“Grand Slam” Commentary for August 25th
Is it just me, or is it getting very difficult to call the Grand Slam games recently? It seems most of my calls have been on such petty items that it seems more like a guess than anything else. Anyway, on today’s Grand Slam on GSN at 7PM ET, we see Ken Jennings face off against Phyllis Harris and Michelle Kitt versus John Carpenter. Let’s take a look at Jennings/Harris.
This one is tricky because of how they both stand. Jennings is obviously a trivia giant and used to the speed of a game because of Jeopardy!. Phyllis Harris has been on roughly two million game shows and has experience across the board; on shows that require and don’t require speed. I’m going to actually go with Phyllis Harris to win. As I saw in Ken Jenning’s initial round, he’s awesome at trivia but not as much on the word and math round. Phyllis is very well rounded because of her massive game show experience and that will easily come in handy. Where Jennings gets her on trivia she can easily make up on words, logic, and math. I’m calling Phyllis Harris to beat Ken Jennings.
And now we come to the other match: Michelle Kitt versus John Carpenter. I’ve been talking to a few people about this one, and I am truly stumped. John Carpenter is, again, one of those masters of trivia obviously. He answered 25 Millionaire-level questions correctly without a lifeline; 28 out of 30 in total. However, Who Wants to be a Millionaire does not involve any remote amount of speed thinking. This is where Michelle Kitt might have an advantage. It took me a bit of time to realize it, but think about this: Weakest Link and Grand Slam are very similar in the style of the game. The only huge difference is the voting. Michelle Kitt’s game involved trivia, words, logic, math, and more under intense time pressure. You have to be the perfect player to make it to the end and win over $100,000 on that show. Sadly, I have no clear opinion of who will win this one. On just some weird hunch I’m going to say that Michelle Kitt beats John Carpenter and I am completely ready to be totally wrong. What are your pre game and post game thoughts? If we’re lucky, maybe Ms. Kitt can tell us of her experience on the show.
Oh yeah, Michelle’s playing Kenny next. Oh crap. Well, I go with Kitt-Ogas. Make everyone happy.
“Who would ever hurt a Whammy… Who would ever want- OW!”
It’s going to come down to performance on the day. I think Kitt’s the most consistent, and Jennings is clicking through the gears; I’d guess the winner of that will win the final, but that makes me sound like I’m completely discounting Ogas, and I really don’t want to do that!
Here’s what I’m going to guess, and I’m sure I’ll be wrong; Ogas-Jennings final, Jennings edges it, and Ogas is forever remembered as the nearly man of game shows. DAMNIT!
(Incidentally; what’s the Jennings-Rutter gap? Is it less than $100,000? If it is, KJ becomes #1 on the earnings list again…)
Lobster: Many of us WERE at the Irish bar next door. The first night, I wasn’t – my boyfriend was coming from the airport and I was waiting in the hotel lobby. But I do know that several contestants stayed out late doing shots and making bets among themselves. The next night I was there.
Ogi: You should have tried Valerian! I love the stuff. Totally works and totally natural.
Lady Kitt:
I considered valerian root, but since I needed something that would force me to sleep against my natural cycle (I was taking it in the morning, not in the evening) I was skeptical it would be potent enough. I probably should have taken valerian before I went to sleep at night in the hope it promoted me to sleep longer and later.
Others have recommended modafinil, a “a eugeroic drug” (as characterized on Wikipedia). I had never heard of this, and if there is another Grand Slam with an ambiguous shooting schedule, I will certainly experiment with this beforehand and perhaps pack it up in my future pharmacopoiea of sleep. Of course, this might induce the need for “neurosteroid” testing and accusations of brain doping (Ogi’s besotted with valerian and methamphetamines, no fair!) I’m already getting accused of spoiling the game, I can only imagine the fallout if I’m accused of bringing surreptitious performance enhancing agents into Grand Slam…
Well next time I need a fun drug, I know which two to talk to, ha.
Continuing my narrative…
By the time the van came around to chauffeur Christy and I to the studio most of the stupor had worn off, though I felt raw and burned out. Make-up, a coin toss, microphones, and we were ushered onto the dance floor.
My amygdala surged with apprehension, and all weariness was blotted out by a hot flood of adrenalin. Sitting on stage, surrounded by the audience, I had a panicky flashback of the Millionaire Hot Seat. I closed my eyes and slipped into my calming routines; my heart rate slowed from Uzi to techno. I mentally ran through the squares of the integers from 25 to 35, ticking them off rapidly and accurately: somehow my lack of sleep, the unwise diphenhydramine, and the adrenal surge were not interfering with basic cognitive processes. Thank God it was only 5pm.
