Today’s Final Jeopardy – Tuesday, February 4, 2025

20 Comments on "Today’s Final Jeopardy – Tuesday, February 4, 2025"

1. MarkO | February 4, 2025 at 10:18 am |

   Only guessed correctly because I knew that North Korea bordered Russia, but only barely.

2. Katerina E. | February 4, 2025 at 10:21 am |

   This one was an instant get for me, as well, since not only am I a geographer, but one of my undergrad courses was in Geography of the Former Soviet Union (and the university was still listing it as “Geography of the Soviet Union” in the course catalog because it was only a year or two after the dissolution). My professor for the class had taken the Trans-Siberian Railroad from Moscow to Vladivostok in 1979, and had photo slides he showed us and seeing the diversity of the people in Asian Russian was eye-opening.

3. John | February 4, 2025 at 12:28 pm |

   This was an instant get for me as well. I’m pretty sure this was only because there was a Final Jeopardy clue during the finals of the original Second Chance Tournament a few years ago that asked for two countries that border both Russia and China, and I remember being surprized that North Korea was a more popular correct answer than Kazakhstan.

   • JIm | February 4, 2025 at 1:24 pm |

     That was it! I knew there had been a relatively recent Final Jeopardy that referenced Russia bordering North Korea. That pushed me in the right direction here, too. I did give a half second pause to wonder if “that country’s” in the clue was referring to Russia or the correct response, but figured it would be improbable for another country bordering Russia to also border 14 countries.

     • Lisa | February 5, 2025 at 3:01 am |

       The “that country’s” in the clue threw me off, too, but unlike you, without recovery. I did think of North Korea, but thought it didn’t have a lot of other countries bordering it, so guessed ‘Georgia’ just because I never seem to hear anything about Georgia, so if this happened to be true, then I’d be unlikely to know it.

       • Rashaad | February 5, 2025 at 11:55 am |

         Vladivostok was an important part of the clue, and Georgia is nowhere near that city.

         • Lisa | February 5, 2025 at 1:48 pm |

           It was clear that it would be an important part IF ONE KNOWS WHERE IT IS, but all I know is that it is in Russia.

   • Jeff | February 4, 2025 at 11:55 pm |

     Yeah, that totally rings a bell now and I should have gotten this right.

4. JV | February 4, 2025 at 3:51 pm |

   This was maybe the easiest FJ for me since the start of Second Chance LOL. Quite the contrast compared to Sitka and Water Music

5. Matt Carberry | February 4, 2025 at 4:44 pm |

   Regarding the claim about ratings made by Sarah Foss in yesterday’s podcast, I’m not skeptical of it — I reject it outright. For her to say that Jeopardy! out-performed the NFL playoffs in the ratings strains credulity beyond the breaking point. It’s to be expected that she’d paint the show’s numbers in the best possible light, but I’m going to need to see independent corroborating evidence before I put stock in Foss’s assertion. (I can also understand what I imagine is your position — that unless and until such evidence is produced, the claim should be accepted at face value.)

   That said, the r/Jeopardy mods were wrong to remove the thread on that basis. The better way forward would’ve been to allow the post to stand and challenge and debate it in the comments. I endorse Justice Brandeis’s aphorism: “the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence.”

   In their response to you last May*, they claimed: “we do not feel it is our place to decide what people should think”; “We do not moderate content on the basis of the nature of the opinion being expressed…”; “our opinion is that the best way to run the sub is to let people speak their minds…”

   Here, all that seems to have gone out the window. They clearly did remove a post based on the viewpoint it espoused. Plus, I can’t see how the post runs afoul of any of the seven r/Jeopardy specific rules (or any general Reddit rule).

   The subreddit mods appear to have fallen well short of their professed ideals in this instance.

   As an aside, I hold the moderators were certainly entitled to issue that response, and to do so publicly, given the gravity of the charges you made against them. What reply to your May 11, 2024 editorial, if any, would you have considered acceptable for them to make?

