Final Jeopardy: Current Television (6-12-14)
The Final Jeopardy question (6/12/2014), in the category “Current Television” was:
George Romero declined to direct a few episodes of this series, calling it “basically… just a soap opera.”
New champ Darren O’Connor defeated a 4x champ yesterday and won $14,400. Today he takes on these two players: Joe Keehnast, from Chicago, IL; and Katie Frank, from Poway, CA.
Round 1: Katie found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Politician Authors” under the $800 clue. She was in a tie for second place with Joe. Both of them had $1,000 less than Darren’s lead. She was doing very well in the category so naturally, she went for the True Daily Double and she was RIGHT.
In 2003, this onetime head of the State Department told her groundbreaking story in “Madame Secretary”. show
Katie finished in the lead with $8,000. Darren was second with $2,800 and Joe was last with $1,000.
Round 2: Darren found the first Daily Double in “Final Resting Places” under the $1,200 clue. He was in third place with $3,600, $6,400 less than Katie’s lead. He made it a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.
This author’s ashes were buried under a large walnut tree in front of his office on Ventura Blvd. In Tarzana, California. show
Darren found the last Daily Double in “Biblical Revelry” under the $1,200 clue. In second place with $10,400, he now was only $800 behind Katie’s lead. He bet $2,000 and he was RIGHT.
In Judges 16 the Philistines have a wild party (their last) to mock this hero. show
Darren finished in the lead with $16,000. Katie was next with $15,200 and Joe was in third place with $9,000.
TWO of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
George Romero, also known as “the Father of Zombies,” made the remark during an interview (November 2013) for “The Big Issue” with Steven MacKenzie. “Basically,” he said, “it’s just a soap opera with a zombie occasionally. I always used the zombie as a character for satire or a political criticism and I find that missing in what’s happening now.” Romero talked about the current zombie fascination, saying he has no idea “why they became so big. Zombies have become a huge business, an economic engine – that’s what can’t be stopped. They’re hot. As they say, zombies are trending” He also pointed out that he never called the creatures in “Night of the Living Dead” zombies. “To me back then, zombies were those voodoo guys who were given some sort of blowfish cocktail…. And they weren’t dead so I thought I was doing a brand new thing by raising the dead.”
Joe wrote down “The Bachelor,” and a big laugh was had by all. He lost his $6,400 bet and finished with $2,600.
Katy got it right. She wagered $15,000 and finished with $30,200.
Darren also got it right but only risked $4,000 so he finished second with $20,000.
So Katie Frank, a graduate student in communication studies who likes to embroider, is the new champ! During the chat segment, Katie mentioned that the latest embroidery project she finished was of Bela Lugosi as Dracula. Right there was a clue that she would get FJ! right. Way to go, Katie! The last time anyone broke the $30K mark was on June 4th when Sarah Fremgen won $31,400.
2 years ago:: NONE of the players got this FJ in “U.S. Top-Selling Albums”
The bestselling album of all time by a female is a 20 million seller by this woman who started singing at age 8 in Ontario. show
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Here’s something I was wondering last night. Jeopardy in the 80s and let’s say the average female contestant is around 30. These would generally be women who completed their education in the 70s — then as you progress through the decades, more barriers are broken, more opportunities opened… so maybe what we’re seeing is natural. Just a thought.
Also found a cool study resource with women’s milestones.
From that site:
–In 1986, women earned 30% of first professional degrees, up from 15 percent just 10 years earlier.
–By 1997, women are earning over 40% of medical, law and doctorate degrees.
It seems a waste of time to have to repeat something for — what? — the fifth time now, but I guess I have to because of the Joe Blows of this world.
a) For the first 30 years of this incarnation of Jeopardy’s existence, men have won much more than women.
b) The tournaments have featured men more than women to an alarming extent (the Battle of the Decades finals were 8 men and 1 woman).
c) This year, the theory goes, they’re trying to do something about it.
d) The something they’re doing about it, or so it has been suggested by others in addition to myself, involves some mild rigging such as:
e) Giving women champions weak competitors;
f) Giving them categories they’re good in;
g) Having their buzzers work slightly faster than the others (this is the most debatable “engineering”);
h) one of Julia’s male competitors visibly showed his frustration at what he seemed to think was his inexplicable inability to beat her on the buzzer;
i) etc. etc. etc.
This year, for the first time after 30 years — count ’em, 30! — women have been outperforming men by a sizable margin.
How did that happen? Huh?
If you DON’T allow any of the above to have any significance at all — if you can’t allow even the possible admission that something slightly fishy might be going on — then you’re the one with the agenda, not me.
Now, all I’ve done is report the state of affairs. All I’ve done is raise the question. Isn’t it interesting that so many see it as sexist? For all they know, I’m happy about it! Maybe I’m glad to see more women becoming Jeopardy champions.
But, no, I’m sexist, because the subject here is women, and it pushes some peoples’ buttons really hard and they respond in predictable, trite ways.
I do want to say in closing that on the list of things that truly concern me in the 21st century, whether Jeopardy champions are male or female comes in at Number 6,847,912.
I brought this whole thing up because I found it mildly interesting — not because I don’t believe women are intelligent and wonderful and deserving of the finer things in life, like winning lots of money on game shows.