I managed to squeeze through Nancy Christy. But next up, the following day, was the Game Show God himself, Brad Rutter. Fortunately, I was scheduled to play him at 4pm. But if I beat him I would play my semi-final match at 8pm the same day—most definitely past my cognitive “event horizon.” That night was my last chance to get some serious REM sleep and shift my circadian back, even by a couple hours. I plastered over all light sources and crammed rubbery plugs in my ears, thinking the morning rumble of Time Square might be cueing my hypothalamus to wake me. I fell asleep at 2am, hopeful I would not wake until 8am at least, and maybe even 10 or 11.
I woke at 5:30am. At 4pm, Rutter and I were shepherded onto the dance floor. I riffed through the squares from 25 to 35; answers came fast and accurate. It was early enough that I was still 100% in control of my heuristics.
I beat the game show virtuoso by eight seconds.
A couple hours later, I was hemorrhaging neurotransmitter. As I neared my 8pm semi-finals, my alertness evaporated like breath on a bathroom mirror. I was scheduled to battle Dave Legler, a former submarine officer, a nuclear engineer, University of Chicago MBA, and the biggest winner on Twenty-One, where his $1,765,000 triumph granted him the title of world’s biggest money winner for more than a year. Legler was an imposing presence: tall, burly, with a booming voice, he was exactly the kind of guy you want commanding your navy’s submarine, but exactly not the kind of guy you want to insult in a bar. (It’s pretty cool that there are so many masculine, anti-nerds in the top tiers of game show greats: gravelly, virile Ed Toutant, the imposing, moustached, two-fisted police lieutenant Frank Spangenberg, and the brawny navy stud David Legler.)
Even more intimidating about Legler was the fact that he had defeated two hard core contenders in his own matches: Spandenberg and the brilliant Leszek. Legler was strong in every category—especially math, which he had dominated in his two matches. I spent my green room intermission wrapped in ear plugs and a sleep visor, futilely yearning for any REM to revitalize my exhausted synapses. As Legler and I were escorted to the dance floor, I walked through the squares from 25 to 35: my responses were still accurate… but ponderously slower, requiring diligent concentration instead of flashing up instantly.
Like Johnny Mnemonic, the bleeding had begun…
Michelle, St. Andrew is Scottish, not Irish.
Ogi’s narrative is fascinating and I’d like to comment on much of it, but I scarcely know where to start. For now, I guess I’ll just savor the fact that he called me “virile.” But I’d gladly trade that warm glow for a win in the first round. Playing is more fun than watching, regardless of which drugs you’re on.
Lobster I looked up your Lingo clips, why weren’t you on this show? You would have shredded this game
I put a “heart sign” and it canceled the rest of my post! HTML, Hmph! Anyway,
With all the pharms being discussed, how about different pharmaceutical companies sponsoring certain contestants, promoting the fact that they are on those very drugs! Then the pill prescribers at home would be cheering for their guy, and whoever wins would get a huge endorsement deal, lol! I’m cheering for the guy on Ambien!
Whatever you guys are taking, send me a triple dosage! :P
Ed – I am clearly failing Discussion Board Posting 101.
MK
Okay, I’ll admit to using performance enhancing substances on a game show. When I was on WWTBAM, I bought a 20-ounce bottle of Arizona Memory Tea and drank it before I went to the studio. I did it mostly as a joke, though I figured if I performed well and Arizona Tea offered me an endorsement deal, I’d be receptive. Unfortunately, the company ran into legal and regulatory problems regarding their implied memory claims, and the product was soon discontinued. I stll have two rare bottles of Arizona Memory Tea at home, vintage 2001, but I didn’t use them on Grand Slam. Maybe I should have, but at least what viewers saw on their screens was all me and didn’t come from a bottle.
When I won on WWTBAM, I also brought a can of V8 juice to the studio and drank it just before I went into the hot seat. That was intended to give me a little psychological boost, and finally vanquish the bad vegetable question that tripped me up on my previous appearance. But it was mostly tongue in cheek.
I guess if I knew any nutritional, physiological, psychological, or other legal tricks that would reliably enhance my performance, I’d use them. But I didn’t. I just got into the ring and tried to do the best I could.
