Matt Jackson Daily Double: $5 or $5000
Just as we figured, someone put up a clip of the Matt Jackson Sports Nobility Daily Double from the October 7, 2015 game that has caused quite a bit of controversy and was even nice enough to leave the rest of the round in and the closed captions on.
We are still going with the sloppy editing theory. It is so weird for Alex to say “And that means your lead has been reduced to $8,395,” after he got it wrong.
But here is Arthur Chu’s $5 Daily Double to compare it to and maybe that’s not so weird. Ha! It’s still weird that Alex didn’t make a joke about the $5.
Here is what Matt had to say on his Facebook page:
A note to resolve some apparent confusion: I intended to wager five dollars (one Abe Lincoln) on my second Daily Double of the game today — my exact words were “Five, please, Alex” — and that is the wager the judges accepted. $5 is the minimum required wager on a Daily Double.
Contestants are allowed to cut short category names and the dollar values of clues they select from the board as they play the game (i.e. you can say “Lit 6” instead of “I’ll take LITERATURE for $600” when it’s your turn to select a clue). But the values of Daily Double wagers must be stated exactly.
Edited to add:
Here is what Alison had to say on Twitter:
I heard him say “five.” I assume he intended $5, since he clearly bombed the category, but I wouldn’t have minded $5,000.
Edited to add a video of the whole category:
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If Matt had lost $5000 instead of $5 on the DD, he still would have been in the lead before FJ. And since he had the correct response (Indiana Jones), I’m sure he would have bet enough to beat Allyson.
@Marilyn, I guess it doesn’t matter. This is gonna be like the Emanciptation one — some people will continue to insist the game outcome was wrong no matter what. Just think, all Matt had to do was add the word “Dollars” after he said “Five.” LOL!
As Clint Eastwood famously said as “Dirty Harry”, “A man has to know his limitations. And Matt does. If you watch Matt play he is VERY careful about what category he bets on for Daily Double. If it’s a category he feels strong in he bets “six-thousand” if he can. But in this case he said “Five, please, Alex”, because $5 is the minimum bet, and he knew that he knew nothing! Look at the questions that went begging in that category….. “Duke Snyder”?! No one knew any sports history, and that included Matt.
So Alex screwed up, and said something about that left Matt with $8,000 and something, but the people behind the scenes had heard what Matt said, followed the rules and deducted only $5 from his total. Alex should have clarified at the end of the show, and I bet he will tonight now that there is all this chatter.
@Sue, nope, nary a word was said about it today. I guess that as far as Jeopardy! is concerned, a decision on what he actually bet was made and there is no need to talk about it anymore.
PS – I added what Alison (the girl some folks are saying was cheated) had to say about it and she was standing right next to Matt.
Do you diehard fans really not know anything about the show??? “Alex should have clarified at the end of the show, and I bet he will tonight now that there is all this chatter.”
Right, because Alex can totally have foreseen this extended chatter on the Internet like 2 months ago when the episodes are taped. Yes, it is an average of 4-8 weeks before taped episodes are aired. No, this isn’t going to be addressed on live TV anytime soon unless they specifically film a statement and play it before/after the show. Not likely.
Yeah, we know, but sometimes we forget. LOL!!
Jilted contestant, Bob? 🙂
Interestingly, since these clips have been posted, they have been heavily edited with Trebek’s remark, “OK, $5.00 then” and Matt’s mouthing “thousand” taken out.
I guess in order to keep his winnings, he was “encouraged” to play along.
We all know what we saw: And the emperor was clearly not wearing any clothes.
All things being equal, it looked like Allison was the clear winner, until she was robbed. Do the math.
I am a trained lip reader (ex-cop) and I can tell exactly what he mumbled. It was NOT “thousand.” Turn off that closed captioning and listen to it yourself. Don’t fall prey to biased psychology based on hearing what you want to hear just because the CC said so. His words were “please, Alex.” You can see his lips form the sound for the “P.”
Also if you go back and look at all his DDs, he always wagers and says the full amount as stipulated by the rules.
Quit hating on Matt and calling for fairness. He’s a Yale grad, he knew what he was doing by being smart and wagering nothing on a sports question.
How is it “hating” if you don’t like Matt’s style of playing? Everybody doesn’t have to love Matt.
Personally, I have long been tired of his cutting Trebek off. He’s been getting the big build-up because of his quirky habits since winning 5 games. Everything about him is so great and amazing. Like his “Whose Life Is It” DD in today’s game. Alex said “He continues to amaze.” LOL. I didn’t find him getting that amazing in the least.
He almost makes me wish they’d bring the 5-day champ rule back.
No, not saying it’s hating if you don’t like him. It’s hating when the audio is nice and clear as to what he said but people are going to trust the closed captioning as law, closed captioning that is transcribed by HUMANS nonetheless. That’s all I meant.
OK Bob. I am getting a better clip for the weekly FJ recap, it will be that whole category, but in the meantime, I went and looked at my computer recording and I believe you are right. He said. please Alex. Though yesterday I really thought it looked like he said thousand.
I was never going by the closed captions, and did note in my recap that Alex said “5, it is.”
I thought it was voice recognition software that transcribes the captions. At least it must be on my cable where the transcriptions can be seriously messed up!
Bob, I don’t understand how Vodlocker can have an episode that is any better than what is on my DVR. Your comment went into moderation because no one can post a link on this site without my approval and I check out the link and the site it is on before I will approve it. I took a look at vodlocker when you suggested it yesterday, but I’m not really going to watch anything on an online file-sharing site. I approved this one link in case anyone else does not have the same reservations, because I know a lot of people look for videos of J! episodes. Still, anyone considering it should check out the google advisory.
I agree with Helen.
I questioned it last night also. Surprised when he said $5 that Alex didn’t, at that point, ask for clarification or repeat his wager as 5 dollars instead of saying “5 it is”
I agree, it’s very fishy to me and very unfair to the other contestants, particularly to the woman who should have won the game. If indeed he only wagered $5.00, which I highly doubt, why would Alex have not have explained his “mistake” in saying the new score?? Let’s hope for some karma tonight.
My two cents:
After listening to the DD segment carefully, although I couldn’t make out what exactly Matt said after ‘five”, to my ears (and watching his lips), it wasn’t “thousand”. It was “‘something’, Alex.”
As for the closed captions, though highly trained, people who caption are just that—people. And humans make mistakes (and assume things, as could be the case for the $5,000 caption).
Matt said: “…But the values of Daily Double wagers must be stated exactly.”
I think one should listen to clips of all his DD’s up to date and check if he has always stated “thousand” when wagering before last night. Just saying.
I just watched the clip over and over, and he sure did mouth “thousand” quietly. I think he either realized he had not said “thousand” or he deliberately just mouthed it so if he lost it would be only $5. THIS HAS TO BE CHALLENGED BY THE LOSERS. I rarely post and it doesn’t affect me, but its just SO WRONG and unfair to the woman who was close and lost.