‘Jeopardy’ run over according to Web
Answer: This company has a workforce of 17,000 people, whose average working year is only four months long.
Question: What’s the Final Jeopardy answer that supposedly brought down “Jeopardy!” uber-contestant Ken Jennings this week?
According to reports that started on the Web site Kottke.org, Jennings finally lost in a show that was taped on Tuesday after winning 75 consecutive games and amassing about $2.5 million. The episode is expected to air sometime in October.
As of the show that aired Thursday night, Jennings had won 42 consecutive games for a total of $1,402,461.
Production company King World said in a statement that ” ‘Jeopardy!’ is now in its 21st season, and, since its inception, we have never disclosed whether a contestant has won or lost before a show has aired. We have no intention of changing this policy.”
By the way, that final Final Jeopardy question is, according to Kottke.org: “What is H&R Block?”
NBC trips into fall
NBC was ready to start the fall television season last week, but many viewers apparently weren’t.
After a summer’s worth of promotions, a middling 12.4 million people saw the premiere of “Father of the Pride” on Aug. 31. That still was enough to make the animated series the most-watched show in a week dominated by reruns, according to Nielsen Media Research.
The new Wednesday night drama “Hawaii” ranked fourth for the week with 10.9 million viewers. More worrisome for NBC was the 8.5 million viewers for the season premiere of “Scrubs,” a disappointing showing for a series the network is banking on.
For the week, NBC averaged 7.5 viewers in prime time to top CBS’ 7.2 million, although both networks had a 4.9 rating and 9 audience share. ABC had 6.1 million viewers (4.1, 7), Fox 5.1 million (3.2, 6), UPN 2.4 million (1.6, 3) and the WB 2.1 million (1.5, 3).
Each ratings point represents 1,084,000 households. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.
Wyle may check out of ‘ER’
Noah Wyle, the last continuous on-air link to the NBC medical drama “ER’s” freshman season in 1994, says he plans to leave the show at the end of this season.
“I’ve just got other stuff going in my life right now,” Wyle told the “E! News Live” cable show. “I’ve got a son, I’ve got family and friends that said goodbye to me 12 years ago and are wondering when I’m coming back, and this little urge to scratch a different kind of itch in my career, and it’s just coming to the end of the character’s run.”
Wyle, who plays Dr. John Carter, was the impressionable young resident among a powerhouse cast that included Anthony Edwards, George Clooney, Eriq La Salle and Julianna Margulies. As they all left, he became the show’s promotional centerpiece.
Said a Wyle spokesman: “That’s where his head is at. That could change. There’s a lot of things that could happen between now and the end of the season.”