Final Jeopardy: Monarchs (5-13-14)
The Final Jeopardy question (5/13/2014), in the category “Monarchs” was:
2 teen Hashemite cousins officially took the thrones of their respective countries May 2, 1953: Faisal of Iraq & him.
In the second match of the Battle of the Decades Semi-Finals, Brad Rutter (00s) takes on the two highest scoring Wild Card winners: Tom Cubbage (80s), and Leszek Pawlowicz (80s).
During the chat, Alex asked the players how they would spend $1M if they won. Leszek wanted to visit Australia and then tour National State Parks in the West. Tom agreed with Alex that he would need to put it towards the college educations of his 5 children. Brad said he’d like to replace the Porsche he lost at Hollywood & Western a couple of years ago.
Round 1: Brad found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Actresses” under the $800 clue. He was in the lead with $4,400, $3,200 ahead of Tom in second place. Alex told Brad that Ken Jennings had the exact same amount when he hit the Jeopardy! round DD yesterday and bet it all, so Brad made it a true Daily Double too, and he was RIGHT.
This portrayer of the screen’s classic southern belle was born in India to British parents. show
Brad finished in the lead with $13,800. Tom was second with $3,400 and Leszek was last with nothing.
Round 2: Brad found the first Daily Double in “State Facts” under the $1,200 clue. He was in the lead with $20,600, $17,200 more than Tom in second place. He bet $5,000 and he was RIGHT.
This state is nicknamed the “corporate capital”. show
Brad found the last Daily Double in “Libraries” under the $2,000 clue. He now had a stupendous $32,400. That was $27,800 more than Tom, still in second place. He bet $2,000 and thought it was Texas A&M. That was WRONG.
The George W. Bush Presidential Library is on the campus of this University. show
Brad finished in the lead with $32,800. Tom was next with $6,600 and Leszek was in third place with $5,200.
ALL of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right, as you might expect, since Jordan is officially known as the “Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.” Maybe they could have increased the difficulty level by going for the last Iraqi King.
Faisal II, the last King of Iraq, was only 3 years old when his father Ghazi died in 1939. His uncle ‘Abd al-Ilah served as regent until Faisal came of age on May 2, 1953. Both were assassinated in the 14 July Revolution of 1958. Faisal’s second cousin, Hussein I, was enthroned as the King of Jordan on May 2, 1953. His father, Talal, had abdicated in his favor the previous year due to mental health problems. After a 46-year rule, Hussein died in 1999 following a long bout with lymphatic cancer. His son Abdullah II is the current King of Jordan. The Hashemite Royals claim descent from the Prophet Muhammad. See their family tree on the Government of Jordan’s website dedicated to King Hussein.
From 1997: WASHINGTONIANS ($400) Lisa Halaby, born in D.C. in 1951, married King Hussein & became Queen Noor of this country
Leszek bet $5,199. He finished with $10,399.
Tom bet $1,992 and finished with $8,592.
Brad didn’t bet anything but then, he didn’t have to. Do you see a new Porsche in his future?
No nail-biting on this one for Brad fans, but it must have been painful to watch for fans of Tom and Leszek!
2 years ago:: TWO of the players got this FJ in “Museums”.
Completed in 1959, it’s been variously described as a snail, a concrete tornado, even a giant wedding cake. show
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Thanks, Tom Clark, for reiterating your previous point about the overkill of having multi-million dollar Jeopardy celebrities return for a chance at another million dollars worth of nest feathering. I agree with you on principle that Jeopardy is at its best when it’s not attempting to parade celebrity champions in the interest of ratings.
On another note, should I assume that Colby Burnett is going to experience an upset win over Roger Craig tonight based on VJ’s earlier “premonition”, or the fact that someone calling himself “Colby Burnett” posted at this site recently stating, “It should be interesting”?
In any case, I would almost be willing to withdraw my (mild) criticism of this “Battle of the Decades”, Jeopardy ratings grab if someone other than Ken, Brad or Roger managed to win the tournament. That would be a genuine surprise, and might make for some memorable television.
Postscript: Among the great Jeopardy moments in recent memory had to be the Teen Tournament victory by Leonard Cooper in which he wagered “zero” (against conventional wisdom for the situation) and won the tournament with his response of, “Who is some guy in Normandy But I just won $75,000!”
Instant classic.
I picked up on that comment also by someone calling himself Colby and wondered the same thing. We shall find out tonight. Regarding bringing back Ken and Brad I think it’s about ratings. When they played against IBM’s Watson the ratings were up big time. What I don’t like is the interruption of the winning streak pattern of a player like Julia Collins. Bet the ratings were Iincreasing with her appearance. I do realize that Ken and Brad were already booked to return prior to her excellent winning streak but still it is good to see newer players like her.
as i posted below: it would be a hoot, if pam or colby would win today and then win the whole tournament (although i am a “ken fan “…..) THIS would upset the applecart. on the other hand, it would j make even more the talk of the town: “outsider beats projected winner”… like a 3 legged horse wins the kentucky derby. so in a way i am rooting for the 2 “outsiders” today. but in vain, i’m afraid!
