Final Jeopardy: Science (1-5-26)
The Final Jeopardy question (1/5/2026) in the category “Science” was:
Important in developing vaccines against TB, they were domesticated as a food source in the Andes region around 5000 B.C.
The Champions Wildcard Tournament kicks off today with Quarterfinal #1 and these 3 champs: Stella Trout, a software engineer orig. from Houston, TX; Bill McKinney, a hospitality exec from San Diego, CA; and Dargan Ware, an attorney & writer from Bessemer, AL.
Round 1 Categories: The Best & the Brightest – World Geography – Let’s Get “Wild” – 404 Page Not Found – Historic Names – ’90s No. 1 Hits
Stella found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “The Best & the Brightest” under the $800 clue on the 11th pick of the round. She was in second place with $1,400 now, half of Dargan’s lead. Stella bet it all and came up with Sun City. That was WRONG.
Founded in 1946, as a motel chain, this now-international hotel brand is appropriately headquartered in Arizona show
Dargan finished in the lead with $5,400. Bill was second with $2,000 and Stella was last with $1,400. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: Literary Beginnings – Lucky 13 Letters – Backwards – The Vikings – A Fluvial Category – A Performative Male
Stella found the first Daily Double in “The Vikings” under the $1,600 clue on the 1st pick. The scores were the same as above. Stella bet the $2,000 allowance and she was RIGHT.
The first evidence of European presence in America is an 11th c. Viking settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows on this island show
2 clues later, Stella got the last Daily Double in “Literary Beginnings” under the $1,200 clue. She was in second place with $3,400 now, only $800 behind Dargan (because he lost $1,200 on Clue #2). Stella made it a true Daily Double and she was RIGHT, much to her surprise!
Jorge Luis Borges’ story collection “A Universal History of Infamy” has been called the first book in this literary genre show
Stella finished in the lead with $16,000. Bill was next with $13,200 and Dargan was in third place with $2,600. All clues were shown.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT ARE GUINEA PIGS?
Guinea pigs (aka cuy aka cavy) have graced the dinner table in Peru and Ecuador for thousands of years, after being domesticated for that purpose as early as 5000 B.C. However, it was not until the late 1800s that Robert Koch, a German physician and microbiologist, discovered the bacterium M. tuberculosis through the use of guinea pigs. As we all know, the extent to which the guinea pig has been used for medical research is such that its name is practically synonymous with testing something out.
There seems to be other plausible responses to this clue. AI told me potatoes is another candidate. Chinchilla and llamas also came up! As far as I can figure out, guinea pigs and potatoes are the only ones that work for both parts of the clue. Maybe someone out there knows what excludes potatoes, but I don’t.
Dargan thought it was the llama. He lost $400 and finished with $2,200.
Bill wrote down guinea pigs and crossed it out. (He joked that he was trying to underline it! 🤣) Bill lost $1,000 and finished with $12,200.
Stella got it right. She bet $10,401 and won the game with $26,401. Stella is our first semifinalist.
A triple stumper from each round:
HISTORIC NAMES ($1000) In 48 B.C. this Roman got the title Master of the Horse (basically assistant to the dictator) but got sacked for not keeping order
THE VIKINGS ($1200) Made up of as many as 6,000 Vikings, the Varangian Guard were bodyguards & mercenaries for this empire’s rulers
2 years ago: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “STATE CAPITALS”
The 2 closest state capitals, at about 40 miles apart, one was founded by someone no longer allowed in the other show
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VJ, I’m stumped, too. At first I thought it might be the term domestication rather than cultivation but that idea was shot down pretty quickly in the first article I found. Then I thought about the date of 5,000 years ago. Potatoes WERE cultivated/domesticated before guinea pigs – as early as 8,000 years ago but that seems a very thin thread to distinguish the two. It’s too bad another contestant didn’t find that answer. A Jeopardy ruling would have been interesting. As always, I LOVE your notes and comments. Keep up the good work!
Stella! What a comeback. Dargan started out like a house afire, then burned himself repeatedly with one wrong answer after another. (And most of them sounded plausible to me.) I was absolutely awful tonight, getting only the middle DD on a guess and the “greetings” $2K stumper, and not a lot else.
It was another splendid game, and I performed a tad above average. Regarding the FJ, all I could come up with were mountain goats. No, I wasn’t aware that guinea pigs were served for dinner in Peru and Ecuador. Well, as far as I could see, I sure didn’t see any guinea pigs being served for dinner while I was vacationing in Mexico.
Congratulations to Stella Trout on becoming our 1st Semi-Finalist in this year’s Champions Wildcard Tournament, but remember. There are Wild-Card spots at stake. So, we’ll see if Bill’s score is enough, and who knows? Maybe, the $2,200 will be the cutoff, and Dargan will make it.
Semifinalists:
Stella Trout: $26,401
Wild cards:
Bill McKinney: $12,200
Dargan Ware: $2,200
With that, Stella is now our first automatic semifinalist. We’ll have to see if Bill and Dargan’s scores are enough to secure spots in the semifinals as wild cards.