Joe Buck: You Should Definitely Watch Jon Hamm’s ‘ESPN Jeopardy!’ Episode

Joe Buck would like you to know two things about ESPN Jeopardy. The exclamation point is not silent, and Jon Hamm is a problem.

Rich opened with the punctuation question, which Buck rejected immediately. "Not to me. I shouted from the mountaintops. I've been doing it all week."

Then he got to the part he is actually proud of, which is the guest list. Buck said he stumped for the show to bring in people like Hamm, Keegan-Michael Key, and Adam Pally to mix with SportsCenter people and NFL Network people.

He also had a complaint, delivered directly to the host of the program he was appearing on.

"Where were you, Rich, when I needed you most?"

Buck has done this before. He got a week during the run after Alex Trebek passed away, and he says the process is identical. Same writers, now turning their brilliant minds to sports. Same convoluted clue construction designed to trip you up.

"Some fared really well, some surprised, some fared not so well, but laughed their way through it," Buck said. "It's 10 episodes of a really fun Jeopardy show all about sports."

Which brings us back to Hamm, and to Buck doing his level best to tease without spoiling.

"I don't know what I'm allowed to say, but I will say that Jon Hamm represented himself extremely well. Like, extremely well."

Rich, correctly, guessed that Hamm would treat this as a competition rather than a cameo. Buck confirmed it and then explained why he knew it before the taping started, because he has known Hamm since middle school.

The story that followed is a small masterpiece of St. Louis geography. Buck's best friend in high school was Preston Clark. Clark's little sister Sarah is an actor in her own right, with credits on 24 and in the Twilight movies, and Buck just saw her on a CBS show this week. Sarah dated Hamm in middle school and high school. In college she dated Paul Rudd.

"That's how I know Rudd," Buck said.

Then the assessment that should scare every future contestant on that show.

"Jon back then was the guy that everybody wanted on their trivial pursuit team," Buck said. "His recollection, his retention, he is a genius. He's extremely smart. He knows sports. He was the perfect contestant for that show."

Rich landed the summary in one line. Ken Jennings meets Don Draper.

"That's what it is," Buck said.

The show is on Disney Plus, Hulu, and the ESPN app, and Buck was refreshingly transparent about the stakes. If it does well, they make more. If it does not, it does not.

"It's up to them to watch this thing so that we get to do more."

His vision for what it becomes is the interesting part. Buck imagines it evolving past the current mix, into a show built around very smart people about sports rather than SportsCenter anchors and Jon Hamm.

Assuming, of course, that Hamm does not simply win the whole thing and refuse to leave.