Final Jeopardy: World News 2024 (5-21-25)
The Final Jeopardy question (5/21/2025) in the category “World News 2024” was:
Headlines read of the fall of Hama on December 4, Homs on December 7 & this city on December 8
New champ Brendan Liaw, a recent graduate & stay-at-home son from Vancouver, British Columbia won $13,599 yesterday. In Game 2, he takes on: Romy Negrin, a graduate student from New York, NY; and Sam Macken, an orchestral musician from Boulder, CO.
Round 1 Categories: America: A Look Back – Adjectives – Artificial Intelligence on Film – “J” Store – The Highest Population in the State – Seek & Ye Shall Find
Sam found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “The Highest Population in the State” under the $600 on the 6th pick of the round. He was in last place with negative $1,200, Brendan was in the lead with $3,800. Sam bet $1,000 and guessed Jacksonville. That was WRONG.
A city with this name has the highest population in 2 coastal states show
Brendan finished in the lead with $8,400. Romy was second with $1,800 and Sam was last with negative $600. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: Peoples of the World – An Abundance of Caution – Geologic Time Divisions as Friends Episode Titles – Facts About Authors – Midcentury Music – That’s “Super”
Brendan found the first Daily Double in “Peoples of the World” under the $1,200 clue on the 8th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $14,400, $7,800 more than Romy in second place. Brendan bet $4,400 and he was RIGHT.
This people of Montana called themselves by a word for “people of the large-beaked bird”; whites knew them as just this bird show
Sam found the last Daily Double in “Geologic Time Divisions as “Friends” Episodes Titles” under the $1,600 clue halfway through the round. He was in last place with $5,800, $15,000 less than Brendan’s lead. Sam bet $2,000 and he was RIGHT.
The Carnian pluvial episode: “The One Where It” did this “For 2 Million Years” show
Brendan finished in the lead with $25,200. Romy was second with $12,600 and Sam was last with $10,600. All clues were shown.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS DAMASCUS?
The fall of Damascus on December 8, 2024 is No. 50 on Arab News series, “50 Moments that Changed the Middle East”. The article explains the circumstances that enabled “the end of more than 50 years of a dynastic rule that began with [Bashar Assad’s] father, Hafez, who seized power in a bloodless military coup d’etat in 1970 and, upon his death in 2000, was succeeded by his son. They even have an image of their 12/9/24 article with the headline “Assad Ousted”
At the top of the page is a slideshow guide to pages for the other 49 events, all of which are presented in chronological order beginning with Lebanon’s 1975 Civil War.
Sam thought it was Ramallah. He lost $10,599 and finished with $1.00.
Romy thought it was Aleppo. She bet and lost it all.
Brandon came up with Kharkiv. He bet $1.00 and won the game with $25,199. Brandon’s 2-day total is $38,798.
2 triple stumpers from the first round:
AMERICA: A LOOK BACK ($400) In 1964 James Chaney, Michael Schwerner & Andrew Goodman were murdered fighting for civil rights in this state
THE HIGHEST POPULATION IN THE STATE ($200) Let’s head to the Bourbon District in downtown this city, the largest in its commonwealth
2 years ago: NONE of the players got this FJ in “CLASSICAL MUSIC”
When the opera “Lohengrin” premiered in 1850, this man, a future in-law of the composer, was the conductor show
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Didn’t watch but I can see I didn’t know FJ and got only the 3rd DD. Embarrassed to have missed the first because I live in one of those cities. Remembered the civil rights state well. Gable’s prospective co-star’s character wasn’t too difficult.
Romy got that clue about Gable’s co-star. It looked like she was struggling mightily to remember the character’s name, when she finally blurted out Olivia de Havilland!
As for the El Dorado explorer who was eventually executed, a lot of people only associate him with the Roanoke Colony that he sponsored but was never actually there. He’s also associated with the story of him spreading his cloak over a puddle so Queen Elizabeth wouldn’t get her tootsies wet and he was also a poet.
It was another exciting and competitive game, and Brandon remained as the champion. I suppose that if one had recognized either of the two cities mentioned in the FJ, then the response would have been a cinch. As for me, I did spectacularly well in the game, but flubbed the FJ. For lack of a better response, I went with Gaza City for FJ.
That’s the second day in a row that we got a triple stumper in the final.
Now there’s a game with a low TS count — 4 in the first round; 0 in the last.
I really was surprised that Brandon went to Ukraine for FJ! I thought he’d get it for sure. He seems to know almost 2x as much as most other players.