Final Jeopardy: The Calendar (7-21-20)
Today’s Final Jeopardy question (7/21/2020) in the category “The Calendar” was:
Calendar date with which the 20th century began
Today we’re watching a rerun of the second episode of Season 1 of Jeopardy, that originally aired on 9/11/1984. The contestants were: New champ, Greg Hopkins, an energy demonstrator from Waverly, OH, who won $8,400 in the first episode; Lynne Crawford, a carpenter from West Springfield, MA; and Paul Schaeffer, a registered nurse originally from Philadelphia, PA.
Round 1 Categories: State Capitals – The ’40’s – Homonyms – Transportation – Country Music – By the Numbers
Greg found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “By the Numbers” under the $400 clue on the 19th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $2,100, $1,400 more than Lynne in second place. He bet $400 and he was RIGHT.
Total of Disney’s Dalmatians and dwarfs. show
Greg finished in the lead with $3,100. Lynne was second with $1,000 and Paul was last with $500.
Round 2 Categories: Wild West – Opera – Sports – Biology – Foreign Phrases – Religion
Lynne found the first Daily Double in “Opera” under the $600 clue on the 9th pick. She was in second place with $2,400 now, $1,100 less than Greg’s lead. She bet $1,000 and she was RIGHT.
This aria from “Pagliacci” gave him the first million-selling record ever. (clip from “Vesti la giubba” starting with “Ridi, Pagliacci”) show
And that was it for the Daily Doubles in this game.
Greg finished in the lead with $9,500. Lynne was next with $5,000 and Paul was in third place with $1,100.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS JANUARY 1, 1901?
This is an excerpt from “Battle of the Centuries” concerning the confusion over the actual date on which a new century begins:
“As historians and others involved in measuring time continue to remind us, there was no year 0. In fact, there has never been a system of recording reigns, dynasties, or eras that did not designate its first year as the year 1. To complete a century, one must complete 100 years; the first century of our era ran from the beginning of A.D. 1 to the end of A.D. 100; the second century began with the year A.D. 101. While the period 1900-1999 is of course a century, as is any period of 100 years, it is incorrect to label it the 20th century, which began January 1, 1901, and will end on December 31, 2000. Only then will the third millennium of our era begin.”
This stuff is almost as confusing to me as family trees so that’s pretty much all I have to offer, except for this trivia page: “Famous Firsts of the 1900s” (also called “A Simple Timeline of the 20th Century”, although it includes the year 1900 and excludes 2000).
All of the contestants answered with “January 1, 1900”, and they all bet everything they had so they all ended up where they started — at zero. Alex Trebek said he was at a loss for word, adding: “Hey folks, easy come, easy go…. Tomorrow on Jeopardy!, we’ll be bringing in three new players to play the game.”
In his “From the Vault” intro, Alex said that these results would not happen again for 35 years. I think he was referring to this January 18, 2016 game.
A triple stumper from each round:
HOMONYMS ($100) Type of auto engine, or a tomato cocktail
SPORTS ($200) The Greeks reckoned time from this event, first held in Olympia in in 776 B.C.
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “FASHION”
Debuting in 1946, it was deemed “four triangles of nothing”; some critics even found it sinful show
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I missed Monday’s rerun, but I’ve seen the first episode from 1985 season 2, and it was similar.
Alex yapped WAY too much back then, which explains why tonight neither board was completed.
I thought that tonight’s questions were nearly all softballs, including the Final, and was shocked at how many were missed. And more shocked that the leader with $9500 didn’t wager $501 in Final.
At the end of the 2nd round, Alex called “Final Jeopardy” “Double Jeopardy” during his explanation, and it was not edited/corrected.
Well it is confusing indeed. The argument on time goes on. As far as I’m concerned, a century ends with **99 and a decade with **09. Take that, Trebek!
Mr Trebeck has nothing to do with the answers & questions of Jeopardy. The correct answer is January, 1901. Looking at the beginning of the calendar years started with 1 AD. It takes 100 years to make a Century. Therefore, the correct answer is January 1, 1901.
Exactly. There was no year Zero AD, so year 1 was the first year of the 2nd century, and year 100 was the last
Decades are different; they begin with the year ending in zero and end in the one with 9 at the end.
The sixth millennium ended with 1999, so the seventh began with 2000. To me and as far as I’m concerned, a century ends with *99, the new begins with *00, decade ends with *9, begins with *0. The birth of Christ began in 0 (or, by Doc Brown’s calendar, 0000), the next year was A.D. 1. Which planet is Trebek coming from, anyway?
So the categories for the J6 clues this week match the categories of the old shows on their corresponding days.
I wonder if they had the extra clues created at that time, as they do today, and just pulled them from their archive, or if the writers made new clues specifically for J6.
I tried searching for the text of the J6 clues in j-archive (to see if maybe they reused existing clues that appeared on the actual show), and did not find any matches, to remove another possibility.
We might be able to tell if they are old or new questions if an anachronism is introduced, like a J6 clue in a category “Country Music” referencing a song that came out after the air date of the show airing that day, which would indicate the question was written a short while ago for the J6 clues.
First time with a triple Stumper and all three ended up at zero. Trebek wins the final round awnd the clue wasn’t nice to everyone here today. Better luck next time fellas!
This was the first FJ triple stumper as the clue was wasn’t nice to anybody and they went bust.
Gee, there were a lot of firsts in just those two games —
First runaway
First time everyone got FJ!
First time no one got FJ!
First time a player ran a category
First and second time all DD’s weren’t uncovered
First time Trebek wins FJ!
First time a player bounced around the board.