Final Jeopardy: It Happened in the U.S. (1-1-26)
The Final Jeopardy question (1/1/2026) in the category “It Happened in the U.S.” was:
Trinitite is the name of a glass-like material that came to be after a historic event in this state
Happy New Year, everyone! Today is the first match of a 2-part final in Week 3 of the 2025 Second Chance Tournament. The finalists are: Dondi DeMarco, an operations exec from New York, NY; Abigail Arnold, an academic administrator from Waltham, MA; and Ryan Sharpe, a recent graduate from Oakville, Ontario.
Round 1 Categories: Geographic Nicknames – All Bark – Eyes on the Prize – Fantastic Foursomes – Medicine – Words That Begin With 3 Consonants
Ryan found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Geographic Nicknames” under the $800 clue on the 4th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $1,200 now, $800 more than Abigail in second place. Ryan bet it all and he was RIGHT.
Where the Blue Nile & the White Nile meet & form the regular Nile, you’ll find this “triangular capital” show
Ryan finished in the lead with $7,200. Abigail was second with $3,600 and Dondi was last with $1,600. All clues were shown. A reversal before Round 2 began (see below) bumped Abigail’s score up to $5,600.
Round 2 Categories: Books & Authors – Talk About a Celluloid Demise! – Venues – Take Me to Your World Leader – On New Year’s Day – “I” Will Be With “U” Again
Ryan found the first Daily Double in “Venues” under the $1,600 clue on the 6th pick. He was in the lead with $13,600 now, $6,800 more than Abigail in second place. Ryan boldly bet it all and he was RIGHT.
This storied opera house started its 200th season in 1977 with “Don Carlos” by Verdi, who had a long association with it show
Ryan got the last Daily Double in “Talk About a Celluloid Demise!” under the $1,200 clue on the 12th pick. In the lead with $32,800, he had $24,000 more than Abigail in second place. Ryan bet $4,096 and came up with “Are you gonna make my day?” That was WRONG.
Tony Montana screams, “You wanna play rough?! OK!” then these 6 words; he has a bit more to say, until a final shotgun blast show
Ryan finished in the lead with $33,104. Abigail was next with $15,600. With a zero score, Dondi was out of the game at this point. All clues were shown.
BOTH contestants left in Final Jeopardy! got it right.
WHAT IS NEW MEXICO?
Trinitite is quite literally the fallout from the first nuclear explosion that occurred on July 16, 1945 at the Alamogordo Bombing Range, 210 miles south of Los Alamos, New Mexico. The code name given to the test by J. Robert Oppenheimer was “Trinity.” The plutonium device detonated at 5:30 that morning, turning the surrounding asphalt and sand into green glass that was given the name trinitite.
I couldn’t help being reminded of kryptonite, fragments of the planet Krypton after it exploded which were Superman’s Achilles’ heel. It has been illegal to remove trinitite from the Alamogordo test site since 1953; however, some quantities of trinitite were acquired by private individuals before then. You can even buy one online if you like, even though it won’t give you powers far beyond those of mortal man.
Abigail bet $8,000 and finished with $23,600.
Ryan bet $336 and won the game with $33,440.
Abigail and Ryan will have those amounts added to whatever they finish with tomorrow. It’s not necessarily a lost cause for Dondi. One of the Second Chancers, you may recall, had zero going into the second game and ended up winning!
Reversal: ALL BARK ($1000) The Latin “canis timidus vehementius latrat quam mordet” is one basis for this saying about barking dogs – Ken rejected Abigail’s “a barking dog never bites” and said it was “the bark is worse than their bite.” The judges gave Abigail a thumbs up and $2,000.
A triple stumper from each round:
FANTASTIC FOURSOMES ($600) In “The Fantastic Four: First Steps”, the 4 are Mister Fantastic, The Thing, the Human Torch & Sue Storm, aka her
TALK ABOUT A CELLULOID DEMISE! ($800) Getting things off his chest, John Hurt said the cast of this 1979 film knew he’d die but “didn’t know how it was going to happen”
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “HISTORIC AMERICANS”
They went their separate ways in 1806 & both became territorial governors: one of Upper Louisiana, the other of Missouri show
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Happy New Year VJ! Both Abigail and Ryan are looking good heading into tomorrow’s game. Dondi has a lot of work to do tomorrow and needs a miracle to win but anything can happen. Tomorrow is the last Second Chance game of the season.