7/30/2023 0 Comments Julia collins jeopardy hotLooking at the shining stars of Jeopardy!, Ken Jennings continues to work the trivia beat and do it well. There’s many different paths successful game show demi-celebs have taken after their initial limelight fades. I’m thankful for the feeling, however illusory and fleeting, that in the face of all the horrors the world has to bear my raised voice might make some difference. I’m thankful for the many messages, both public and private, I’ve gotten letting me know my writing mattered to somebody. And I’m thankful that now my bitching gets a byline, compensation, and most importantly an audience. I wish there were nothing for me to do but to take my Jeopardy! money and spend it on video games and Doritos and spend the rest of my life on my couch tweeting memes at people.īut if I’m going to live in a world filled with horrible, awful, shitty things then I’m going to bitch about them, like I always have. I wish the world were calm and peaceful and prosperous and nice. I wish none of those things had happened. I’m not thankful for racism or misogynistic violence against women or the pathological anger inherent in the Internet geek community I call home. What I’m not thankful for? I’m not thankful that Isla Vista happened, or Ferguson. I’m thankful that the age of social media means I can meet editors from Salon, The Guardian, NPR and elsewhere and pitch myself to them in a matter of seconds without having to leave the house or put on clothes. I’m thankful that Sujay Kumar, of The Daily Beast, invited me over for coffee when I was doing silly media stuff in New York after my Jeopardy! run, and that he saw enough potential in me to offer a writing gig. I’m thankful that people liked that enough that the Cleveland Plain Dealer reprinted that article in full, in print such that I opened up the Sunday paper one day and there was my rambling taking up half the page. I’m thankful that Marah Eakin of The AV Club surprised me by taking my entire rambling half-hour phone conversation with her and transcribing the whole thing, unedited, leading to a ten-page feature article. I’m thankful for whatever gifts I have and whatever luck I’ve had that people ended up liking my writing. I’m thankful that I can see my “social reach” grow from a couple hundred people to over fifteen thousand in a matter of months, because of a world where deciding you like someone and want to connect with them can happen with the click of a mouse. I’m thankful for a world where I can gain a reputation as being “hated” and “oppressed” and “under siege” for simply retweeting mean tweets, and for being “witty” and “clever” and “in control” for taking the time to make up smarmy responses to said mean tweets. I’m thankful, despite all the many, many lengthily catalogued downsides, for the world of social media. How could I not be? I honestly can’t think of another way for a game show contestant to become a quasi-celebrity, not without somehow stirring “controversy.” Even Ken Jennings didn’t get where he is without confronting the “controversy” of people who wanted him off the show. I’m thankful for the vast swathes of Middle America who are apparently driven to furious rage by an awkward, disheveled Asian nerd who takes the categories out of order and cuts off Alex Trebek. That meant that there was plenty of time for the “controversy” about me to grow, for the media cycle to not just put me in the news but push out think pieces reacting to the news stories and think pieces commenting on the think pieces. That meant that instead of America seeing and hearing about me for only a couple of weeks, I was the “reigning champion” on regular-season Jeopardy! all the way from late January to mid-March. I’m thankful that thanks to sheer random happenstance-and it is random happenstance, I can confirm the airing schedule was set long before anyone knew how many games I would win-my 12-game run on Jeopardy! was broken up by the College Championship and the Battle of the Decades. Which not only meant that Sony Pictures Entertainment was spending more on marketing than in a normal year, but also meant that they were having the Battle of the Decades reunion matchup. I’m thankful that the year I happened to be on Jeopardy! happened to be the year Jeopardy! was celebrating their 30th anniversary. I’m thankful for the ways I personally benefit from how capitalism does not make sense. state nicknames and your opera characters. I’m thankful-how could I not be?-for the existence of things like TV game shows that give out huge cash prizes for knowing your Beyoncé lyrics, your U.S. I’m thankful that I won $400,000 for about four days of work.Įven if you count the time I spent prepping for my original Jeopardy! run and for the Tournament of Champions as “work,” that’s still $400,000 for a couple months’ worth of work, which is a better hourly rate than I’ve ever had before in my life or will probably ever have in the future.
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