Andy’s back and Jennifer North is our returning champion (1-day total, $9,200. Melanie Yulman and Mike McCormick are the challengers!
J! round categories:
GREENBACKS
HITS & MISSES
CANADIAN CAPITALS
THIS REVOLUTION WILL BE TELEVISED
DOUBLE VOWELS
THE CHRISTMAS TREE
Jennifer, probably wanting to redeem her lack of music knowledge yesterday, went straight for HITS & MISSES – and got the first 4 questions! (Mike got the $1,000 clue). I’m glad that the contestants chose not to save Canada for the end — they went to it midway through the opening round! No Triple Stumpers; however, Melanie’s mispronouncing of the $1000 clue (It’s the capital & second-largest city of Saskatchewan) was off-putting!
Melanie switched out of GREENBACKS to go to Canada in in the first place – and when Mike took control, he went back to GREENBACKS and found the Daily Double under the $600 clue! Scores at that point were:
Jennifer $2,000
Mike $1,400
Melanie $400
Mike chose the True Daily Double route; his clue: It’s the only current bill with the face of a treasury secretary on it
His correct response put him to $2,800.
Melanie seemed to be very deliberate in her clue selection today; I can’t say I was overly thrilled by that either.
At the end of 15, the scores:
Mike $4,800
Melanie $2,200
Jennifer $2,000
I think that if I looked as young as Mike, I’d be slightly insulted that Alex thought I was there when the Phillies won the World Series in 1980!
Coming out of the break, there were a few negs by all of the contestants in the back half of the round! Melanie’s utter lack of pace still bothered me greatly. By some miracle, we finished 30 clues, though. At the end of 30, your scores were:
Mike $6,600
Jennifer $3,600
Melanie $2,200
DJ! Round categories:
GREENE BOOKS
MINORITY POPULATIONS
POPULAR MECHANICS
WE’RE AFTER SOME CONSISTENCY
18th CENTURY PEOPLE
TO THE LIBRARY!
Mike had some success in TO THE LIBRARY! and found the Daily Double right at the bottom of it! Scores at this point:
Mike $9,000
Jennifer $4,000
Melanie $2,200
A big opportunity to really point this game out of reach here — and Mike bets just $1,000. Sigh. His clue: Some of its collections were housed in the Serapeum, a temple dedicated to the god Serapis. His score went up to $10,000 after his correct response.
Meanwhile, no effort was made by either trailing contestant to Daily Double hunt in this round. More so, Melanie switched out of MINORITY POPULATIONS after getting the $400 clue. Meanwhile, Mike nearly got himself up to a lock position, though a neg or two didn’t quite get him over the hump!
With five clues to go, and the “minute-to-go” warning already long given, Mike finally went out-of-order to MINORITY POPULATIONS $1200. After a Triple Stumper there (Brazil has the largest Japanese population outside of Japan, with the most living in the state named for this largest city) he took $800 on the preantepenultimate clue on the board. That one had the Daily Double. Seemingly it would be the last clue seen, though. The scores:
Mike $13,600
Jennifer $8,400
Melanie $7,400
I would say that any bet between $3,201 and $5,199 is ideal here, assuming that you feel that your chances of getting an $800 clue are better than your chances of getting a random Final Jeopardy! clue. A mitigating circumstance here would be the fact that Mike did not know the answer to a $400 clue and a $1200 clue in this same category already. I would have still gone with $3,300 myself — but Mike chose to take just $2,000.
His clue: Marseilles has a large number of North Africans, most coming from this former colony. Mike went for a different answer and fell to $11,600. Following international soccer helped me considerably on that Daily Double as a few French soccer stars’ ancestry is North African.
The end-of-round signal came right after. Scores going into FJ:
Mike $11,600
Jennifer $8,400
Melanie $7,400
FJ! category: US PRESIDENTS
FJ! clue: This man is the only U.S. president since Hoover not named Time magazine’s Man or Person of the Year
Melanie 7400 + 2000 = 9400
Jennifer 8400 – 3200 = 5200
Mike 11600 + 5201 = 16801
Mike McCormick is the new champion and he’ll be back tomorrow!
I can’t say I particularly agree with either Melanie’s or Jennifer’s betting here. This was definitely not a game to write home about!
I’ll also be back tomorrow! See you then!