Final Jeopardy: Awards (7-14-25)
The Final Jeopardy question (7/14/2025) in the category “Awards” was:
In the 50-year history of “Saturday Night Live”, he’s the only cast member to have won an Oscar–& it wasn’t for a comedy
7x champ Scott Riccardi, an engineer from Somerville, NJ, brought his winnings up to $182,901 after a big win last Friday. In Game 8, he’s going for $200K, but first, he’ll have to defeat Amanda Hopkins, an analytics manager orig. from NJ; and Paul Swain, a tutor from Vancouver, WA.
Round 1 Categories: The Previous World Leader – Words of Weather – A Sticky Situation – “M”edical – Dough – Ray, Me
Scott found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Words of Weather” under the $800 clue on the 13th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $2,400, $800 more than Amanda in second place. Scott bet everything and he was RIGHT.
Don’t look for this hyphenated companion when dark clouds roll in show
Scott finished in the lead with $9,000. Amanda was second with $3,000 and Paul was last with $2,200. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: In the World’s Fair Host City – More Than One Meaning – Fizzy Drinks – Billboard No. 1 Hits – Name the Author – This Category is Fire
Paul found the first Daily Double in “Fizzy Drinks” under the $1,200 clue on the 6th pick of the round. He was in second place with $3,800, $11,200 less than Scott’s lead. Paul bet it all but couldn’t come up with a response so he was WRONG.
When does a bitter alkaloid extracted from tree bark equal refreshment? When it’s this distinctly flavored ingredient in tonic water show
Scott got the last Daily Double in “In the World’s Fair Host City” under the $1,600 clue on the 9th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $18,200 now, $17,200 more than Amanda in second place. Scott bet $4,000 and he was RIGHT.
Always willing to host a G’day, this city at the head of Port Phillip Bay stepped up in 1880 & got sporty for the Olympics in 1956 show
Scott finished in the lead with a runaway $34,200. Paul was second with $3,600 and Amanda was last with negative $200 and out of the game at this point. All clues were shown.
NEITHER contestant left in Final Jeopardy! got it right.
WHO IS ROBERT DOWNEY, JR.?
Robert Downey, Jr. is the first to admit that he “was somebody ill-suited to rapid-fire sketch comedy,” when recalling his time on “Saturday Night Live” in its 11th season. But, apparently, the show had plenty of issues other than Downey’s miscasting. The 4th episode of the Peacock series SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night” addresses Season 11 and is titled “The Weird Year”.
Ironically, pun intended, Robert Downey, Jr. has also expressed sentiments that his work as Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was award-worthy, but overlooked because of the genre.
Paul tried Bill Murray. He bet and lost his whole $3,600.
Scott didn’t have a response. His $15,800 bet put a serious dent in his $34,200 pre-FJ! score, but he won the game with the remaining $18,400. Scott’s 8-day total is $201,301.
As Ken teased in his intro, Laura Fadah was the only 8-day champ so far this season, and this was Scott’s chance to match that. Scott not only matched the number of wins, he’s won more than twice as much as Laura’s $92,599.
A triple stumper from each round:
A STICKY SITUATION ($1000) Hoplodactylus pacificus is the scientific name for a sticky-toed species of this lizard of New Zealand
IN THE WORLD’S FAIR HOST CITY ($800) 100 years after the Nguyen Dynasty transferred the nation’s capital to Hue, this city hosted in 1902 (& would re-capitalize)
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS”
In 1867 he wrote to General Rousseau, “on arriving at Sitka… you will receive from the Russian commissioner the formal transfer” show
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I was 2/3 on DD, but missed FJ. I went with Dan Aykroyd. I thought he won best supporting actor for “Driving Miss Daisy”. Oh well!
Ouch, not only a blowout, but a FJ stumper. I’ve watched SNL since its inception, and have no recollection of RDJr being in the cast. I was disappointed that my neighbor from just across the river didn’t get the quinine DD. He still had an outside shot at the time. I guess he’ll have to hope to make the backgammon ToC. I also got the last DD, but Scott answered the first one before I could even think of the answer.
Wasn’t too tough figuring out the national capital before Hue. I drank way too much of Diet Coke’s predecessor.
Well, gee, Rick, I know that. However, in this game, Scott was still going to win and Paul was still going to come in second even if they let Amanda have a shot at the last 2 $400 clues.
Wow, talk about a runaway! As for me, I did slightly below average in the game, and went for Alec Baldwin for FJ (which wasn’t a bad guess in my opinion).
Congrats to Scott on winning his 8th game.
Our first double stumper in a while.
The challengers needed to take a hint from Scott and not take a swing at clues they weren’t sure of. Scott only missed 2 clues in the whole game, one was $800 and the other was that tough FJ! I must add that I was more than a bit peeved that the guys wouldn’t let Amanda get one of those $400 clues so she could play FJ!
I also have to say that first Coca Cola diet soda was pretty bad but not as bad as Sam’s battery acid 🤣🤣
As for Amanda VJ, this has always been a winner take all game. I mean, a no holds barred competition.
In hindsight, sure. I can tell you that unless things have changed, the running scores are high up, off-camera, and no one looks at them except maybe for when they are in the moment deciding how much to wager on a DD. I looked at it only at the end of DJ and you can see me doing a quick shake of the head, knowing I’d just been put into a lock game. Also, during rehearsal, I was getting trounced on the buzzer, so one of the staff told the incoming champ (who lost before I was chosen to play) to lay off the buzzer. I can’t speak for the 1000s of subsequent players, but you’d have to experience a sudden pang of guilt near the end and let the also-rans have a chance.