Final Jeopardy: European Cities (4-30-19)

Today’s Final Jeopardy question (4/30/2019) in the category “European Cities” was:

Founded, according to tradition, in 11 B.C., this former capital lies about halfway between Paris & Berlin

18x champ James Holzhauer, a pro sports gambler from Las Vegas, NV, has won $1,329,604 now. In Game 19, he is up against: Jason Lai, a financial risk consultant from Duluth, GA; and Libby Wood, a marketing writer from Seattle, WA.

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

Round 1 Categories: U.S. Presidents – That’s a Novel Place – “Super” Entertainment – Taste Sensations – Brooklyn – 9…9

Just like yesterday, James found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Brooklyn” under the $1,000 clue on the very first pick of the round. Nobody had any money. He bet the $1,000 max and he was RIGHT.

The edifice built as Brooklyn City Hall is now called this, reflecting Brooklyn’s status within New York City. show

James finished in the lead with $12,600. Libby was second with $3,000 and Jason was last with $1,200.

Round 2 Categories: It’s All In Your Head – Lesser-Known Names – Video Games – Stage Craft – American Gods – Crossword Clues “G”

James found the first Daily Double in “Lesser-Known Names” under the $1,200 clue on the 5th pick. He was in the lead with $19,400 now, $16,400 ahead of Libby in second place. He bet $11,914 and he was RIGHT. Alex said: “… and that’s what you’ve been demonstrating on this show with you as our champion.”

It was philosopher Herbert Spencer, not Darwin, who coined this 4-word phrase that sums up natural selection. show

James found the last Daily Double in “Stage Craft” under the $1,600 clue on the 11th pick. In the lead with $36,114, he had $33,114 more than Libby in second place. He bet $9,812, and he was RIGHT.

Captain Corcoran is in command of this title Gilber & Sullivan ship. show

James finished in the lead with $56,726. Libby was next with $7,400 and Jason was in third place with $6,400.

Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.

WHAT IS BONN?

Berlin was Germany’s capital before the country was divided into East and West Germany following World War II. The Berlin Wall divided that city into East and West as well. As a result, Bonn was designated West Germany’s capital and would remain so until German reunification in 1990. From Thoughtco.Com: “Following unification, Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, began initially meeting in Bonn. However, under the initial conditions of the Unification Treaty between the two countries, the city of Berlin was also reunified and became, at least in name, the capital of reunified Germany. It wasn’t until a narrow vote of the Bundestag on June 20, 1991, of 337 votes for Berlin and 320 votes for Bonn that it was decided that the Bundestag and many government offices would ultimately and officially relocate from Bonn to Berlin.”

Before that on 1/19/1988: WORLD CAPITALS ($600) While Bonn is the capital of West Germany, this is the capital of East Germany



Jason wrote down Bern (Switzerland). He lost his $1,001 bet, leaving him with $5,399.

Libby wrote down “Congrats to James.” She lost $5,401 for a $1,999 finish.

James got it right. He bet $40,000 and won this game with $96,726. That’s No. 5 in single game winnings in Jeopardy’s Hall of Fame and knocks Ken Jennings off that column. James’ 19-day total is $1,426,330. He is also tied with David Madden in Consecutive Games Won.

Final Jeopardy (4/30/2019) James Holzhauer, Jason Lai, Libby Wood

A triple stumper from each round:

THAT’S A NOVEL PLACE ($400) A rum drink, or a 1998 Elmore Leonard novel

STAGE CRAFT ($1200) The musical “Anything Goes”, set on an ocean liner, has a song with this appropriate French title

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

This woman was created & given to Epimetheus as punishment for his brother’s actions. show

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21 Responses

  1. Nan F says:

    I’m hoping he breaks a record by answering every single question himself. That would be exciting!! Rooting for this home boy. (I’m from Downers Grove)

  2. rhonda says:

    Alex is going to be on Good Morning America tomorrow, in an interview with Robin Roberts.

  3. John Christian Ambion says:

    Well, we start Eurovision month with James’s 19th win after giving us a heart attack. He now got his “swag” back on track. Well, next week, he won’t be there because of the two-week Teachers’ Tournament and will clash with the Philippine midterm elections and the 2019 Eurovision Song Contest. I hope he wins the next three.