Hmmm, Arizona Memory Tea. Leszek lives in Flagstaff, Arizona. I wonder if he still has a private stash of Arizona Memory Tea that he drank before he played me.
I took a calcium supplement a.k.a. TUMS.
I understand where Ogi’s coming from, though. I was too wired to get any sleep at all.
MK
Hiya Ogi,
You should totally get together with a sci-fi writer (perhaps Gibson or Sterling, but I’m thinking Cory Doctorow) and co-author a story similar to that ^_^
Since everyone else is confessing to their Grand Slam drug use, I cannot tell a lie: I had a Diet Dr Pepper before the Phyllis match. There was just one tucked away in the greenroom fridge, and when Brad Rutter saw me open it, he looked pretty disappointed that he’d settled for a Coke.
Then he told me it was probably a good thing–he never drank Dr Pepper anymore because of some, uh, adverse digestive reactions it produced in him. Actually he was a bit more specific. I’m sure Brad would be pumped that I’m telling this story on-line.
(While I’m here, I also wanted to pimp the blog and message boards at ken-jennings dot com, where there is also some interesting Grand Slam chat going on. Though Ogi uses the word “amygdala” less over there for some reason.)
Ken :D
Welcome.. a pleasure to have The Ken in on the discussion .. that makes 6 I believe :) .. hey, two more and we can recreate a mini-GS right here! :p
Anyway, forgive me for typecasting, as I know you’ve fielded a lot of this in defense of your mastery of Potent Potables on Jeopardy!, but I half-raised one eyebrow (party tricks.. what can i say) at the Dr Pepper mention. I, like most people, still apparently subscribe to the notion that Mormons are still banning caffeine as a whole, but I’ve also heard that lately this is not the case among moderates. If you are so inclined to humor me and forgive me for my lack of knowledge on this, your answer will be duly noted.
Also — another question for you :D ..
I was wondering what the consensus was among people on GS who originally won over a million on their respective game shows regarding the relatively small prize GS has to offer. Naturally, game show folks have a spirit of being up for a challenge, but also the cash should be a motivation too (that’s the hook of game shows, right ) .. So, is it kind of a “buzz kill” (forgive the recurring game shows on drugs theme) to play for $100k when you and others have won so much more?
Don’t get me wrong, $100k is a lot of money to anyone, but I guess the real question is: How much do the stakes play into the excitability of being on a game show again — I assume it isn’t “just for the fun of it” since we don’t see million dollar plus winners appearing on Camouflage, for example.
(Ok ok I’m trying to be cool but being a game show nerd I’ll admit I’m a little star struck)
LObs
Just an off-beat question for rarejoule (a.k.a. Kitt):
Since you got your Master’s Degree from George Mason, how did you feel once you found out they had won their game against #1 seed UCONN and were heading to the Final Four last year?
by the way, mangosteen, thank you for the vote of confidence, as I share your sentiments. I share them so much, that I made a personal delivery of gourmet cupcakes to the ER offices when I was in NYC last and had some extra time. (Yes, extra time .. apart from my real agenda of messing with Al Roker via cryptic signage at r’feller plaza) .. but the cupcakes were to no avail, they had already made up their minds that a large progressive jackpot winner on Lingo somehow intellectually and word-tastically trumps the bonus round record-holder (toot toot) :D .. (remember, you could totally SUCK at the bonus round and only get ONE word solved in two minutes, and still pull the winning jackpot ball on that one try) ..
BUT ! Then again, I suppose the hook of GS is that they were pitting “large money winners” against each other, not necessarily “people who severely kicked ass and broke records but didn’t necessarily win assloads of money” .. still, though, maybe being 3 for 3 on separate GSN games will make them come to their senses and give me a shot and represent the lowly-perceived GSN Kontestant Krew if there’s a season 2 :D .. I think on the math portion alone I’d get +45 secs in :D
LObs
Live Chat 9/1 with Jennings, Kitt, Legler, Ogas after Semi-Finals
==============================================
This Saturday, September 1, at 8pm EST — immediately after the Grand Slam semi-finals — all four semi-finalists (gentleman genius Ken Jennings; Lady Giantkiller Michelle Kitt; navy powerhouse David Legler; and that arrogant egomaniac Ogi Ogas) will go on-line for a LIVE online chat.
