The Lens:
I guess you could call my household Jeopardy fans. We have watched it for years. And yet, I have always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the show.
“Why” is always a good question. So, I’ll start with why I like the show.
It’s kind of like playing trivia – test the brain a little, both against yourself and others. It feels pretty good to get an answer right and even better when neither the contestants nor your housemates get it right.
But, then there is the why I don’t like it.
I am still finding It hard to get used to Ken Jennings as host. That isn’t to say I loved Alex Trebek. By the time we started watching, Alex was the master host of Jeopardy. There were times, though, when I found him hideously condescending. But, he was Alex Trebek and we lived with his imperfections.
Then, Alex announced his terminal cancer diagnosis and the question arose as to who would take his place. With the lead time the producers had in knowing they would need a new host, you’d think they would have been able to manage a somewhat smooth transition. Instead, it was a mess.
The initial rotating hosts was entertaining. Then came the first debacle – choosing Mike Richards to host the show. Not only did he lose the hosting gig, he lost his job as executive producer of the show.
After that, it was decided to have co-hosts – Ken Jennings and Mayim Bialik. In the end, Ken Jennings, who all along seemed the heir apparent, won the permanent solo host job.
I was rooting fervently for Mayim. While I had my reasons, I am not going to elaborate here. If I did, I would have to include reasons for not liking Ken. In this digital age we live in, too many people feel comfortable tearing down celebrities online.
It’s one thing to rag on Ken to my family. It’s quite another to make public statements. There is always going to be someone we don’t like. Unless there is some productivity to a negative comment, why bother saying it. (I hear my mother in my ear saying “If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it at all.” But I digress.) In a public forum, I think it is simply enough to say, as host of Jeopardy, he is not my choice.
In the end, less lead time to mull over a replacement for Alex might have been better. Less time to muck it up.
The Refraction:
I said I like the show because it feels good to get the answers right. It makes you feel smart. Afterall, a huge premise of the show and supposedly what sets it apart from other game shows is the intelligence of the contestants.
But, really, how smart are these people?
Have you heard of “Bloom’s Taxonomy?” It an educational framework by which cognitive skills are listed in a hierarchal format designed to help with teaching objectives and, thereby, helping students learn.
The hierarchy is as follows (https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/blooms-taxonomy/) from the bottom up.
1. Remember
2. Understand
3. Apply
4. Analyze
5. Evaluate
6. Create
In graphic form, Bloom’s Taxonomy is usually presented in a pyramid with “Remembering” at the base and “Creating” at the top tip.
In my “It’s an Experience” post, I talk a little about intelligences. If you think about it, the level of skill of Jeopardy contests, by and large, falls under the lowest level of Bloom’s Taxonomy – the remembering of information.
What good is all the information in one’s head if you can’t do anything with it? What does it matter if you know the North Star is at the end of the Little Dipper if you don’t know what the Little Dipper is?
It would seem remembering is a person’s biggest asset to be good at Jeopardy.
I don’t feel so smart anymore.
Oh well. If I remember correctly, Jeopardy is just a game show.