Happy Friday! Six of the nine spots in the semifinals have been claimed. Who will claim the final three? Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category American Authors) for Friday, May 21, 2021 (Season 37, Game 170):
The year before his 1809 birth, his parents acted in “King Lear”, leading scholars to believe he was named for a “Lear” character
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s contestants:
Veronica Vichit-Vadakan, a librarian from Portland, Oregon
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Andy Wood, a writer originally from Ann Arbor, Michigan
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Sam Kavanaugh, a teacher originally from Carlton, Minnesota
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts: The prediction model thinks that Andy is a slight favorite to take this match. However, if Sam can find and convert the Daily Doubles like he did in his regular run, Sam will be in prime position to take down a spot in the semifinals. If Sam doesn’t get Daily Doubles, though, I suspect that he’ll be in trouble to advance. Veronica has the chops to contend as well in this quarterfinal; this will definitely be an intriguing fifth and final quarterfinal.
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(Content continues below)
Correct response: Who is Edgar Allan Poe?
More information about Final Jeopardy: (The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2021 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)
In Shakespeare’s King Lear, Edgar was the Earl of Gloucester’s first-born son; Edgar Allan Poe is one of 19th century American literature’s best-known authors. While he is best known for living in the Baltimore area, he was born in Boston to actors Elizabeth Arnold Hopkins Poe and David Poe, Jr.; David abandoned the family a year after Edgar’s birth and Elizabeth died of tuberculosis; Edgar was raised by Virginia merchant John Allan.
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Scores going into Final:
Veronica $22,800
Sam $20,400
Andy $7,400
Tonight’s results:
Andy $7,400 – $7,300 = $100 (Who was Dickens?)
Sam $20,400 + $2,401 = $22,801 (Who is Poe?) (Semi-Finalist)
Veronica $22,800 – $340 = $22,460 (Who is Hawthorne?)
Wild card standings:
Monday: Ryan Bilger, $32,405
Tuesday: Karen Farrell, $16,200
Wednesday: Jennifer Quail, $20,650
Thursday: Kevin Walsh, $16,000
Friday: Sam Kavanaugh, $22,801
1. Veronica Vichit-Vadakan, $22,460
2. Jason Zuffranieri, $18,800
3. Nibir Sarma, $12,199
4. Ryan Hemmel, $11,600
5. MacKenzie Jones, $9,000
6. Steve Moulds, $4,800
7. Andy Wood, $100 ($7,400)
8. Paul Trifiletti, $100 ($5,800)
9. Sarah Jett Rayburn, $0 ($9,800)
10. Ben Henri, $0 ($2,800)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Andy $7,000
Veronica $6,400
Sam $2,000
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) PREFIXES $800 (clue #11)
Veronica 600 +1000 (Sam 1400 Andy 4600)
2) 2-WORD COUNTRIES $2000 (clue #2)
Sam 3600 +3600 (Andy 7000 Veronica 6400)
3) MYTHOLOGY $1200 (clue #4, $29600 left on board)
Sam 8800 +4000 (Andy 7000 Veronica 6400)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 245
Game Stats:
Sam $16,000 Coryat, 18 correct, 2 incorrect, 29.82% in first on buzzer (17/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Veronica $22,600 Coryat, 23 correct, 0 incorrect, 38.60% in first on buzzer (22/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Andy $7,400 Coryat, 15 correct, 2 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $46,000
Lach Trash: $3,400 (on 4 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $4,600
Sam Kavanaugh, career statistics:
138 correct, 13 incorrect
4/5 on rebound attempts (on 24 rebound opportunities)
32.32% in first on buzzer (127/393)
11/12 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $62,800)
5/7 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $14,286
Andy Wood, career statistics:
120 correct, 12 incorrect
8/9 on rebound attempts (on 24 rebound opportunities)
32.45% in first on buzzer (110/339)
6/7 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $22,800)
5/6 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $12,667
Veronica Vichit-Vadakan, career statistics:
121 correct, 14 incorrect
8/12 on rebound attempts (on 31 rebound opportunities)
33.33% in first on buzzer (111/333)
4/6 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $4,000)
4/6 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $15,233
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Buzzy acknowledged the death of Brayden Smith during this episode. If you missed it, Jeopardy has posted the video on its YouTube channel.
- Without adjusting for doubled dollar values, $22,460 is the highest-ever non-winning score in a Tournament of Champions quarterfinal. It is the 9th-highest score when adjusting for doubled dollar values, and the highest since Babu Srinivasan ($11,500) in 2001.
Contestant photo credit: jeopardy.com
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The best thing about Buzzy is that, like Alex, he comes prepared with the answers, so there isn’t that annoying two-second gap between the contestant’s response and the host’s ruling. Too many guest hosts were guilty of this time lapse.
As noted above, the all of the Final Jeopardy clues were good this week (for a change). Perhaps this is the Ken Jennings influence. Reviewing the Tournament of Champions clues would be a good use of his consulting time.
Looks like Jason was right in thinking 9400 or less would have sent him home. Sarah too, of course.