Master Minds Recap: September 7, 2023

Here’s a recap of the clues on Master Minds (Season 4) for Thursday, September 7, 2023 with host Brooke Burns.

Today’s episode title: “Trivia, Smarts & Bacon”
Today’s Master Minds: Mark “The Beast” Labbett, Muffy Marracco, Ryan Chaffee
Today’s challengers: Nikhil, Shanna, John

The show’s format pits 3 contestants against each other and 3 Master Minds against each other. There are 3 rounds and the contestant with the highest score wins $1,000 and faces off in the Ultimate Trivia Challenge against the winning Master Mind. If the contestant beats the Master Mind, the prize money goes up to $10,000.

Round 1: Here are the 7 categories and questions. 100 points for each correct answer.

(1) FOOTBALL: After its team won the Super Bowl in 2022, Los Angeles celebrated by changing the Hollywood sign to say what?
(a) Blue and White (b) Clash Heads (c) Rams Home
(2) WHICH CAME FIRST: Ricki, ticky or taffy?
(a) Ricki Lake (b) Rolex watch (c) salt water taffy
(3) LITERATURE: The final novel Sue Grafton wrote for her “alphabet series” begins with what letter?
(a) X (b) Y (c) Z
(4) SCIENCE: What did physicist A.A. Michelson figure out using a spinning eight-sided mirror?
(a) light is a particle (b) light is a wave (c) the speed of light
(5) FOOD: It’s no coincidence that National Corned Beef and Cabbage Day coincides with what holiday?
(a) Christmas (b) St. Patrick’s Day (c) Easter
(6) HYGIENE: What “yummy” ingredients did Ancient Egyptians often include in their toothpaste?
(a) ground pebbles & sand (b) burnt eggshells & hooves (c) powdered bones & wood-chips
(7) MILITARY: Which branch of the U.S. armed forces has an academy in Annapolis, Maryland??
(a) Army (b) Navy (c) Air Force

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Scores at end of Round 1:
Nikhil 500 Shanna 400 John 500 / Beastie 600 Muffy 400 Ryan 600

Round 2: There are 5 subjects and questions. No multiple choice. Correct answers are worth 200 points for the first 4. The last question is worth 400 points. At the end of the round, the person with the lowest score on each team is eliminated.

(1) POP CULTURE: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd and Tim Drake have all appeared as what DC comics hero?
(2) BUSINESS: What was the last name of the man who merged his company with John A. Hill to form a major textbook publisher?
(3) TECH: Now owned by Amazon, what website began a software engineer’s list of all the films he has seen since 1980?
(4) ROCK STARS: Founded in 1967, what legendary rock band was named for its drummer and its bass player?
(5) HOLIDAYS: Observed 40 days after Easter, Ascension Day falls on what day of the week?

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Scores at end of Round 2:
Nikhil 1100 Shanna 1000 John 1100 / Beastie 1200 Muffy 1200 Ryan 1400

MASTER MIND TIE-BREAKER: On Japan’s national flag, what color is the disk?
ANSWER show

Beastie got in there first with the correct answer so Shanna and Muffy are eliminated.

Nikhil and John advance to the next round, as do Beastie and Ryan.

Round 3: Each team faces off in a rapid-fire 1-minute trivia battle. The first question is worth 500 points and each additional question goes up an additional 100 points. The winners go on to the last round.

Nikhil and John go first:

(500) In 2023, what star of “American Idol” exited the morning show he co-hosted with Kelly Ripa?
(600) What country was given the internet domain .su 15 months before it dissolved in 1991?
(700) To estimate the temperature, which type of insect chirps should you count for 15 seconds then add 40?
(800) British explorer Percy Fawcett disappeared while looking for a lost city he identified by what single letter?
(900) World champion chess player Garry Kasparov was a consultant for what 2020 Netflix series?
(1000) The character Rip Van Winkle fell asleep for 20 years in which mountains?
(1100) During the 1984 Super Bowl, Apple aired an Orwellian-themed commercial for what brand of personal computer?

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Scores at end of Round 3:
Nikhil 2500 John 3200

John wins $1,000 and advances to the Ultimate Trivia Challenge. But first, Beastie and Ryan will battle it out for a minute to see who joins John.

(500) Martha Stewart recommends dropping one tablespoon of batter onto the griddle at a time to make silver dollar what?
(600) From a word meaning “seed”, what’s the proper term for a school for training clergy persons?
(700) What Beyonce song was better known by the lyric “put a ring on it”?
(800) Eating gluten causes inflammation of the small intestine in people with what autoimmune disease?
(900) The French decisively lost control of Indochina at what 1954 battle?
(1000) In “Great Expectations”, what arrogant girl was the adopted daughter of Miss Havisham?
(1100) Psychologist B.F. Skinner called his approach to thought on human motivation “Radical” what?
(1200) Who directed the films “A Wrinkle in Time” and the critically-acclaimed “Selma”?
(1300) As its name suggests, what sunglasses company started out in Lahaina, Hawaii in 1980?

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Ryan finished with 6600 to Beastie’s 2800 so Ryan will join John in the Ultimate Trivia Challenge. If John beats Ryan, he will win another $10,000 and the next time we see him, he will be on Team Master Minds.

Ultimate Trivia Challenge: The questions are presented to the players at the same time and they write their answers down.

(1) What popular online prank brings users to an unexpected link of the music video for “Never Gonna Give You Up”?
(2) What noble gas comes last alphabetically?
(3) In archaeological terms, the word “lithic” refers to objects made of what?
(4) In 1956, who revealed plans for the “Mile High Illinois”, a structure four times taller than the Empire State Building?

ANSWERS: (unless otherwise indicated, both were correct)
show

Ryan and John tied with 3 right responses so John gets to play the Ultimate Trivia Question. He does not have to beat Ryan on this one. He just has to get it right.

For $10,000: ULTIMATE TRIVIA QUESTION: What prolific author was a trained phamacist who included 30 poison-related murders in her detective fiction?
ANSWER: show

John got it right so he doubles his winnings to $20,000 and he is now a Master Mind.

FYI: If you see someone on Master Minds that you think was on Jeopardy!, you can look up their player page on J-Archive. JBoard keeps track of Jeopardy! contestants’ appearances on their Master Minds thread. Also, IMDB has a list of many contestants that includes their last name.

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