    And to Libby, well done defying the producers’ treasonous act.

  4. Norma Scheppmann says:

    In Nocona Texas, the weather in Wichita Falls was bad, so the weather took over local programming…I didn’t get to see Jeopardy today, however, I did a search to see who won…Glad you won again…This Texan is rooting for you…

    • VJ says:

      Hi Norma, hope your weather is getting better and not worse. It’s pretty windy down here in Houston, but at least it’s not hailing! (That happened a week or so ago)

      LINK: 10 more clues from this game

  5. JJ says:

    Mid point of trip from NYC to LA w/out cking out a map… Nebraska? Maybe Omaha area?

    • John B./I. says:

      @JJ
      Depends whether you drive or just draw a line on a map. A straight line would be a liitle south of NE, inside of Kansas, somewhat west of KC. But the, when you fly, they take another route, using the curvature of the earth.Either way, a long ride….

  6. Adam says:

    He’d surpass Madden with a win tomorrow and tie Collins for #2. Had he lost his second game, which he says he nearly did, he’d have been long forgotten. Worked out.

    • John Christian Ambion says:

      Yep, and he dodged his biggest threat in the form of Adam Levin.

      • Bob Chang says:

        With the Teachers Tournament taking 2 weeks in May James could have 75 wins on July 31, provided Jeopardy runs every weekday until then. **IF** his high level continues, he avoids or overcomes another “Adam bomb”, AND a little luck, he’d be at 32 wins after May, pass Ken’s regular games winnings after 34 (projected at current rate) wins and finish June with 52 wins. With 75 wins at appropriate $75k per game he’d be way past Ken and Brad Rutter,even without tournament winning, a projected $5,625,000!

  7. William Weyser says:

    No offense, but I’m still waiting for the ”It Had To Happen” day for James, and I don’t know when it’s going to happen.

    • Bob Chang says:

      Yes, it will have to happen eventually as it did for Ken, but I hope it happens not to quickly, so we can enjoy James’ genius more, hopefully for at least May and June, so he can threaten the 74 game record!!!

      • William Weyser says:

        We will see James on the 1st day of May tomorrow, as he looks to tie with Julia Collins for 2nd Most Wins In JEOPARDY! History. Can he do it? We’ll find out tomorrow, and to quote James Holzhauer: ”Julia, I’m coming for you!”.

    • Richard Corliss says:

      Hopefully in November.

      • William Weyser says:

        I don’t know about that, but I do believe that November of this year will be the month when JEOPARDY! will do the Tournament Of Champions, and if that’s the case, this will be the last tournament of the 2010’s.

  8. Lou says:

    Well James finally got his mojo back after escaping a narrow defeat yesterday. Still I was surprised that one of his opponents congratulated him. We’ve never had that happen before since his fifth game. Now that James surpassed Madden, he is certainly close to passing Julia Collins. Glad James got today’s final right. I wonder why jason chose Bern when it wasn’t a part of Germany’s reunification John and VJ?

    • John B./I. says:

      @lou
      The FJ clue did not specify the country of the capital. Could have been Switzerland, and Bern is the de facto capital of Switzerland. The Swiss don’t have a de iure capital!!
      You have to have a map of Europe before your eyes and the biggest cities halfway between Paris and Berlin ( and was capital of the Francian Empire) are Frankfurt/Main and Bonn.
      But the FJ clue said “about halfway”. How many in the U.S. would know offhand what city lies “about halfway” between NYC and L.A. w/o looking at a map? It would be somewhere around west of Kansas City, some 300-400 miles west of KC, just on a map, not when you have to drive. Leave alone Europe. Germany (first West Germany and then the reunited Germany after the fall of the USSR) was implied and James picked up on that.But if you take a map and draw a straight line between Paris and Berlin you cross a line that is equally distant from Bonn and Frankfurt/Main as the crow flies. And as VJ pointed out above, it was a close call to keep Bonn as capital or make the -also reunified- Berlin the new German capital.
      Bern…too far south. You connect Paris, Bern and Berlin and you have an almost perfect
      equilateral triangle, tilted to the right (east), not perfectly upright but a perfect triangle nevertheless.
      Hope that Helps!