I had to go somewhat old-school and use a really, really old videotape full of old *NSYNC stuff to record that 6 p.m. Jeopardy! last night. Ironic clue from the Jeopardy! round in the category Broadway Debuts (worth $600): “Before ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ he got ‘*NSYNC’ by playing TV dance-show host Corny Collins in ‘Hairspray.'”* I paid the price for using that old tape, but it was worth it. And anyway that tape hadn’t given me trouble before, that I recall! I wound up having to watch the show on “mute” and with closed captions because the voices were so distorted. Also, when I tried to pause the show to write down clues, the picture would blink on and off. So once again I’m referring to j-archive.com to get the clues I need. (Thank you!)
The game was a good one once again. Justin Bernbach of NY was back with 6 wins under his belt. His opponents were John Mariz of MD and Robert Kennedy (!) of NY. At the end of the Jeopardy round, Justin had $4600, John had $4800, and Robert had $5200. By the time Justin got the first Daily Double in the Double Jeopardy round, though, he had amassed $17,000, thanks in part to nearly running the category Literary Titles. He added $5000 to his score on the Daily Double, in Awards and Honors: “In 1997 the Nobel Peace Prize was shared by Jody Williams and the ICBL, the International Campaign to ban these.”
The second to last clue was the second Daily Double in the round, and John found it. Justin had $28,400, and John and Robert were tied with $8400 each. John wisely bet almost everything, $8000, and came up with a correct response in Eating Places: “In Germany it’s a beer-hall and restaurant usually below street-level.” (Props to anyone who had heard of this!) Justin got the last clue of the round correct, bringing his total to $30,400 for Final Jeopardy. The category was The Academy Awards: “Peter Finch was the first winner of a posthumous Best Actor Oscar; he was first to get two posthumous acting nominations.” Robert was the only contestant to get the answer right, but of course it was too little, too late. He added $8001 to his $8400, while John lost $15,999 with his guess of Peter Sellers, and Justin lost $2600 with his guess of Heath Ledger. This makes Bernbach a 7-day champion.
*Lance Bass, landmines, rathskeller, James Dean