Final Jeopardy: Islands (12-31-14)
The Final Jeopardy question (12/31/2014), in the category “Islands” was:
Present name of an island settled by Europeans in the 1490s, today the most populous island in the Americas.
3x champ Vaughn Winchell has won $66,502 so far. In the last game of the year, he is going for a fourth win against these two players: Jennifer Harris, originally from Houston, TX; and Zamir Ahmed , from Washington, DC.
Round 1: Vaughn found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Name Your Poison” under the $800 clue. He just got in the lead and had $3,400, $200 more than Jennifer in second place. He bet $1,400 and he was RIGHT.
Angry Orchard, Adam’s Revenge. show
Vaughn finished in the lead with $4,800. Zamir was second with $3,400 and Jennifer was last with $2,800.
Round 2: Vaughn found the first Daily Double in “Poetic Last Lines” under the $1,200 clue. He now had a solid lead with $5,600, $2,000 more than Jennifer in second place. He bet $2,000 and he was RIGHT.
A poem by him ends “and then my heart with pleasure fills and dances with the daffodils.” show
Jennifer found the last Daily Double in “Places of Fable” under the $1,600 clue. In second place with $6,000, she had half of Vaughn’s lead. She bet $2,000 and thought it was Crete. That was WRONG.
This island was said to be ruled by Morgan Le Fay & her 8 healing sisters. show
Vaughn finished in the lead with a runaway $14,800. Zamir was next with $5,800 and Jennifer was in third place with $5,600.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
Hispaniola is the 22nd-largest island in the world, the second largest island in the Caribbean after Cuba, the 10th most populous island in the world, and the most populous in the Americas, counting the combined population of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Taken alone, Cuba has a greater population than either country on Hispaniola.
“The island was called by various names by its native people, the Taíno Amerindians. When Columbus took possession of the island in 1492, he named it Insula Hispana, meaning “the Spanish island” in Latin and La Isla Española, meaning “The Spanish Island”, in Spanish. (wikipedia)
Jennifer got it right. Her $1,400 bet brought her up to $7,000.
Zamir thought it was Cuba. That cost him $5,400 and he wound up with $400.
Vaughn also thought it was Cuba. He lost $3,000 but he won the match with the $11,800 he had left. His 4-day total is $78,302.
Happy New Year’s Eve to everyone.
2 years ago:: TWO of the players got this FJ in “Baseball Stadiums”
This Major League Baseball team’s current stadium was built for a 20th century Olympics. show
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final p.s. for the year:
if jennifer had bet it all and she and zamir had been right, they would have been tied..????
but i guess since it was a runaway they did not care. i believe they also did not announce officially yet that ties are not allowed anymore, or did i miss that?
You missed it. Keith Williams announced on Final Wager last month that as of November 24 there are no more ties allowed on Jeopardy.
then how come, they were allowed to play for a tie? probably because it was already out of reach anyway? but are they allowed to tie for second place? but i guess there are the tiebreakers who gets the 2K and the 1K.
They can play for ties all they want — but there are not going to be any co-champs the next day because they will have a tie-breaker. So the incentive to do so is no longer there. No double paydays.
Ties between second and third never resulted in both getting $2K.
It’s true that this was announced by Keith and on Jboard but, far as I have seen, it has never been announced on the show.
2 correct DDs, a runaway, a little slip in fj. still, a deserved win, congratulations and i hope he can keep going in 2015…
speaking of which:
HAPPY NEW YEAR to everybody in our little community, and a happy and peaceful 2015 to everyone on earth!if mankind needs anything, it’s peace.
i want to thank everybody for a pleasant year in your company, even if we sometimes disagreed a little. but that makes us human beings and not robots. take care, stay safe and i am looking forward to another year in your company. a special thanks to VJ, without her incredible work and passion this site would not be possible !!
HAU’OLI MAKAHIKI HOU and feliz novo ano, Cece!
if you are strictly technical, long island is the most populous island…..
buit then, it was not settled by europeans in the 1490s…
Glad you caught your mistake. Nothing like afterthoughts.
John, you’re usually right, so I’m curious as to how you calculated that Long Island is more populous than Hispaniola.
According to Wikipedia:
Hispaniola pop. = 19,450,000
Long Island pop. = 7,700,000
my mistake. i was thinking of puerto rico at the moment when i wrote it. still did. thanks for pointing it out!
Vaughn keeps rolling along. Great way for him to enter the new year.