Master Minds Recap: December 30, 2020

Here’s a recap of the clues on Master Minds for Wednesday, December 30, 2020 with host Brooke Burns.

Today’s episode title: “Trivia, Smarts & Phoenicians”
Today’s Master Minds: Ken Jennings, Muffy Marracco, Jonathan Corbblah
Today’s challengers: Matt, Allyson, Lee

The show’s format pits 3 contestants against each other and 3 Master Minds against each other. There are 3 rounds and the contestant with the highest score wins $1,000 and faces off in the Ultimate Trivia Challenge against the winning Master Mind. If the contestant beats the Master Mind, the prize money goes up to $10,000.

Round 1: Here are the 7 categories and questions. 100 points for each correct answer.

(1) CARDS: In a game of Bridge who is partnered with “East” and seated directly across from them?
(a) North (b) South (c) West
(2) NEWSPAPERS: In Garry Trudeau’s long-running comic strip “Doonesbury”, to what did the title name refer?
(a) business (b) person (c) town
(3) GEOGRAPHY: The seafaring Phoenicians were based out of which modern day country?
(a) Egypt (b) Lebanon (c) Italy
(4) WHICH CAME FIRST – snap, crackle or pop?
(a) Snapchat (b) Crackle TV (c) Pop Tarts Crunch
(5) WORDS: Which of these as presented here is an ambigram?
(a) ambulance (b) racecar
(c) swims
(6) CATS: Purina says that when calculating a cat’s age, the first 2 years of a cat’s life are equal to how many of a human?
(a) 25 (b) 14 (c) 4x
(7) HISTORY: 19th century outlaw Harry Longabaugh was best known by what nickname?
(a) Black Bart (b) The Sundance Kid (c) Johnny Ringo

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Scores at end of Round 1:
Matt 500 Allyson 300 Lee 500 / Ken 700 Muffy 700 Jonathan 500

Round 2: There are 5 subjects and questions. No multiple choice. Only the first player on each team to buzz in gets to answer. Correct answers are worth 200 points for the first 4. The last question is worth 400 points. Wrong answers are penalized by the value of the question. At the end of the round, the person with the lowest score on each team is eliminated.

(1) MYTHS: In Arthurian legend what was the name of the mentoring wizard?
(2) DRINKS: Similar to licorice in flavor, which spice is used as a flavoring in the Greek cordial ouzo?
(3) GAMES: In the standard Staunton design of chess pieces, which one has a cross on the top?
(4) THE BIBLE: According to a general consensus of biblical scholars, what was the first miracle that Jesus performed?
(5) LEGALESE: Before a trial, potential jurors are selected through what process whose French name means “to speak the truth”?

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Scores at end of Round 2:
Matt 900 Allyson 500 Lee 1100 / Ken 1300 Muffy 700 Jonathan 700

MASTER MIND TIE BREAKER: What body is 400 times smaller than the sun but also 400 times closer to the Earth — making them both look the same size?

ANSWER: show

Jonathan buzzed in first with the right answer. Allyson and Muffy are eliminated.

Round 3: Each team faces off in a rapid-fire 1-minute trivia battle. The first question is worth 500 points and each additional question goes up an additional 100 points. The winners go on to the last round.

Matt and Lee go first:

(500) Playfully explaining a diatonic scale, the song “Do-Re- Mi” is from what movie musical?
(600) Deriving its atomic symbol from the Latin word “aurum”, what is the most ductile and malleable metal?
(700) Used in Indian cuisine, ghee is a clarified, ultra-rich version of what cooking ingredient?
(800) for almost 70 years. What Canadian province abutting British Columbia has claimed to be rat-free?
(900) In Russia, on what date is International Workers’ Day celebrated?
(1000) Also called kettledrums, what percussion instruments are “tuned” drums, meaning they can play different notes?
(1100) Samuel Adams is credited with giving what title to the deadly events of March 5, 1770?

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Scores at end of Round 3:
Matt 3300 Lee 4300

Lee wins $1,000 and advances to the Ultimate Trivia Challenge. But first, Ken and Jonathan will battle it out for a minute to see who joins Lee.

(500) Against popular opinion, Thomas Jefferson wrote that finding seashells in the Andes wasn’t proof of what biblical event?
(600) beginning in 1972, the train system known as “BART” served cities along what bay?
(700) based on a product it designed for the military, Bausch & Lomb began marketing what iconic sunglasses in 1937?
(800) In the novel by English author D.H. Lawrence, what is the name of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover”?
(900) Pumpernickel is a sour dough bread made primarily from what type of flour?
(1000) Which essayist wrote “Slouching Toward Bethlehem” and a memoir about her marriage titled “The Year of Magical Thinking”?
(1100) What aquatic mammals are known to hold hands while asleep in the water to avoid drifting apart?

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Ken finished with 5800 to Jonathan’s 1800 so Ken will join Lee in the Ultimate Trivia Challenge. If Lee beats Ken, he will return on the next show. Any player who makes it through 3 shows and wins $30,000, gets to join the Master Minds expert team.

Ultimate Trivia Challenge: The questions are presented to the players at the same time and they write their answers down.

(1) What daily event during the annual San Fermin Festival in Pamplona is known as “El Encierro”?
(2) Title 1, Chapter 4 of what southern state’s Code establishes the official pronunciation of the state?
(3) What cake decorating technique uses a metal-tipped bag to draw or write with icing or gel?
(4) Built by the Romans from thin panes of mica, “specularia” were early versions of what “colorful” buildings?
(5) Set in Harlem, what James Baldwin novel had a Memphis locale in its title?

ANSWERS: (unless otherwise indicated, both were correct)
show

Lee got 2 right to Ken’s 4. Lee is going home with $1,000 and there will be 3 new players tomorrow.

Master Minds airs daily on Game Show Network. Check your local listings for times. (Here in the Central Time Zone it comes on at 3:00 p.m.)

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