Final Jeopardy: U.S.A. (10-21-25)
The Final Jeopardy question (10/21/2025) in the category “U.S.A.” was:
When area codes were introduced 3 very populous areas got the ones quickest to dial: these 3 codes
2x champ Dargan Ware, an attorney & writer from Bessemer, AL, has now won $47,801. In Game 3 his challengers are: Elyse Erdman, a director of social media orig. from Hershey, PA; and Tom Devlin, an attorney from Washington, D.C.
Round 1 Categories: World Landmarks – Crudites – Words for the People – This, That & the Other Thing – Movie Prequels – Autumn Leaves
Tom found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Words for the People” under the $600 clue on the 7th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $4,400. In fact, he was the only one who had any dough. Tom bet it all and he was RIGHT.
This word for the rabble is classified 4F; Fs are half its letters show
Tom finished in the lead with $15,600. Dargan was second with $3,800 and Elyse was last with $600. All clues were shown. Ken mentioned that Tom had the highest scoring Jeopardy! round of this season before Double Jeopardy! began.
Round 2 Categories: The President’s Presents – Celebrities – Starts With a Doubled Vowel – Science – In Da Club – Get Rich or Die Tryin’
Dargan found the first Daily Double in “Get Rich or Die Tryin'” under the $1,200 clue on the 14th pick. He was in second place with $8,600 now, $18,000 less than Tom’s lead. Under the circumstances, Dargan felt his only choice was to bet it all. He did and he was RIGHT.
Harry Jones is a grifter after a payday who takes an interminable doze in this work, Philip Marlowe’s 1st full-length appearance show
On the very next pick, Dargan landed on the last Daily Double in “In Da Club” under the $1,200 clue. Having almost caught up in spectacular fashion, he had $17,200 now, $8,800 less than Tom’s lead. Dargan bet $9,000, he was RIGHT and presto, change-o, just like that, he was in the lead.
Founded in 1892, it originally focused on the conservation of some of California’s mountains show
Dargan finished in the lead with $31,800. Tom was next with $27,200 and Elyse was in third place with $1,000. All clues were shown.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT ARE 212, 213 and 312?
Way back in 1947, AT&T and Bell Laboratories developed the North American Numbering Plan (NANP) to facilitate direct long-distance dialing. The first two area codes assigned were actually 201 for New Jersey (where Bell Labs was located) and 202 for Washington, D.C. The numbers assigned to USA states with the most populous cities were 212 (NYC), 213 (Los Angeles) and 312 (Chicago). These 3 area codes were chosen for ease of dialing. You can see how easy they would be to dial on this rotary phone dial.
The codes originally covered much larger areas than they do now. 312, for example, covered the entire state of Illinois until 1989. Also, notice the letters under numbers 2-9. They were for the exchange codes for numbers before Bell Telephone switched to all digits. I loved the exchanges because there were less numbers to memorize and, at least where I lived, they indicated locations.
Elyse stood pat on her $1,000, and wrote “thanks for having me”.
Tom had 202, 212 and 222. Two were wrong (the D.C. code (202) and 222 (not in use). That cost him $4,601 and left him with $22,599.
Dargan had 312, 212 and 202. The D.C. area code tanked his otherwise correct response. He lost $23,200 and finished with $8,600. That made Tom Devlin the new Jeopardy! champ. Lordy! What a wild game that was!
A triple stumper from each round:
CELEBRITIES ($1200) Characters played by this actress include Maria, Anthea & Snow White
($1600) In 2019, this Oscar-winning British actress curated a photography exhibition called “Orlando”
2 years ago: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “AWARDS & HONORS”
As of 2023 the only 2 to win a Nobel Prize in Literature & an Academy Award were George Bernard Shaw & this singer-songwriter show
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I appreciate the info and your take on this, Jason. As to 202, I also picked it. I misunderstood the clue and thought they wanted the first 3. I knew 201 and 202 for sure. I applied for a job with Bell 🔔 that I didn’t get many phone calls ago. I was 16 and they told me to come back in a couple of years!
Anyway, 212 and 202 seem like logical choices if one isn’t acquainted with the why’s and wherefore’s of the system,
My mother-in-law worked for Pacific Telephone, or whatever it was called in the 50s and 60s, as an operator I believe. Probably in LA and not in Texas where she was born. One of her daughters worked there in the 70s and got some kind of lucrative buyout and hasn’t worked since.
Early on, it seemed like a quick blowout. Poor Elyse was sandwiched between two dynamos. I figured FJ was 212 (NYC) and 213 (LA) (I’ve lived in both places) but threw in 202 (DC only because I couldn’t think of Chicago’s. I have a close friend who lives in Chitown, but his is 773.
DDs weren’t too tough, but the first was the only one I got before the contestant answered it. Knew the Scandal actress; and the Beatles’ home club. I’d have to relinquish my dozen or so of their albums if I blew that one.
Dargan had some incredible luck with taking the lead there. Tom was just so lightning fast on the buzzer, I want to see him set more records
3/3 on DD and got FJ.It’s interesting that the two old guys both put 202. I have a special interest in the NANP, both because it’s numbers, and my mother worked at NY Telephone, eventually retiring from Verizon.
It was due to analog systems. That’s why the second number could only be 1 or 0. It wasn’t until digital systems came in that the second number could be higher. What’s also interesting is that, in the 90s, NYC created 917 expressly for pagers and cell phones. And, having lived in two of the 3 highest codes (808 and 809), that also makes me laugh. Here is another one: my ZIP code in Hawai’i was 96797. What if your handwriting is bad, and that second 7 is read as a 9? 96799 is — American Samoa, 2500 miles away!
That was the highest scoring game I’ve seen in my memory. I don’t recall James Holzhauer’s games, only the results after FJ. The first round was $20,000, and the second $60k. Incredible!
Concur, VJ – CRAZY game!!