Time for another week of recaps, interviews, and other fun stuff here at The Jeopardy! Fan.
I’m looking forward to watching Stephanie Fontaine play today; her play Friday made it seem like she knew what she was doing with her curious and interesting wager last Thursday. Let’s see what she’s got in store today!
Her challengers today: Kelly Regan and Christy Gibson.
J! round categories: LATIN LOVERS NEEDED, AIRLINES, U.S. OLYMPIC HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES, ALSO A BEVERAGE, VICE PRESIDENTS, SEAS OF THE WORLD
The judges were being harsh, but quite fair, at the start of the game today, with a couple of calls on things that were barely wrong (but wrong nonetheless); all 3 contestants lost money to it at some point over the opening 15 clues. It was refreshing to see the judging panel be picky, to be honest, even though it leads to a clunkier show pace. At the opening break, Kelly had most of the correct responses, and she led the game $2,200 (to $800 apiece for the two other ladies).
Unfortunately for Stephanie coming out of the break, she lost the $200 for the rebound off Christy’s $200 neg (as Alex tipped off the correct response a little bit early), but she’ll carry on.
It was Stephanie that got to the round’s Daily Double shortly after the interviews finished, at VICE PRESIDENTS $400. The scores:
Kelly $2,200
Christy $800
Stephanie $800
Stephanie bet only $800, her clue: He was the last Democratic Vice President to become President. It took me about 5 seconds, but after the same amount of thought, the best Stephanie could come up with was an incorrect response; her score falls to $0.
They left some clues on the board this round, likely as a result of the judges’ interventions earlier, but Stephanie will get a chance to rebound in Double Jeopardy. The scores at midway:
Kelly $4,400
Christy $800
Stephanie $-200
DJ! Round categories: KNIGHT TIME, MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, RACHEL, LIFE OF PI, THAT CHARACTER HAS AUTHOR!, “M-S” WORD
(I was hoping for “C”S OF THE WORLD, to be honest…)
After diving into Musical Instruments, it was Stephanie who got to the Daily Double first, under the $1200 clue. The scores:
Kelly $4.800
Christy $800
Stephanie $600
I can’t say I’ve been a fan of Stephanie’s risk-aversion here on these Daily Doubles, as she’s leaving important money on the table in what is still a very close game. She only bet $600 on the clue, which was: Appropriately the song “Back in the U.S.S.R.” mentions this Russian instrument. Her correct response puts her at $1,200 — but it should have been $2,600.
I was annoyed by this clue at the bottom of that category: For some reason, a 3D Legend of Zelda game is subtitled this instrument “of time”. Here’s the reason, which frankly, the clue writers would know if they’d put any sort of research into the question other than looking at a list of Zelda games: The object in question happens to be the most important object in the game — it is used to play songs which advance the plot at key points — including, ironically enough, going back in time! Using “for some reason” here makes it seem that you are disparaging the entire genre. I guess this makes sense if you’re a Sony product taking a jab at Nintendo, but the clue seemed very sophomoric and immature to me.
Meanwhile, as I rant on, Stephanie caught her buzzer mojo and took the lead about midway through the DJ! round and had it by the time we reached the game’s final Daily Double. She saw the third one, too, under LIFE OF PI $1600. The scores now:
Stephanie $9,200
Kelly $7,600
Christy $-1,200
Betting only $1,200, her clue: Eureka! Around 250 B.C., this sage of Syracuse estimated pi at around 22/7. Stephanie gave the wrong Greek thinker and her score fell to $8,000.
After the minute-to-go signal, holding a lock game, Stephanie decided to switch categories (to “M-S” WORD). Good idea. She didn’t go to the $400 clue, though. She went to $1,200. Not so much; a couple of well-placed gets from Kelly — and then finishing out “M-S WORD” instead of going back to the $2000 clue in KNIGHT TIME — means that Stephanie doesn’t have that crucial lock game going into Final.
Christy had some valiant guesses late to try to get herself out of the hole, but it just wasn’t her day. I’m still quite curious to see if I can get more information about her books, though! One other thing I’m happy to see, as well: They’re bringing people that don’t play Final back on stage for the closing credits.
Scores going into FJ!:
Stephanie $14,400
Kelly $8,800
(Christy $-6,400)
FJ! category: NOBEL PRIZE-WINNING SCIENTISTS
FJ! clue: 1910 winner Albrecht Kossel studied a new material in the control center of cells; today, we know it as this
Kelly 8800 – 7000 = 1800
Stephanie 14400 + 5000 = 19400 (3-day champ, $54,500)
So, I think I’ve got Stephanie figured out: She’s quite savvy in Final, though she tends to take a risk-averse perspective a lot of the time, especially on Daily Doubles.
And, unfortunately for the Beau Henson fan club, another champion moves past Beau in the ToC standings. Stephanie now finds herself in 12th.
Tournament of Champions update:
1. Monica Thieu $100,000 (College Champion)
2. Patrick Quinn $100,000 (Teacher’s Champion)
3. Jason Keller $213,900 (9 wins)
4. Joel Pool $116,800 (6 wins)
5. Dave Leach $98,054 (6 wins)
6. David Menchaca $115,503 (5 wins)
7. David Gard $84,700 (4 wins)
8. Dan McShane $62,001 (4 wins)
9. Patrick Morrison
$80,701 (3 wins)
10. Francis Lansangan $78,401 (3 wins)
11. Matt Samberg $61,402 (3 wins)
12. Stephanie Fontaine $54,500 (3 wins)
13. Joey Falco $53,999 (3 wins)
14. Beau Henson $51,203 (3 wins)
15. Margaret Swanson $48,000 (3 wins)
—
16. Claudia Gray $45,202 (3 wins)
17. Dan Adkison $37,400 (3 wins)
18. Jacob Silverman $35,998 (3 wins)
19. Jessamine Price $26,803 (3 wins)
Jeanie’s got tomorrow’s game; I’ll be back with the recap of Wednesday!
Rant Of Time
