Final Jeopardy: Western Hemisphere Geography (1-16-20)

Today’s Final Jeopardy question (1/16/2020) in the category “Western Hemisphere Geography” was:

It’s the easternmost capital city in Central America

3x champ Veronica Vichit-Vadakan, a librarian from Portland, OR. has now won $68,001. In Game 4, her challengers are: Shanu George, a graduate student from North Windham, CT; and Priscilla Drobes, a stay-at-home mom from Nanuet, NY.

Round 1 Categories: “P”icture This – Weather – 5-Letter Words – Coinage – Park City – Real People on Screen

Shanu found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Weather” under the $800 clue on the 17th pick of the round. He was in second place with $200, $3,200 less than Veronica’s lead. He bet the $1,000 allowance and thought it was a polar vortex. That was WRONG.

In a 2-week period in 2018, the East Coast was walloped by 3 of these storms named for the direction from which they came. show

Veronica finished in the lead with $5,400. Shanu was second with $1,000 and Priscilla was last with $200.

Round 2 Categories: Once Upon a Time in America – Rock Operas – States’ Common Surnames – National Spelling Bee Winning Words – Myth in Modern Literature – Blue by You

Shanu found the first Daily Double in “States’ Common Surnames” under the $1,600 clue on the 15th pick. He was in second place with $5,000 at this point, $4,400 behind Veronica’s lead. He bet $4,000 and guessed Arizona. That was WRONG.

Martinez is Number 1 in this state where Susana Martinez was governor from 2011 to 2019. show

2 clues later, Shanu landed on the last Daily Double in “In America” under the $2,000 clue. He was at negative $1,000 now and Veronica had the lead at $7,400. He bet $1,500 of the $2,000 allowance and went with the Texas Marshals. That was WRONG.

Organized in the 1830s, this group of lawmen merged with the Texas State Highway Patrol in 1935. show

Veronica finished with a runaway 13,000. Shanu was second with $2,300. Priscilla was out of the game at negative $5,400.

Only ONE of the two players left in Final Jeopardy! got it right.

WHAT IS PANAMA CITY?

You can just look at the blank map in this short video and easily see which country has the easternmost capital city. Now all you have to know is what country that is and its capital. It’s pretty safe to say that this is the one Central American country that Americans are most familiar with because of our history with a very famous canal.

From 2007: THE SOUTHERNMOST CAPITAL CITY ($1600) Guatemala City, Panama City, Mexico City



Shanu went with the Honduran capital, Tegucigalpa. He lost his $2,000 bet and was left with $300.

Veronica got it right. She made up for lost ground with a nice $8,000 bet and won the game with $21,000. Her 4-day total is $89,001.

Final Jeopardy (1/16/2020) Veronica Vichit-Vadakan, Shanu George, Priscilla Drobes

2 triple stumpers from REAL PEOPLE ON SCREEN:

($600) An entrepreneur: Anthony Michael Hall in “Pirates of Silicon Valley” & Steve Sires in “The Social Network”

($1000) A rock star: Aaron Taylor-Johnson in “Nowhere Boy” & Ian Hart in “Backbeat”

More clues on Page 2

2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “Snack Foods”

The name of this cracker that’s been around since 1903 suggests that it was baked 3 times. show

Click here to leave well wishes and prayers for Alex Trebek for continuing success in his battle against cancer. There’s also a link to where you can make a donation to pancreatic cancer research in his honor.

We may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases made from Amazon.com links at no cost to our visitors. Learn more: Affiliate Disclosure.

Share

You may also like...

11 Responses

  1. Stuart Shapiro says:

    Where’s the rage from Jeopardy fans? The final Jeopardy question was totally misleading. Panama City is in Panama which is Central America or to the crazy liberal people North America. But not South America!

    • VJ says:

      Stuart, idk where you are getting South America from???

      The category was Western Hemisphere Geography and the clue specified Central America

      • Albert says:

        VJ is correct. It was a straightforward question for the Final.

        Related to nerves: Are players allowed to have a bottle/cup of water at the podium? I assume yes, but I don’t know for sure.

        • Kevin S. says:

          Not during game play. Bottled water is provided during commercials. However, they also remind you that bathroom breaks only come at the end of the episode.

  2. Ryan McClelland says:

    So Priscilla becomes the second player this season as well as the first player of 2020 to not participate in Final J! What a bummer! How could this game be as hard as it is?

    Also, I was so concerned that Veronica would be the only player to play Final J!. Oh well, these things do happen quite often so no big deal about it.

  3. VJ says:

    I don’t see what’s so shocking about it. We see a lot of games where one player can’t get a toehold in the game and it happened to two players today. It looked to me like Priscilla was having buzzer trouble and the frustration and pressure just unnerved her.

    Too many triple stumpers today and yesterday. That does not bode well for Veronica if she makes it to the ToC.

  4. Ismael Gomez says:

    Shanu missed all 3 DDs resulted a skunking. Just like what Porter from the 2016 Teen Tournament did.

  5. Lou says:

    Negative 5400? Wow, I’ve never seen such an embarrassing score since Kristen Sausville’s second jeopardy game where both of her opponents ended up with negative scores back in March 2015. That was a lot of bad guessing. I wish that they had done better.

  6. Richard Corliss says:

    Gee. That game sure wasn’t nice to Shanu & Priscilla.

    This game had it’s ups and downs.