Well, Roger is often entertaining with his typically huge Daily Double wagers, but it presents a potential opening on the occasion of a big miss. Overall, for the last seven games of this Battle of the Decades tourney the Daily Doubles have been relatively easy compared to the Final Jeopardy clues (which is the trend for Jeopardy in general, in any case), so it would be refreshing to see Roger get tripped up with a doozy of a DD, especially if it came on the second DD, late in the Double Jeopardy round and ended up costing Roger the lead going into Final.
Barring that, maybe Colby (or Pam for that matter) stays close enough with the Final Jeopardy clue being a triple stumper resulting in Roger’s toppling. One can certainly hope for it, and I think the odds for Roger winning tonight are maybe not as high as many might think.
overall and finally i found that today’s dds and fj were way easier than yesterday.
My point, which was apparently poorly stated since it was misunderstood by some here, was that the tournament setup results in the players who have won the most coming back to win even more — as opposed to having the weeks devoted to this Battle of the Decades — and this has taken FIVE weeks — be devoted to just normal Jeopardy shows, which will give a chance for some new people to maybe win a few bucks.
I’d rather see 100 people win $10,000 than see Ken or Brad win another million.
As has been pointed out, this is analagous to Powerball, where one person will win 500 million dollars, instead of 500 people winning one million. But that’s America for you — it’s not about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It’s about greed.
If the nuns who ran my high school were running Jeopardy, they wouldn’t let Ken-Brad-Roger win another dime! They wouldn’t let the Teachers Tournament winners in the TOC either.
They should make the Teachers’ prize one million.
Again, Tom, I think that your analogy is unfair. First, PowerBall stems from a regressive tax and takes absolutely no skill. Clearly, this is not the case here. Secondly, you will not see one hundred winners in five weeks of Jeopardy! You may end up watching Julia make a million dollars in that time. Thirdly, it wasn’t as if Ken or Brad received byes. As I mentioned earlier, Brad was less than a second from not advancing.
Now, in all fairness, I would be in favor of an emeritus status where players who have won a million or more can only play each other, with most of the proceeds going to the charity of their choice. My guess is that every one of these players would return.
There are so many better examples of greed on tv that absolutely verify your point (like vj’s example of oprah). Why pick on one that rewards people who are both intelligent and studious?
All of this provides an invitation to root for Colby (a teacher) and/or Pam (a role model for girls).
Okay, so I said that Brad was a good role model. Unfortunately, he has turned fairly L.A., but he still seems like a good guy with a lively personality. It’s funny how close he came (split second) to becoming eliminated in the first round: a hair slower and Mike Dupee halts the runaway and takes him in FJ. This really has been a fantastic tournament (except my favourite player got knocked out in the first round). Should we call it “May Madness”?
Brad seems the man to,beat. Ken has lost a step. I think both will equally know the amount of answers, but Brad is the all time money winner is much more faster on the button.
all time on j? didn’t ken overtake him again with that “are you smarter….” win in total game show winnings?? maybe ken’s “glitch” with that DD was a wake-up call for him. we shall see.
I believe that a lot will ride on Thursday’s FJ. Both (all) of them may (should?!?) go big then. If some miss, it could be tough to catchup. I don’t know who is the quickest on the buzzer, but if my game-theory analysis is correct, the speed may not be the telling factor.
I don’t see why not. There are no wild cards anymore, so knowing what the scores were in the previous games doesn’t make a difference. And, if it’s like other tournaments, the other contestants have been watching from the audience anyway.
Missed the point. Key is if you have a sure win,why risk? What he did was almost lose or win by a huge amount,and was somewhat lucky at the end, falling behind, when,he,had a sure win.Goal is 1 million, not a huge risky semifinal bet with 1 minute to play.
KEN got a little TOO overconfident on that Double, betting 6000 with a comfortable lead,,,missed it causing a run away to be close. 6000 when u r n TTL command is bad strategy & it was a 12,000 swing miss,,,still won.
I think that he had a little over 20G and the next closest was around 12G. So, I think that it was correct to try to put the game away. It would be, of course, foolish to risk the lead.
just as an afterthought: to pit brad against tom and leszek (or rather the other way around) seems just a liiiitle rigged to me. so tomorrow it will be roger vs. pam and colby, the 2 lowest wc players remaining. j certainly wants to make sure the “dream final” will happen : ken-brad-f pam or colby would win tomorrow!!!
this was supposed to say “ken-brad-roger”.then it was to be continued: wouldn’t it be a hoot if pam or colby would win tomorrow??!!
@#%$% keyboard and double @#$% to me for not proofreading. sorry!
a ken-brad-roger final will be more like a nightmare than a dream for me — especially if it prominently features Roger Craig’s penchant for buzzing in and then figuring out the answer! :-0
😀
was alex supposed to tell brad what ken had and wagered???? just wondering.
Sometimes Alex lets his mouth say things it is not supposed to and this was just another one of those times.
Really, just sometimes?
well, we all are not getting younger./ however , there is a thing called “editing”??? but overall i like alex, he IS a gentleman and has aged and adopted gracefully through the decades. but since no wild cards were involved anymore, it was maybe not THAT bad of a slip. however, he shouldn’t have said anything. overall i would give alex a 9 1/2 out of 10, especially compared to some other game show hosts. sajak is a distant second, also a nice guy privately. but then wheel is kind of a no brainer…..he must have night mares sometimes repeating the same things over and over and over (dave clark five….)