Today’s contestants:
Dane Petersen, a public relations and marketing manager from Arlington, VA |
Neil Thom, an attorney from Columbus, GA |
Ken Jennings, a software engineer from Salt Lake City, UT (2-day total: $59,201) |
Jeopardy! round categories: AUTHORS, SPORTS QUOTES, “E”OGRAPHY, IF YOU’RE GOING TO DO IT…, BUSINESSMEN, NUMERICAL HOMOPHONES
After Dane was first in on two of the first three clues of the game, Ken found his buzzer groove and reeled off 10 in a row, including his first run category: AUTHORS
SPORTS QUOTES $200: Before winning the World Heavyweight title, he said he wasn’t “the greatest; I’m the double greatest”
An oft-forgotten quote in this game: facing a BUSINESSMEN Daily Double, Ken remarked, “I’m not really crazy about the category” and simply bet its $1,000 clue value. Considering how his run ended in November, that makes a lot of sense! The more interesting part of the exchange? When Alex prodded him a bit, Ken joked “Come the revolution, we’re gonna string them up.”
By the end of the round, Ken had run the aforementioned AUTHORS, gone 4/5 in BUSINESSMEN, and 3/5 in “E”OGRAPHY! There was only one $600 neg by Ken in the entire round and no Triple Stumpers!
After the J! Round: Ken $10,200 Neil $4,600 Dane $2,600
Double Jeopardy! categories: GONE WITH THE WIND, FRANKLY, MY DEER, I DON’T, GIVE “A”, HOOVER DAM
After 16 clues in this round, the scores were: Ken $15,000 Neil $11,400 Dane $5,000. Ken then proceeded to run off 11 clues in a row (and 12 of the final 14). Neil got 1.
The turning point may have been when Ken jumped in in front of Neil the attorney on this $2000 clue in I DON’T: I hire barristers but don’t argue high court cases myself because I’m this type of British lawyer (What is a solicitor) – Alex even noted “got in there before Neil”.
Ken then proceeded to run FRANKLY and MY DEER, both of which contained Daily Doubles. Ken was still betting conservatively at this point on his Daily Doubles – which in hindsight makes a lot of sense. When you’re steamrollering your opposition, you don’t want to give them an opening. (I seem to recall taking a decidedly different viewpoint on this as a 20-year-old in 2004).
In addition to running FRANKLY and MY DEER, Ken went 3/5 in GONE WITH THE WIND and HOOVER DAM.
Scores going into Final Jeopardy:
Ken $33,600
Neil $12,200
Dan $5,000
Final Jeopardy! category: RECORD HOLDERS
Final Jeopardy! clue: Phoebe Snetsinger, she of the apropos first name, set a record for this activity, about 8,400 species
What is birdwatching?
Dane 5000 – 3000 = 2000 (What is naming?)
Neil 12200 – 2000 = 10200 (What is butterfly collecting?)
Ken 33600 + 3400 = 37000 (3-day total: $96,201)
Ken’s finished this game with 18 correct in each round. I distinctly remember watching this game back in June of 2004 and thinking “I think that we may have something special on our hands here.” Obviously, we did.
Ken’s stats through 3 games:
98 correct (37 today, including Final)
7 incorrect (1 today)
5/5 on Daily Doubles
2/3 in Final Jeopardy
53.80% in first on buzzer
Average Coryat Score: $26,733
5 correct responses in a category: 3 times
4 correct responses in a category: 7 times
3 correct responses in a category: 11 times
(contestant photo credit: j-archive.com)
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