Pop Culture Jeopardy!’s New Clue Is a Strategy Nightmare
And, as the showrunners explain, that’s what makes Triple Play so fun.
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What is … something new and something blue?
Pop Culture Jeopardy! began its reign as the newest entry in the Jep!-verse on December 4, expanding the modern-day sportsification of the franchise with more players, even more competitions, and new categories. And with apologies to the Daily Double, there’s a bratty new clue element meant to maximize chaos for the contestants. As explained by host Colin Jost in the show’s premiere episode, Triple Play was designed specifically for Pop Culture Jeopardy! and gives the three teams a chance to buzz in and earn triple the amount of points of a clue’s value. However, it’s a bit tricky and requires some foresight from those behind the lectern. Here’s how it works: There are three correct responses, with each contestant required to contribute one. If the team completes every step, terrific, they now get a lot of points. But an incorrect response loses any points the team might’ve already gained from this clue, and another team is allowed to steal. For example, let’s say the clue requires a team to name the three Invisible Touch–era Genesis members. If the first player says Phil Collins, the second says Mike Rutherford, and the third is stumped, another team can buzz in and earn all the extra points with noted hunk Tony Banks. You got all that?
“We really felt that we needed to introduce one new feature for this show,” executive producer Michael Davies explained. “It was trying to find a way to make sure that in key moments of the game, all three players had to contribute as opposed to one dominant player taking over.” Bari Jean Dorman, another producer who oversaw the development of the clue, agreed that involving a full team was essential. She wanted to ensure it “felt different” from a Daily Double, which isn’t a feature in Pop Culture Jeopardy!. “The first thing we tried for structure was whatever team found it hidden on the board, it went straight to them,” she said. “But we did some run-throughs and quickly realized it was kind of a bummer when the first person to go didn’t know one of the responses and then it was dead on arrival, since a lot of Triple Plays are jokes within jokes. So we decided, ‘Okay, why don’t we open it up? Another team can steal, and that way it’ll have a longer life.’” Giving a team autonomy to decide if they wanted to ring in or not, after hearing the clue read aloud, seemed like the fair thing to do. “Then it’s a great reward,” Dorman added, “if all three people get it.”
What Davies and Dorman didn’t anticipate, however, was how the contestants responded in real time. The majority of Triple Plays weren’t successfully answered as a unit on the initial try, and steals were common to achieve the third answer. But there was no conferring or glances among teams to see if they should give it a shot — a buzzer impulse prevailed above all. “It was immediately clear that teams didn’t have a strategy for this,” Dorman said. “If we were to do a second season, I think people will now think, I’m not going to ring in on this unless I think my team knows it. Or, If I ring in, I’m going to say the hardest, most obscure one first and leave the easier ones for my teammates.” (Nobody has turned to their teammates to shout “no!” just yet, which would, in our opinion, be a swiftly effective strategy.)
Davies sees a correlation between Triple Play’s success and the competition’s subsequent champions. “It had a motivational effect for the team that got it right,” he noted. “It was like a really great alley-oop dunk in a basketball game — it was only worth another two points, but it had a dramatic effect on your morale.” And no one is objecting to the board’s newest rectangle. “I must say, before Triple Play was selected the first time, I was terrified. Until you actually play them with real players for real money, for the real stakes of being in this competition, you don’t know how it’s going to go,” Davies admitted. “But it was broadly accepted and enjoyed. I didn’t hear anyone complaining.”
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