Access this chat with the Final Four by visiting http://www.gsn.com/grandslam and clicking the live chat button.
cool — but will they moderate out any continuation of our fun drugged-up game-show chat? :p
LObs
As a former member of the Weakest Link contestant pool (though I never made it onto the show) I can tell you how nerve-wracking even the tryouts are, and how lightning-quick the answers must come to mind. This gives Michelle an edge (and respect) that is difficult to find elsewhere.
What a great thread. How cool that these champs share their backstage stories with us (or Ken, given your recent Random House / Merriam Webster blog entry, should it be “back stage stories”?)…
…hoooly hell KJ’s come here.
…I feel this shouldn’t shock me but somehow it still does.
And to see someone who was AMAZINGLY GOOD at Lingo rather than someone who won a ton of money on it through being a beneficiary of circumstance… oh boy. He’d have been a danger on words and letters for sure.
Interesting to see how seriously the players are taking it, almost thriving upon the ‘intellectual sport’ theme that seems to be central to this format (certainly with the commentary and stats – and indeed both your version and ours had a sports commentator and a pretty female as presenters, it’s just that the latter in our case was the main host because she’s known for her brains and has hosted an assload of other shows).
As for me, I wouldn’t ever have anything carbonated. Chalk that one up as originating from a curious hypersensitivity that I believe is not unrelated to my Asperger’s Syndrome; strong flavo[u]rs, spices, sauces, anything carbonated… I literally cannot assimilate the input readily.
But I digress.
I may shift my sleeping pattern a wee bit so I can be online Saturday night…
To David Howell:
Like Robert McKee perhaps? He’d kick some butt on the Words & Letters. If noone knows about him:
A) he created FiveLetterWord.com, a Lingo words sim in Flash
B) he appeared on Lingo’s Hawaiian Week in S3, aired New Year’s 2007, got 10 right in 1:46, won $10,000 with the pull of a 10.
C) he created Word Sandwich, which is similar to Clock Game, in that, there’s a higher-lower aspect to the five letter words (i.e. if the word is CHAIN, you guess CAMEO, the word goes above the text box, and then guess ENTER, it goes below the text box)
D) he created Pipsquack.com, a Java PYL clone.
And no, this isn’t Robert McKee.
Just the Whammy’s opinion.
O/S: “Spell loser.”
“Loser. Y-O-U. LOSER!!!”
OGI!! i’ve wanted to meet you ever since you were on WWTBAM. after school, mom and i often go out to have chinese at a local joint. when i saw someone was playing for $500,000, i was glued to the TV, paying no attention to my dish. after the 50/50 was used, i had a 98% hunch the answer would be D. i was amazed when you actually went for it. but WHY did you go for this when you were acting solely on instinct (even if there were only two choices), and not go for the million when you had a solid guess? i was yelling in my mind to do it, because me, the owners, everyone watching, thought the answer would be D. if you had at least a 75% inkling, it’s worth going for it. i know $500,000 is a lot of cash…..but a 75% chance to double your money is too big to pass up.
Just wanted to respond to others’ posts and questions. (I guess the trade-off with the forum format here at BuzzerBlog is that you don’t need the hassle of logging in to post, but you can’t edit your posts or quote from others’ posts, either.)
Lobster: Hey, buddy, thanks for all your kind words!
Andrew: I’ll be kicking myself for the rest of my life about the million dollar question. I guess if I haven’t made peace with it by now, I never will. I kind of viewed Grand Slam as my shot at redemption after WWTBAM. I wrote about my million dollar decision here: seedmagazine.com SLASH news SLASH 2006 SLASH 11 SLASH who_wants_to_be_a_cognitive_ne.php [Maybe Alex or Mike will be nice enough to add the slashes back into this link? ]
Back to lobster: Personally, I wanted the money more than anything. I needed the cash. Also, when I started training for Grand Slam, I expected the money to be much more than $100K. Anybody that battles their way through this field of superstars surely deserves a bigger payday. But that’s all GSN can afford. I don’t know if I would have prepared so hard if I knew from the start that the prize was so low, though I expect that I would have. After I learned the prize amount, I kind of figured I would be the only one willing to break their back for such a “small” payoff, so it also kind of stoked me to keep working, since I thought it might discourage the wealthy braniacs (i.e., Ken, Brad) from going to the mat for a victory. But it sure didn’t seem to diminish Brad’s play!
Mike: I liked Cory Doctorow’s Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, and I’ve liked his short stories, too. Gibson has talent, but sometimes I think his writing is a little turgid. I’m zero for four with submitting sci-fi stories to magazines, including a narrative about Who Wants to Be a Millionaire where the fifteen questions are a kind of cosmic evaluation of cognitive and ethical advancement and the Hot Seat is a Contact-like portal.
