Week, the Teen Tournament, and the College Tournament, which all aired
originally within the last year. I
don’t have any information on what they may be doing in the week after they
show the finals of the College Tournament again, but I am hoping they show the
finals of the Ultimate Tournament.
In the meantime, I happened to catch an interesting show at
a local theater here in Chicago.
Someone who appeared on Jeopardy as a contestant, Scott Hermes, put on a
show where he talked about his experience.
He had slides and audio clips of his appearance, and he even had a
wooden Jeopardy podium with his name on it.
He would lip sync and gesture like he was actually playing the
game. He even clicked a pen to pretend
like he was buzzing in. I hope he makes
more money as an actor putting on this show than he did when he really played
Jeopardy!
For
those of you who are looking for coverage of David Madden’s win on Jeopardy, he
will be back on in September. Of
course, we will be back at that time with the MADDENWATCH!
7/21/05
Well,
this time Madden looks to be back to his normal self. This was a runaway game that we expect from him based on most of
his previous games. Although he was trailing at the end of the Jeopardy round,
his usual strategy of "Daily Double Fishing" paid off today. Within
the first ten clues of Double Jeopardy, David uncovered both Daily Doubles and
made big wagers on them, so he was able to lock the game once again!
7/20/05
For the second day in a row, this game was close! Madden ended up $200 behind Ellyn coming
into Final Jeopardy. However, Madden
knew that the correct response was “What is Beethoven’s 9th
Symphony.” Ellyn’s response of “What is
“Ode To Joy” was ruled incorrect because that is only one movement in the
piece, and there is no partial credit awarded on Jeopardy.
I
am starting to feel nervous for this guy.
He is not capturing as many high-valued clues as he had in previous
games, so the challengers are closing in on him. It is not always possible to win in Final Jeopardy, because a
clue in one category that you might be weak in can cost you the
championship. As many of you know, it
was a Final Jeopardy clue that killed Ken Jennings. We can only keep watching to find out what happens next.
7/19/05
What a nail-biter today!
David Madden got off to a slow start at the beginning of both the
Jeopardy and Double Jeopardy rounds. He
pulled ahead at the end of Double Jeopardy, but only entered Final Jeopardy
with a $3000 lead. So, for the first
time in a long time, it all came down to the Final Jeopardy clue. Fortunately, David’s knowledge of words
found in literature paid off in a big way to earn him his eleventh win.
Although
it appeared that David did not out-perform the competition in the usual way
today, I feel that Richard’s ability was the reason for David’s struggle. Richard was getting in ahead of David on the
buzzer quite frequently, but David won today because of his overall
ability. Since Final Jeopardy does not
come down to speed on the signaling device, it all comes down to contestants’
knowledge of a wide variety of subject matter.
7/18/05
Well,
Madden has now reached 10 wins—a nice round number. Because of this, a lot of talk is brewing around the
Internet. What are they saying? It sounds like people don’t like this guy
because of how he plays. He goes
fishing for Daily Doubles, stalls for time, and some have said they hate his
face and body language. However,
whether or not he uses an unusual strategy, you can’t argue with the fact that
he wins the game fair and square. His
opponents simply aren’t buzzing in fast enough and are missing questions, so
the dollars just don’t add up. There is
no foul play here, and you can’t argue with what is happening.
7/15/05
Although today’s game was a runaway for David Madden, it was
a close call that came down to the last clue.
Until then, Karen’s total was within striking distance of David. However, David just happened to hit the
Daily Double as the last clue played before time ran out for the day. His $4000 wager and correct response were
all he needed to clinch a victory before Final Jeopardy.
I
am starting to think that although Madden is a very good player, he would be
crushed by Ken Jennings or Brad Rutter.
Madden may be able to nail those $1600 or $2000 clues against most
players, but he is not as quick on the buzzer, and is more cautious about
buzzing in on clues if he is not sure about them. If you watch Ken, for example, you will see him buzz in on
everything, and if he doesn’t know the correct response right away, he’ll
figure it out in five seconds. However,
we will see how many wins David can stack up, then see him become a hot item
until the real competition hits him in the next Ultimate Tournament.
7/14/05
Well,
today’s game was not decided in Double Jeopardy. David thought he had nailed another runaway game, but it came
down to a $2000 clue that was still uncovered.
He didn’t get in on the buzzer on that one, so he lost his edge when
Kate buzzed in and nailed the $2000 clue, and David finished Double Jeopardy
with less than double Kate's total.
However, David has performed well in Final Jeopardy. He knew about all the volcano-related deaths
in Indonesia, and this knowledge led to his eighth victory. Luckily, his nearest opponent missed Final
Jeopardy so she didn’t pull ahead.
7/13/05
It seems that David Madden has an interesting strategy for
winning that is quite different from that of Ken Jennings. Madden always starts near the bottom of a
category when he makes a selection.
From books I’ve read by former Jeopardy contestants, this is not the
best strategy, as it is normally best to start at the top so that you get a
feel for what a category is about with the easier, lower-valued clues before
going after the higher-valued ones.
However, Madden seems to do well nailing those $1600 and $2000 clues in
Double Jeopardy and leaves the lower-valued ones to his opponents who end up
being unable to catch him.
7/12/05
Until the first Jeopardy episode where Madden became
champion aired last week, no one heard of David Madden. However, chances are he
is going to become another household name in a matter of days. Some people will
say that I am speaking too soon, but I am not afraid to proclaim him the next
Ken Jennings. Just look at the stats. With the size of his wins and the margin
of victory over his opponents, this guy is bound to build up a big winning
streak. Of course, all we can really do is tune to ABC every day and hope it
really happens, but let's be optimistic here.