Brad Rutter on his disappointing Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time showing: I may have been too loose and the buzzer competition was too much

Vulture

Rutter admits his buzzer reflexes weren't that sharp for the tournament. "It’s more timing, really, with the buzzers," he tells Vulture. "We’re probably talking about hundredths of a second here. I’ve played a bunch of times before with Ken and I was always getting just as many responses as he was. Throwing another very quick buzzer into the mix hurt me. It’s impossible to figure out unless you have access to the actual buzzing-in data. In any sort of evenly matched match, the buzzer is going to be the number one thing. Ken and James were able to get the timing right and I wasn’t, and that was probably the biggest factor." Asked if he had any regrets about his gameplay, Rutter adds: "You know, I think I might’ve been too loose. There’s something to be said about how nerves and adrenaline really focus you, and maybe that would’ve helped with the buzzer, too."