Master Minds Recap: April 6, 2020

Remember The Best Ever Trivia Show from last year? Well, it’s back with a new title: MASTER MINDS; a new host: BROOKE BURNS; and a revised format.

The format now pits the 3 contestants against each other and the 3 trivia experts against each other. There are 3 rounds and the player with the highest score wins $1,000 and faces off in the Ultimate Trivia Challenge for a shot at $10,000 against the winning Master Mind.

Today’s episode title: “Trivia Smarts & a Hot Air Balloon”
Today’s trivia experts: Ken Jennings, Muffy Marracco and Jonathan Corbblah
Today’s contestants: Steve, Jessica, Alfredo

(Diego, the player who won $10,000 in the last match of “The Best Ever Trivia Show” was supposed to get another chance in the second season, but it looks like that’s not applicable anymore.)

Round 1: Here are the 7 categories and questions. 100 points for each correct answer. They no longer show the incorrect answers.

(1) MEDICINE: Which of these pain relievers is known by the brand name Aleve?
(a) Naproxen (b) Ibuprofen (c) Acetaminophen
(2) FOOTWEAR: What canvas and jute shoe was originally worn by peasants in Catalonia?
(a) bolero (b) espadrille (c) huarache
(3) GOLD: Which came first
(a) Golden Grahams cereal (b) Goldie Hawn (c) Gold Bond medicated powder
(4) TRANSPORTATION: The passengers of the first hot air balloon ride included which of these?
(a) human (b) dog (c) duck
(5) ATHLETES: Nancy Lopez is known for winning more than 50 professional events in what sport?
(a) Tennis (b) Volleyball (c) Golf
(6) HAIR: According to historian Suetonius, what was the reason for Julius Caesar’s signature hairstyle?
(a) to bring him luck (b) to hide a bald spot (c) to commemorate his father
(7) GEOGRAPHY: Which Caribbean island group is located furthest north?
(a) Antigua and Barbuda (b) Trinidad and Tobago (c) Turks and Caicos

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Scores at end of Round 1:
Steve 600 Jessica 400 Alfredo 300 / Ken 500 Muffy 700 Jonathan 100

Round 2: There are 5 subjects and questions. No multiple choice. Only the first player on each team to buzz in gets to answer. Correct answers are worth 200 points for the first 4. The last question is worth 400 points. Wrong answers are penalized by the value of the question. At the end of the round, the person with the lowest score on each team is eliminated.

(1) IMAGES: Alfred Eisenstaedt’s iconic 1945 photo of a sailor kissing a woman is titled “V-J Day in…” What NYC location?
(2) CRIMINALS: On May 20, 1933, the FBI issued an arrest warrant for what duo for interstate transport of a stolen automobile?
(3) LITERATURE: The title character of “The Great Gatsby” lives in what fictional city?
(4) MEDIA: Katherine Graham became the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company as the head of what newspaper?
(5) STIMULANTS: In its pure form, what color is caffeine?

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Scores at end of Round 2:
Steve 800 Jessica 1000 Alfredo 300 / Ken 1300 Muffy 900 Jonathan 700

Alfredo and Jonathan are eliminated.

Round 3: Each team faces off in a 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.

Steve and Jessica go first:

(500) Formed almost 300 million years ago, what was the supercontinent that once comprised nearly all land on earth?
(600) The four main types of coffee beans are Excelsa, Liberica, Arabica and what?
(700) “Brevity is the soul of wit” are words from what Shakespeare play?
(800) The first Federal act to outlaw monopolistic business practices was named for what Ohio senator?
(900) What type of bed that folds into a wall lost its trademark protection in 1989 and was ruled a generic term?
(1000) A silver alloy that contains 7.5% copper is known by what term?
(1100) Still spoken in Spain today, what non-Romance language traces its roots to the Stone Age?

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Scores at end of Round 3:
Steve 2300 Jessica 3500

Jessica wins $1,000 and advances to the Ultimate Trivia Challenge. But first, Ken and Muffy will battle it out for a minute to see who Jessica plays against.

(500) Meaning ‘land of the free’, what South Asian country was originally called Siam?
(600) Gary Anderson won a 1970 contest by the Container Corporation of America for creating the symbol for what?
(700) Who recounted her life in the autobiography “First Lady from Plains”?
(800) Who composed the music for the opera “Einstein on the Beach”?
(900) Nicknamed “Little Sure Shot”, what woman was a sharpshooter for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show?
(1000) Latin for “you should have the body”, what writ demands a detained person be brought before a court?
(1100) How many total number slots appear on an American roulette wheel?
(1200) What pear-shaped organ stores and concentrates bile from the liver?
(1300) Indicating to ‘play softly’, what does a single lower case ‘p’ stand for on sheet music?

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Ken finished with 5900 to Muffy’s 4400 so Jessica will be facing him in the Ultimate Trivia Challenge. If she beats Ken, she will return on the next show. Any player who makes it through 3 shows and wins $30,000, gets to join the Master Minds expert team.

Ultimate Trivia Challenge: The questions are now presented to the players individually and they say their answers out loud. (In the old format, they sat side-by-side and wrote down their answers.)

(1) The fossilized resins of ancient trees is the source of what gem?
(2) What daughter of Sigmund Freud followed her father’s career path?
(3) If you have the occupational surname ‘Fletcher’, chances are your ancestors crafted what?
(4) Who developed the scoring system that evaluates a newborn baby’s health minutes after they are born?
(5) Which continent lies in all four hemispheres?

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

Jessica is going home with $1,000 and there will be 3 new players tomorrow.

Master Minds airs daily on Game Show Network. Check your local listings for times. (Here in the Central Time Zone it comes on at 3:00 p.m.)

See the pool of trivia experts participating in Master Minds