Chasing

Lots of sites are trying to find a new angle on James Holzhauer's reign of terror on Jeopardy.

The Atlantic came up with a bright idea. They checked in with Mark Labbett, who faced James on a 2014 episode of GSN's The Chase. As YouTube remembers and Mark admits, the result was "the worst beating I've ever had" on the show. To be exact, the final chase score was 26-9 against the Beast. James piled up almost all of that twenty-six.

Labbett thinks that Holzhauer has three crucial skills: deep trivia knowledge, speed of recall, and smart game strategy. He also compliments Jeopardy and GSN's version of The Chase for even allowing James to appear. "In Britain or Australia James would not have made it onto television, because he's just too damn good. They would never have him on."

One other factoid comes from Bob Boden, one of the showrunners on The Chase. After James' appearance they auditioned him as a possible colleague of Labbett on the show. I guess that didn't work out.

Meanwhile, Labbett thinks that the best way for Jeopardy to dethrone Holzhauer - short of rigging the show, which is not a good idea - would be to make the clues easier. That would give the other poor contestants more of a chance.

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