Just how long is this tournament supposed to last?

Fifteen weeks.

They are still taping tournament episodes this week.

Randy
tvrandywest.com

Forever. Perhaps longer. That's why the show was renewed through 2010. That's how long it'll take for this mother's son to end.

Is it just me or does Alex seem a bit giddy doing these shows?

Maybe he's just looking forward to seeing Ken again.

And will be for some time to come, I bet--still seems to me that they're going to tape all of these close to air date.

Very smart. The best way to keep a secret is to keep the amount of time it needs to be kept to an absolute minimum.

They should be just about done by the first week of March. Someone I know is taping a normal episode of J! sometime in March. They may tape the final three shows of the tournament in May to keep the result from leaking out too early.

They will definitely not be done by the first week in March. I know someone who's playing his FIRST round game the first week in March.

Even if you take the leap that his is one of the last first-round games played, they still would need to tape about 30 more second, third and fourth round games before the finals. If they're going full tilt, they could get those all in within the month, so if your friend is playing in March, he's playing at the very end of March.

I have a good feeling that uncamark is right about this one. In fact, I would not be surprised if the finale is taped the day before it airs. (I don't know if that's possible considering the show is syndicated, but maybe. I'm a tad bit uninformed about the time it takes for the shows to get from Columbia-Tristar to the networks that air the show.)

Also, considering this tournament was just advertised a couple months ago at about the time Ken lost, it's understandable that they're still taping the first round episodes. I bet it's because news travels really fast, especially in the computer age of today, that they're keeping the tape schedule really close to air date.

Matt: Check Ritterskoop's "I Got The Call" Thread on the J! boards.

My guess is that they're taping 1 week of regular shows in amongst the U-ToC shows (Maybe in between Rounds 1 and 2?).

Rounds 3 and 4 are scheduled to tape April 13 and 14.

uncamark - I seem to remember that back when I was on Wheel, a friend of mine caught my episode two days ahead as a wild feed on the dish. So maybe the turnaround is really quick?

Ryan :)

Columbia-Tristar is a name from the past; it's now Sony Pictures Television.

At the very least, they feed each episode over the satellite two weekdays before it airs, which is fairly standard for daily syndicated shows. There's no real reason they couldn't feed the episodes closer to the air date, but changing the schedule increases the chances that some master control operator somewhere is going to air the wrong show, or something like that.

The obvious example of what they could theoretically do is the same-day feed of shows like Entertainment Tonight and The Insider (mmm, Pat O'Brien's dreamy...) So if push really, really came to shove, I imagine they could tape as late as the day before and then send it to their affiliates the same day it airs.

Hey, it worked for the initial installments of WWtBaM, along w/both of last yr's Super Millionaire series. :-)

Chuck Donegan (The Illustrious "Chuckie Baby")

Yes. Yes! YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll have what he's having.

BTW, Don, need a towel?

<Bucky Bucks> TWO TOWELS! </Bucky Bucks>

Dialogue of the month.

It's all I can do not to suggest that Matt made a typo . . .

Yes. Re: The 2.5 million dollar leak was about 5 weeks before it actually aired(is that right?)

More like 10 weeks--it was just as the new season was starting, and Ken didn't lose until the end of November.

Some proof:

http://www.kottke.org/04/09/some-ken-jennings-news