Today’s contestants:
Deirdre Basile, a stay-at-home mom from Ridgefield, CT |
Steve DiGiulio, a senior account executive from Washington Township, NJ |
Ken Jennings, a software engineer from Salt Lake City, UT (11-day total: $376,158) |
J! round categories: PLAINS; THE 76th ACADEMY AWARDS; MYTHOLOGICAL WOMEN; FLEX YOUR “AB”S; I HAVE SPOKANE; JEOPARDY! OF FORTUNE
Jeopardy! Of Fortune was an interesting category: The clues were revealed quickly, like a Wheel of Fortune tossup, but when revealed, ended up like the $1000 clue: ONCE HUSBAND OF IVANA AND MARLA (Who is Donald Trump?)
On to the actual game: Jeopardy! takes its opening break after 15 clues almost like clockwork (at least it does now). When it doesn’t, I consider it to be noteworthy. You’ll start seeing this more often as we go through, but the break today came after 13 clues. I can tell you why, as well: Ken got 12 of the first 13 clues. The scores were Ken $6,800-Steve $0-Deirdre $-200.
Things picked up a little bit for our challengers after the break, at least in the respect that Ken gave a small opening, negging four times. That was Ken’s worst round in that department thus far during his run.
Ken ended up running MYTHOLOGICAL WOMEN, going 4/5 in THE 76th ACADEMY AWARDS and I HAVE SPOKANE, and 3/5 in JEOPARDY OF FORTUNE.
Scores after 30:
Ken $10,400
Deirdre $3,600
Steve $600
DJ! round categories: SCIENCE POTPOURRI; SINGERS; MIND IF I LEAD?; A “LITTLE” LIT; HOW ABOUT HOWARD; ADVERBS
On a recent #JeopardyLivePanel, Chris Denault said that it’s really hard to play against someone whose score keeps going up. That was Ken in this round. 19 correct, 0 incorrect. He went 5/5 in SCIENCE POTPOURRI, and 4/5 in SINGERS and A “LITTLE” LIT. The $2000 clues: 5 Ken gets and a Triple Stumper.
Deirdre had a brief opening when she got to play a Daily Double, but elected to bet only $3,000 of her $6,000. Not sure if she’d given up on victory, but that’s certainly not the best way to beat Ken!
Scores going into Final Jeopardy:
Ken $37,000
Deirdre $9,000
Steve $5,800
Final Jeopardy! category: COMMUNICATIONS
Final Jeopardy! clue: In the NATO phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, etc.), the 2 that are title Shakespearean characters
Who are Romeo and Juliet?
Steve 5800 – 5800 = 0 (Who are Romeo and Hamlet?)
Deirdre 9000 + 3000 = 12000
Ken 37000 – 3000 = 34000 (Who are Othello and Hamlet?) (12-day total: $410,158)
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Ken’s interview today: Another classic.
Alex: Ken Jennings is our champion, 11-day champion. However, as nice as he appears on our program, he and a friend of his have a habit that some people would consider annoying. It has to do with going to the movies and behavior at the theater. What?
Ken: We definitely have a dark side in movie theaters. We have this game that we play, where we, uh, every time someone on the screen speaks the name of the movie, we applaud real loud. And you know, that doesn’t come out much if the movie is like Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. But people get pretty annoyed if you’re in like Hamlet, or Seabiscuit, or Elf.
Alex: Remind me never to go to the movies with you. However, I can ask you to pick up your signaling device and make a selection, as we continue in this first round.
Ken’s stats through 12 games:
426 correct (39 today)
29 incorrect (5 today, including Final)
21 unforced errors (incorrect response after a buzz-in)
19/23 on Daily Doubles (82.61%)
8/12 in Final Jeopardy (66.67%)
57.75% in first on buzzer (395/684)
Average Coryat Score: $29,466
5 correct responses in a category: 16 times
4 correct responses in a category: 34 times
3 correct responses in a category: 39 times
3+ correct responses in: 61.81% of all categories seen
(contestant photo credit: jeopardy.com)
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