David Howell: Even if Ken were to win Grand Slam, I believe he’d still be around $200K short of Brad’s all-time money title.
yow, whammy, you are too kind indeed :D ..
(I happen to be Robert McKee in case you didn’t know) — and I’d like to think I would have made it to at least the semis with my word n’ math (and occasional obscure trivia) skeeels, but then again, as the lowest $ winner of all of this particular group, they would have pitted me up against Rutter. ( But as Ogi says, he does math like a little girl .. best line ever :D )
Anyway, it’s funny, I contacted ER early on and talked to CastDiva Megan Miguez herself and told her I broke Lingo’s record and was on another dumber GSN show in the past, and she responded with interest: “Wow, we were actually looking for a good Lingo player — why didn’t you contact me sooner ” .. Bah! Alas, she did ask me to email her my info incase one of their alternates bailed on the competition. Then there was nothing *smiffle smiffle* .. So! Perhaps if there IS a next time, I would love to come up there (have some nyc pizza) and show ‘em that some GSN alumni can possibly throw down with the big boys..
(lingo super nerd story dissertation– uberzine dot com slash lingo — or, click on my name above)
cheers
LObz
Lobster: In all seriousness, if there is another Grand Slam (and nobody knows if there will be, though we all hope there will be), the moment you hear about it, jump on ER again. The actual alternate for this year’s Grand Slam became the alternate by being interminably persistent. And since you do have a GSN pedigree, I bet that would give you a leg up (can’t say that without thinking of Dennis Miller) on other GS-wannabes that don’t have the big dollar wins of the high seeds. Of course, you’ll still likely get beat out by million dollar winners or Jeopardy champs for the guaranteed slots, but it looked like this year’s alternate coaxed his way in through perseverance.
Though who knows what future GS formats will be like, whether they will be open to “the public”, how many slots there will be, etc.
Ogi — I appreciate the advice! Funny you should say that, as I think Miss Megan may tell you that I’m super-hardcore persistent extraordinare in my efforts to get on their much lower-profile Chain Reaction, going as far as to hand-deliver gourmet cupcakes to the Manhattan offices of ER for the cause and to assert just a tad bit of name-recognition for the future :D .. But I’m hoping that didn’t backfire and creep anyone out, I was just trying to illustrate my passion for the game! Isn’t that what they all want? :D .. (Since I did this AFTER GS had already taped, I figured perhaps the notion would just be seen as funny and quirky and motivated)
You should see the lengths and ninja tactics I’ve gone through trying to get on Wheel — THE most impossible game show to penetrate, even for someone who can actually solve their silly puzzles blank — (I wouldn’t be surprised if they put out a restraining order against me, muaha — all in fun!) .. You see, I like to think I have a knack for social engineering on the blackbelt level, and getting the attention of a game show coordinator is really no different than applying for a job — you have to illustrate your passion and somehow rise above all of the other candidates so they remember you and recognize your hardcoredness. It’s well-known that employers love it when applicants follow-up after an interview to re-assert their interest in the company, etc. I like applying those same tactics here, although since we’re talking about GAME SHOWS, I always thought an element of creativeness and perhaps a bit of quirkiness could sell ‘em. At least that’s how I got on Lingo :D ..
So, this whole convo leads me to another question for all you GS folks :) .. Did they just contact you out of the blue after doing research on big game show winners? Or did they put out some sort of call among the hard core game show circles and you heard about it?
cheers!
LObs
Oh. My. God. This chat room has had comments by Ken Jennings, Ogi Ogas, Michelle Kitt, all semi-finalists, and Ed Toutant, who could’ve been a semi-finalsit if not for an unlucky first-round draw.
*bows down*
I’m not worthy! I’m not worthy!
Hi everyone!
I want to say that it was a pleasure meeting everyone involved with Grand Slam. I had a great time in NYC, got to win one round, and most importantly, met some amazing people. I know most of you have never heard of me, but I started participating on game shows in 1979, have played on 7, and have been asked to participate on 12. (some I wouldn’t do, some I couldn’t do, and 2 went off the air after being told I would be a contestant, but before I got to be on) If this show ever gets picked up, I’d love to be a color commentator. Unlike my perfomance against Ken, I know I could hold my own with Dennis Miller.