Today’s contestants were pretty evenly matched. Scores at the first break were $2200 for 1-day champ Robert Knecht Schmidt from OH, $4000 for Rachel Pildis from IL, and $2800 for Nick Gorski of VA. Another indicator: All of three of them gave ridiculous answers to a clue at some point in the game.
$1000 in Movies’ Alternate Endings: “The original script for this Jamie Foxx film set in Saudi Arabia had his FBI team getting blown up.”* (Robert’s response: Miami Vice. Rachel seemed to enjoy that one!)
$400 in Story Problems: “12 hens each lay a half-dozen eggs, but 2 get broken; then a hen lays one more, leaving this many unbroken eggs.” (Nick’s response: 5)
And finally, $800 in Story Problems: “If a lepidopterist spots 4 butterflies, each with 3 black spots and 5 yellow spots, he spots this many spots.” (Rachel’s response: 60)
So can you think of any other ridiculous responses that you’ve seen in past episodes? One springs to mind for me, and I’ll write about it in the next entry.
Nick was in the lead with $14800 at the end of the Double Jeopardy round, which surprisingly had 2 clues shy of 3 categories remaining when Alex announced that there was less than a minute to go in the round! Rachel had $9800, and Robert had $5400. The Final Jeopardy clue was a snap. Religion: “In 1875, she wrote, ‘Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe.'” Robert got the right answer but wagered nothing! That hurts even a spectator! Rachel, too, got it right and added $2200 to her score, which makes $12000 and more than twice Robert’s total at the end of Double Jeopardy anyway. Nick got it wrong and lost $4801, putting him in second place and making Rachel the champion!
And the answers to the last calendar clues: Devil in a Blue Dress and Michael Moore.
*The Kingdom, 71, 32, Mary Baker Eddy