Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category 19th Century Europe) for Friday, April 21, 2017:
Published in L’Aurore on January 13, 1898, it caused its author to be convicted of libel
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s contestants:
Meghan Phillips, a library and archives assistant from Lancaster, Pennsylvania |
David Rigsby, a Social Security Administration attorney from Alexandria, Virginia |
Nilanka Seneviratne, an international development nonprofit professional from Washington, D.C. (1-day total: $7,601) |
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[spoiler title=’Click/Tap Here for Correct Response/Question’]What is “J’Accuse…!”?[/spoiler]
The Émile Zola letter “J’Accuse…!”, published in the French paper L’Aurore in January 1898, was an open letter to French president Félix Faure, and accused the French govenment of anti-Semitism in the jailing of French army officer Alfred Dreyfus. The intent was for Zola to get himself charged with libel against the government, in order to force the evidence surrounding Dreyfus’ conviction to be made public. While Zola was found guilty of libel, he fled to England, and Dreyfus was eventually exonerated.
You can find the full text of Zola’s letter at Wikisource.
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(contestant photo credit: jeopardy.com)
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Scores going into Final:
Nilanka $12,100
David $10,200
Meghan $5,400
Final results:
Megan $5,400 – $5,001 = $399 (What is Dangerous Liaisons?)
David $10,200 – $2,000 = $8,200 (What is Madame Bovary?) (1-day total: $8,200)
Nilanka $12,100 – $8,301 = $3,799 (What is the Dreyfus Affair?)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
David $8,200
Meghan $6,600
Nilanka $2,600
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) U.S. HERSTORY $1000 (15th pick)
David 2600 +2000 (Meghan 3600 Nilanka 1800)
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2) THE ANCIENT WORLD $2000 (10th pick)
Meghan 9400 -2000 (David 9400 Nilanka 8200)
3) BALLET $1200 (28th pick, $3,600 left on board)
Nilanka 12100 -100 (David 10200 Meghan 5400)
Unplayed clues:
J! round: IT’S NOT A TUBER $600
DJ! round: BALLET $2000
$ Left on Board: $2,600
Game Stats:
David $9,200 Coryat, 16 correct, 2 incorrect, 30.91% in first on buzzer
Nilanka $12,200 Coryat, 18 correct, 3 incorrect, 32.73% in first on buzzer
Meghan $7,400 Coryat, 14 correct, 3 incorrect, 29.09% in first on buzzer
Lach Trash: $11,400 (on 8 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $11,200
Nilanka Seneviratne, final stats:
36 correct
9 incorrect
0/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$100)
0/2 in Final Jeopardy
31.53% in first on buzzer (35/111)
Average Coryat: $13,300
David Rigsby, stats to date:
16 correct
3 incorrect
1/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $2,000)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
30.91% in first on buzzer (17/55)
Average Coryat: $9,200
David Rigsby, to win:
2 games: 30.14%
3: 9.09%
4: 2.74%
5: 0.83%
6: 0.25%
Avg. streak: 1.432 games.
Avg. Total Winnings (including possible ToC): $19,267
ToC projection update:
With a projected 80 regular-play games to go prior to the Tournament of Champions cutoff, after 250,000 simulations, our model shows:
An average of 2.9164 5+-time champions (standard deviation 1.3231).
An average of 4.5124 4+-time champions (standard deviation 1.6093).
An early cutoff took place 11.412% of the time (or a 5-game winner will be left out).
Tim Kutz qualified 65.966% of the time.
Todd Giese qualified 24.235% of the time.
Rob Liguori qualified 5.280% of the time.
Fred Vaughn qualified 0.914% of the time.
(Note: Due to the possibility of a WGA strike, I feel that it is more accurate for ToC projections to add 20 games to the end of the previous projected qualifying period.)
Miscellany:
I guess nobody read Papillon, it was mentioned there. Nilanka was at least in the right area. So what do we Have?
1. A wrong answer wins the game.
2. A new champion again after 1 day.
3. a complete strikeout back to back.
4. Nobody read “Papillon” (Dreyfuss and Zola were briefly mentioned there)
Btw, your computer predicting 2 – 3 five timers before the summer break might soon be running out of time, Andy! :):):) At least if this pattern is holding. Smart AND lucky wager by David, I guess he was hoping for the leader to get it wrong and it worked out.
Where I have to say that European categories (history,literature,geography etc etc) are categories where J players are not exactly strong on average. Anything outside the U.S. and trouble is a-coming…:):):)
Meant to write under !. …won the game again.”
And now that it IS Friday (thought yesterday that it’s F., wishful thinking I guess..)
HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYBODY!!
There hasn’t even been a 3 time champion since mid March.
What was the final question on today show,April 21st,2017? I know answer was Emil Zola,but war was the QUESTION?Thanks
The question was “What is J’Accuse?” (midway down the page).
The answer is at the top of the page.
I think the Dreyfus Affair answer was close enough to be allowed as correct. Nobody else had a clue, and we don’t all run around knowing the exact wording in French.
I completely disagree with you, Maurine.
“J’Accuse” is incredibly famous, and moreover, it is a title. You wouldn’t accept “that Mitchell book” for “Gone with the Wind”, you can’t accept “the Dreyfus affair” for “J’Accuse”, plain and simple. Whether anyone else gave a correct response or not is irrelevant.
I agree, Andy, but to address Maurine’s concern, I’m sure they would have accepted an English ‘version’, i.e. “I accuse”.
As an aside, given how famous that essay was (I mean why else do we remember Zola these days?), it was pretty disappointing that no one got this.
I thought “the Dreyfus letter,” but I don’t think that would have been accepted. 🙁
I thought that more people would get it for sure, just because I remember at least 3 instances of it coming up in Final Jeopardy alone over the past two or three seasons.
My predictive skills generally leave something to be desired, though. That’s why I use computers most of the time! 😉