I personally expected there would be a Jennings-Ogas final, and that’s what we have. It’s going to be an awesome match!

it is amazing how they can milk 30 minutes out of something that theoretically can last no longer than eight minutes in length. commercials + miller n’ amanda yappin = tivo is so very awesome.

(and along those lines, with tivo i can watch an entire hour of Power of Ten in three minutes)..

when my kid is older and we’re watching Match Game 2014 I’m going to have to explain to him “back when daddy first started to watch game shows we had to SIT THROUGH these things called COM-MER-CIALS!” and he’ll go “whoaaa” ..

anyway, thanks for the heads up..

LObs

So… if I read that right, it’s a 30-minute clip show on Saturday night followed by a 30-minute final match?

They couldn’t have had four better semifinalists. Michelle shattered all kinds of stereotypes by showing beauty and brains can go together, Ogi got to show off his IQ of like 1000000, Ken kept up his winning ways and I bet none of us thought David would’ve made it so far at the beginning.

I’d call Jennings to win this, but I know from what Ogas has said here that he’ll be more ready for the final than he was for the semi. I honestly did think Legler would beat Ogas after what Ogas said here.

But he did get through, and I really think this is going to be a final to remember. Shame the semis weren’t close - if there is one major flaw in this format it’s how many one-sided games seem to occur. But our final was the one really close game of the tournament - hopefully this final will also be close.

My prediction: Ogas by 19 seconds.

Also, I am not that scary. I could really only pull some aerobics-kick-boxing moves on you at which point your high threshold of pain (you do play hockey after all) would dominate my wussiness.

I generally hate to go down this route, but Michelle did get the greater deal of harder questions just by luck of the draw. That Noah’s Ark question? Who the fuck knows that? Regardless it was completely entertaining, and good luck on your kitchen.

I strongly hope Michael Davies brings this show back for a 2nd season eventually. This show’s just too sweet and entertaining to let go.

Aaanyway, Ken is indeed a gracious and modest winner, and it is for those reasons, I have the suspicion he lost the final :D (If he won, it seems his modesty would prevent him from gleefully plugging how great the Final was) .. That, and I think the heuristical metaphysical mind-bending ways of the Ogi might have taken hold. I guess we’ll see in a week :D

By the way, Michelle — your “flexing-muscle clip” shot game idea would have had me tanked as I counted six potential shots of mescal. ;P GOod show..

LObS

As I said on the chat last night, what’s next for me is some career exploration (long term) and redoing my kitchen (hopefully short term)!

And as a footnote, I did want to share this response (below) from Ken in the chat last night. For me, it was validating in lots of different ways. Grand Slam is a combination of knowledge, skill, and as with every game show - luck. Luck can be excellent buzzer skills, a well-chosen lifeline, a good guess, the questions you get… in the end it’s an undefined, unpredictable combination with so many possibilities, you can’t help but feel lucky when it all works out for you and you win. I suppose my luck “finally ran out” (thanks Bobby McBride) but it happens to everyone, eventually. Now if you will excuse me, I have some wallpaper to peel. I’m hoping my Grand Slam Luck will transfer and become Kitchen Re-doing Luck…

17:09:08 PDT Dizzydoll4: What Was The Hardest Question For All Of You??
17:09:08 PDT Ken Jennings->audience) Michelle got all the hard questions in tonight’s round.
The size in cubits of Noah’s Ark? Are you kidding me? I went to Sunday School every Sunday my
entire childhood, and I still would have been off by an order of magnitude.

MK

Frankly, Ken’s been the most dominant through the entire tourney. Combine his matches against Michelle and Phyllis, he had over 5 cumulative minutes on his clock at the end of those 2 matches! Against Michelle, he was just flat-out in the zone. He even said in the live chat that he had his hardest time against Victor because he wasn’t used to the format yet. As he’s adapted to it more, he’s defeated the 2 brainy ladies handily, and while Ogi dominated Nancy and David, he didn’t do so by as wide a margin. At this point, I assume it’s fairly obvious that I think Ken will win it. I think it’ll be close, but I’ve got Ken Jennings winning it all.

My prediction would be Ogi over Ken. I would assume it will be close, and Ogi alludes to that, but, even though Ken has played increasingly well, Ogi has just been a machine. One of the most impressive things about Ogi I’ve noticed is the spelling questions.. he just seems to get into a zone and answers them extremely quickly and confidently. None of the words are really “National Spelling Bee” material, but, its still very impressive given the pressure of the show. Did you get into any high level spelling bees as a kid Ogi?

I don’t know how people would rank the players on the show now, but, IMO, the top echelon were:
1. Ogi (if Ken does win it all, he’ll obviously rank ahead, but, I’m going by my prediction here.
2. Ken
3. Brad. It sounds like Ogi/Ken is close. If Ogi would have (or does) “trounce” Ken (more than 50 seconds left on Ogi’s clock at the end) I’d have to say that Brad actually had the better round and I’d maybe put him at #2 above Ken.
4. Legler. I have to give him credit, I was underestimating the 21 contestants, but, he definately has chops.
5. Leszek. He got very flustered against Legler, but, I think of the final 8 who didn’t win their 2nd games, he performed the best in their 2 games played (after Brad).
6. Kitt. Not to take anything away from Michelle, she certainly proved that she could play. I just think her competition in getting to the final four wasn’t what some other players had to handle (Carpenter didn’t play a good first game either really, her big win was really against Olmstead). I just have the feeling if she’d had to play Brad, Legler, or Leszek, she wouldn’t have faired as well. Of course, another series of “Grand Slam” to prove me wrong would be great :)