And, yes, I’m kinda sorry I ever did bring it up, but life is a lot like Jeopardy this season — unfair, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
The first time rigging came up was during the BotD. john made a remark about the way the players were matched up on FJ: Monarchs. Then on FJ: Secretaries of State, the final game of the BotD, someone named Pat said it.
Lol. Man, you are a total conspiracy theorist.
As I don’t share your buzzer theory, w.r.t. (h), his frustration may have led to his inferior timing. The guy looked unnerved. They do say that it takes a while to get used to the buzzer timing, and by that time, Julia had to have honed anticipatory timing.
Katie looks like one smart cookie.
She and Sari were the ones that I thought looked the smartest. I play the odds that the women are smarter than the men. That’s been my experience.
“That’s right, the women are SMARTER!” (from song recorded by Harry Belafonte in 1956 – check out this youtube of Harry singing it to Julie Andrews)
Maybe Shelby will play well. I never know what to think about Austin.
It’s a slow night, get more sleep!
Have a good night.
i predicted yesterday that darren would not last. but i thought it would be because of stronger opponents.
i would be grateful, if somebody could explain to me his 4K wager??
as leader either bet nothing if you think you and the others won’t get it or guard against the nearest opponent. in his case his bet should have been 14.400 or 14.401.
2 x 15.200 = 30.440 (the max katie could end up with) minus his own score of 16.000=30.400 (plus 1.00 if he wants to win and just the 16K even if he allows his opponent a tie).
but 4.000???? was he so sure that katie would miss?? even then the amount of 4.000 makes no sense to me whatsoever. at least not to me. and this guy was champion, even if for just 1 day.maybe he smoked something during the break before fj and before he placed his final bet???he can kick himself 10.400 or 10.401 times on the way back to virginia.if he had wagered nothing and thought katie would miss,fine. but even then he should have wagered ZERO, not knowing whether HE would get fj. once you are in the lead before fj you are in control of your future, at least moneywise. gettin fj right of course is another question entirely. i wonder WHEN he realized how he goofed up? right away? or maybe he still doesn’t know? to add insult to injury, he had fj right and would have won with a “normal” bet.
Of course you’re right, but I would like to stress again that the most important thing that any player should study would be game theory (e.g. betting strategy). It’s the one thing that is way most likely to come up.
If anyone has an interest in learning, The Final Wager (although with which I sometimes disagree on the finer points) is a great way to learn. VJ has the link listed with the hometown howdies.
I don’t know what he was thinking, but I chalked it up to a lack of confidence in his own chance of getting FJ. Maybe he thought it would have to do with reality TV.
if he was feeling shaky, he should have wagered ZERO. after all, he was in the lead. at least don’t wager more than the amount of your lead, in case # 2 stays put.
The classic theory (rule #1 The Final Wager) dictates that the leader must always cover the second’s double up. The rule prevents this, the ultimate nightmare: a lead, a correct response, and an early exit. Given his poor math skills in the last game, it was no wonder. Oddly, if he had wagered correctly in the last game, he would’ve tied and maybe won today, but that is only a possibility.
No shame in missing today (that means I did also!, haha). Hope you had a good day anyway.
he did wager correctly yesterday. fortunately sari lost too much guarding against molly or he had a big enough lead, you can look at it either way. he kind of lucked out yesterday. but 4K today…..???a new variation of the cliff clavin theme i guess.but you are right. the ultimate nightmare. and it does not end here. you think he will ever be able to live this down, once he gets home?? i wonder how many “friends” are already licking their chops. i can’t remember if he is married, but if he is: oh boy…..almost grounds for divorce.
Check again John. He was in the same position yesterday: he should’ve bet 400 more (which, in that case, puts him into a tie). He could’ve been correct and gone home.
jeez, you don’t even should need game theory/strategy for that. that’s a math problem any 10 year old should be able to solve. i wonder what’s worse for him: blowing the game like this or facing all the comments his friends will hurl at him?? i certainly would not like to be in his shoes right now.
and you are right. if sari would have bet it all and she and darren would have been right, he would have been 400 bucks shy.
I didn’t get the FJ this morning, had to run a search to find the answer. Not having a TV sometimes becomes a drawback. I got two DJs today, thought it was Raymond Chandler on the Burroughs clue, then clicked on Show, and facepalm! :)… The Tarzana reference should have been obvious. But I think all three were rather easy.
What led to Darren’s downfall, I wonder. Inoptimal betting, fear, or what? I would like to get in his head for this one.
VJ, is there a regular page where we can discuss the CotD at dawn, brag if we got it, or admit that we didn’t. Please post a link if such a page exists.
Thanks.
Nomi, look on the sidebars – there is a link in the middle one with a stop sign that says Spoiler Talk: CotD. There is a link on the last sidebar under recent posts. I can’t guarantee they will always be up by dawn though.
Thanks VJ. I found it.
Thanks, VJ and Eric.
I’m glad that she doesn’t keep them around. I made a mess of the FJ a couple of days ago: truly ugly. In all fairness, at first, I do only give myself the real amount of time (trying to cut short for writing time). Only then do I give myself a second chance, but do not claim it unless it’s the first time. Practice well, play well.
Have a good night.
Thanks Eric.
Happy to help.