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Jeopardy! 'Greatest of All Time' Is as Good as Any Sporting Event: TRAINA THOUGHTS

Vintage Alex Trebek, trash talking, strong ratings make Jeopardy's GOAT tourney a success.

Jimmy Traina

Jeopardy! 'Greatest of All Time' Is as Good as Any Sporting Event: TRAINA THOUGHTS
Jeopardy! 'Greatest of All Time' Is as Good as Any Sporting Event: TRAINA THOUGHTS /

1. There could not have been a better way to fill the void left by no more football games in prime time during the week than with Jeopardy!'s "Greatest of All Time" tournament.

The tournament, featuring James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in a race to see who can win three games first, has been supremely entertaining and a ratings smash for ABC.

The first episode on Tuesday drew 14.4 million viewers. The second episode on Wednesday drew 14.8 million viewers. Thursday's show landed 15.4 million viewers.

Just for comparison sake, Game 1 of the NBA Finals last year drew 13.5 million viewers. Game 1 of the World Series drew 12.2 million viewers. Game 1 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals drew 5.5 million viewers.

The show is also doing better with viewers than "Monday Night Football."

Clearly, we're going to see more Jeopardy! in prime time on ABC in the months to come.

As for the tournament, Jennings has won two games, Holzhauer one and Rutter none. This has led to some vintage trash talking on Twitter from Holzhauer.

And some vintage bragging from Holzhauer.

Holzhauer, though, did give props to Jennings for his 2-1 lead in quite an interesting way.

Rutter, though, deserves credit for his excitement in getting to drop an "OK, Boomer" on Alex Trebek on Thursday night.

The only piece of bad news to report about the "Greatest of All Time" tournament is that we have to wait until Tuesday for a new episode.

2. This is one of those videos that makes you have a good feeling about the Internet. And it's just a compilation of Bill Belichick adjusting his microphone at press conferences even when there is no need to adjust the microphone.

3. Remember the shot of Stefon Diggs throwing his helmet in frustration on Sunday when he wasn't getting the ball from Kirk Cousins and everyone said Diggs was selfish? This video seems to take him off the hook.

4. Bill Walton called Thursday night's Arizona-Oregon game and casually ate some peanut butter with his fingers while doing so.

5. Remember when the Broncos absolutely destroyed the Texans, 38-24, in Week 14? Clearly the embarrassing home loss left Bill O'Brien in a bad mood because the Houston coach was not putting up with a heckler after the game.

6. A brand new SI Media Podcast just dropped featuring reporter/author/writer Jim Miller. Miller shares his thoughts on the future of Monday Night Football, the future of Tony Romo and what really happened with the SEC and CBS. Miller and I also discussed Eddie Murphy's return to Saturday Night Live and the upcoming season of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play.

7. RANDOM YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE DAY: The very first episode of The Sopranos debuted on HBO 21 years ago today. This was the first scene from that episode in which we learn that Tony is a "waste management consultant."

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on iTunes, Spotify or Stitcher. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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