6. Bill | February 4, 2025 at 5:32 pm |

   First a comment about the dispute between CBS’ distribution arm, and, Sony. When first Wheel and Jeopardy were going to be produced for syndication, it took Roger King, and, King World to find markets for what was then uncertain properties. Now Sony wants all the money from the shows. It’s thier right, once the current contract ends. It is also Sony’s right to try and end the contract early, if they can prove to a court the accusations they have made.
   Now today’s Final Jeopardy. Which was an easy one for a Tournameent of Champions semi final, IF one could imagine a map of russia, and, all the nations that suurond it. I couldn’t, though it appears Adrianna, and, Ryan did.

   • Matt Carberry | February 4, 2025 at 6:29 pm |

     “It’s [their] right, once the current contract ends.”

     There’s the rub, or at least one of them. I don’t think the contract ends — the predecessor companies to Sony and CBS respectively, Merv Griffin Enterprises and King World, signed a deal in perpetuity.

     Of course, even a “forever” deal can be terminated — for a price. (Exhibit A: the football and basketball arena of Syracuse University isn’t called the Carrier Dome anymore.) And Sony has reportedly tried to buy CBS out of the deal, offering a nine-figure sum, IIRC. It wasn’t enough for Paramount to agree.

     • Bill | February 6, 2025 at 3:49 pm |

       Thank you for the editing, and, that interesting bit of informattion about the syndication deal Merv Griffin, and, Roger King made.
       Wednesday night I watched Duke play Syracuse. I noted the JMA company markings on the basketball floor, but just thought they were floor ads like Chase bank’s has at Madison Square Garden. So another name rights deal has changed the name of venue. Seems to happen a lot. Heinz Field in Pittsburg is no longer that, Miller Park in Millwaukee has had it’s name changed.The arena where the Phoenix Suns play seems to change sponsors annually. You get used to one name, then it changes.

       • Lisa | February 8, 2025 at 9:32 pm |

         I believe the name changes come mostly due to the search for MORE money. Sometimes (due to market turns, etc.) the prior sponsor could no longer cough up the current amount much less more, but even in the cases where they could have, I suspect that after the venue been called whatever for years people start associating the name with the venue instead of with the sponsor and the sponsor will get more bang for their buck using the money for other advertising, especially if locals keep calling it by the former name. For example, the TCL Chinese Theatre being “previously and commonly referred to as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre”.

7. Robert J. Fawkes | February 4, 2025 at 6:55 pm |

   I had quite the déjà vu moment when I read the FJ! clue. I seemed to remember it so well that the correct response came right away. Are we all sure that a similar clue has never been given on Jeopardy! before now? This seems so familiar to me that I thought something similar had been used before. Anyway, for whatever reason or wherever I may have seen something similar before, the correct response came instantly. Maybe, it was because of what John and Jim were referring to above.

   • Lisa | February 5, 2025 at 3:07 am |

     I suspect that often when a clue is kind of related to a prior clue, one may feel like that prior clue was even more similar due to it having caused a search for more information, with the “more information” found being what later seems familiar.

8. Llm | February 4, 2025 at 8:29 pm |

   Unlike Jlm, I took the “that country” to refer to the correct reply. I figured the only country touching Russia with that many neighbors would be China, but was surprised they ony touched 11 miles. Turns out China has 14 neighbors, and the China-Russia border is 2,600 miles

9. (Old) Eric | February 4, 2025 at 9:28 pm |

   For whatever reason I — like Ryan apparently — associated the 1929 crash with Black Tuesday (October 29) rather than Black Thursday. It turns out that October 28 is known as Black Monday. Tough clue if you don’t remember the exact dates.

   I wish Ken hadn’t made his “five days left” comment while the clue was still in play.

10. Leo B. | February 4, 2025 at 11:49 pm |

    That was an instant get for me as well. The ToC also needs its share of easy FJs to keep people from betting for a triple stumper all the time.

11. Jeff | February 4, 2025 at 11:58 pm |

    I blew this and shouldn’t have, as mentioned above, we had something similar not all that long ago.

    Retro congrats to Adriana on the win and I look forward to seeing her in the Finals starting on Thursday!