Tournament of Champions Game 6 Recap
Zach Newkirk vs. Jessica Stephens vs. Sam Buttrey
On an average day of Jeopardy! taping, they film 5 episodes in a day. But this Tournament of Champions is anything but average! The taping schedule for this day was the 6 Quarterfinal games, plus the exhibition match between Matt, Amy, and Mattea.
It was a little after 5pm when Zach, Jessica, and Sam took the stage for Game 6. As Sam was getting settled at his podium, he must have noticed a smudge on his glasses. A crew member gave him a cleaning cloth, and Sam polished the glasses until he was satisfied with his view of the board.
Outfit Details
This is the outfit Zach wore in his very first game in 2020! Love the plaid suit & I am always happy to see a tie & pocket square. Zach reached out before his game to tell me the story of his nondescript blue tie and I LOVE these details:
Picture it. Wilmington, North Carolina. 2015. Yours truly is getting married. I bought six custom ties for my groomsmen and me. We’re all getting ready; photographer and videographer are there. I count out the ties. Re-count them. Oh, I should have bought seven ties. What to do? Well, we have an hour. I frantically search for clothing stores open and, lo and behold, there’s a Men’s Wearhouse about 20 minutes away. We drive over and I nervously get the tie with videographer and photographer in tow. Crisis averted! Or was it? Forgot to get a pocket square! Have to find another random place for that. And that’s the white pocket square and blue tie I had on that day, a memory of one of the best days ever!
Jessica has such an amazing eye for color and prints, this sweater is a great example! The contrast between the floral print and the solid color is eye-catching. You can't see her dino earrings here, but they were awesome. She was also wearing white sneakers for comfort and style.
I love this tie so much! I was in the audience for this game, so I made sure to find Sam afterwards and get a closer look. He was completely unfazed by me approaching him and asking “Can I look at your tie??” It's a red, white, and orangey-yellow floral pattern, nice contrast with the blue shirt.
Ken officially wore new ties for all of the quarterfinal games! I like how the grey in this tie matches his suit perfectly, and the shapes are visible enough on TV that they don’t just look like dots. A very nice addition to the blue tie rotation.
Vibe Check
Zach - gentle
Zach is just an absolute sweetheart, what more can I say? He’s so balanced - he’s not boisterous but not shy either. On stage he doesn’t seem nervous or intense, just neutral and calm.
Jessica - poised
Jessica’s ability to stay poised in this game impressed me so much I had to do a bonus interview to find out her secret!
Sam - engaging
Sam comes across well on TV, but in person he is even more gregarious. It’s hard to explain the exact way he seems to be constantly entertaining without it feeling like a “look at me, look at me” kind of vibe. He is a treasure!
Mistakes and Retakes
Ken’s intro to this game took a few tries. Because it was the top of the show, he had to do his whole walk out again when he messed up a line about quarterfinals. He quipped that he should have something interesting on stage for the cameras to cut to so they could splice together his intro without having to start over. “I should have a dog out here or something! Maybe some fish! I could feed the fish!” and Jessica, like any good child of the 80s, said, “Like Mr. Rogers!”
They ended up deciding to cut to a shot of the contestants during one particularly tricky part, so Ken could just rerecord the audio and wouldn’t have to start back from the beginning again.
Ken flubbed his response on the Alberta / BC clue “Right you are! WAIT, NO!!”
Ken also had some retakes in the intro to Final Jeopardy & end of the show explanation of the exhibition match. It was a long day!
Clues/Gameplay Recap
In both rounds, it was clear that Jessica was buzzing in on a lot of clues. Actually, it seemed like all three of them were battling for many of the clues. Zach finally started getting in ahead of Sam during the Double Jeopardy! round. I haven’t seen box scores yet, but Sam’s unique buzzer hold was WORKING!! I’m curious if we’ll see more index-finger techniques in the future!
On the vogue clue & the floss clue, Ken asked Sam if he wanted to demonstrate. He did vogue for us during the commercial break! Then Jessica tried (and failed) to floss and quipped, “I don’t speak Child.” Sam also eventually flossed during the post-game chat (see the Overheard section below.)
The Well-Oiled Machine
When a contestant doesn’t play Final Jeopardy, there is a chair just offstage to the right where they sit. When the game ends, they quickly walk back on stage for the post-game chat.
Overheard Segment
Absolutely the best “Overheard” segment of all time - Sam demonstrated his best “floss” for Ken and the studio audience. I’m so glad Jeopardy! released this clip because it is priceless.
Miscellany
You can see my arm (with the yellow sleeve) on the far left side of the opening audience shot of tonight’s show!
This game was a rollercoaster of emotions, but no time to stop and process! One more game to film, and it was sure to be a good one - the exhibition match between Amy, Matt, and Mattea! The atmosphere was excited but not intense, since there was no relevance to the outcome other than entertainment (and bragging rights!)
It was exhausting to watch as the only episode on today. I can’t imagine what it must have been like having experienced allllll the twists and turns that came before this! As always, these recaps are Al such a gift to those of us who wished we could be there. ❤️
Whew. I finally got set up. Thanks so much for sharing !