This is exactly right. If you want to see Alex in action, this DVD is absolutely worth your money: https://www.amazon.com/Jeopardy-Inside-Look-Americas-Favorite/dp/B000B6CODE There is a multi-cam feature on this dvd where you can watch an episode of Jeopardy! From different angles, including behind Alex’s podium.
If you have $6 and Amazon Prime, you can see the UToC finals on this dvd:
> She has an emergency button for when she doesn’t understand a clue? Would love some examples of how that’s used…
There is a Jeopardy DVD from 2005 that includes a behind the scenes look at the podium/lectern used by the host (Alex at the time). It explains the two red buttons and what they do. I don't recall what the other red button does (the one they disabled because Mayim couldn't hit the correct one). The primary red button is used to "pause" the game (both gameplay and taping). Reasons that this might happen:
On Tuesday, January 25th, the Jeopardy episode that aired was witnessed while being taped by Rhone Talsma, who was in the studio audience waiting to film his episode that would air Wednesday, January 26th (where he would be Amy Schneider). On the 1/25 show, one contestant began to give a response to a clue. The correct response was "Love Actually": the challenger (named Maria) began to answer by saying "Love," paused long enough for Ken (who was hosting that day" to say "No...," when Maria quickly said "Actually." Ken quickly said, "yes, you got it in right before the buzzer," Maria was ruled correct, and the game continued. That's how it looked at home. Rhone wrote here on Reddit that it was a paused game of something like 10 minutes:
> The "Love Actually" clue was quite a debacle. I think they were in time out for maybe ten minutes while the judges gauged whether or not Maria had been ruled incorrect by Ken before she finished responding. They played back the audio aloud a couple times IIRC. Even withholding my strong bias in Maria's favor (hey queen), I think the right call was made. She was lingering on "Love" and Ken basically barely started to speak as she was saying "Actually." To me, it was unambiguous that she knew the right answer. It felt like a "can you be more specific?" situation, but you can't really apply more specificity to a movie title, so I get why it was weird and they needed to take time to make a judgment call.
THAT is why the red "emergency button" exists!