Master Minds Recap: April 24, 2020

Here’s a recap of the clues on Master Minds for Friday, April 24, 2020 with host Brooke Burns.

Today’s episode title: “Trivia, Smarts & A Horse’s Height”
Today’s Master Minds: Ken Jennings, Muffy Marracco, Jonathan Corbblah
Today’s challengers: Fiona, Chris, Alex

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) SECURITY: If someone sends a deceptive e-mail in an attempt to gain confidential information, what are they doing?
(a) trolling (b) phishing (c) planking
(2) HANDIWORK: What craft involves sewing smaller pieces of fabric to larger ones to create decorative patterns?
(a) appliqué (b) batik (c) felting
(3) TRAINS: Connecting Moscow to the Far East, what is the longest passenger railway in the world?
(a) Orient Express (b) Trans-Siberian Railway (c) Trans-Eurasia Corridor
(4) BIG BANDS: Bandleader Tommy Dorsey was best known for playing what brass instrument?
(a) trumpet (b) tuba (c) trombone
(5) HORSES: Alexander the Great rode which famous horse during the Battle of Hydaspes?
(a) Pegasus (b) Bucephalus (c) Incitatus
(6) MESSAGING: Which came first?
(a) UPS (b) fax machine (c) zip code
(7) NATIONAL PARKS: With a vertical drop of almost half a mile, the tallest waterfall in the continental U.S. is found in what national park?
(a) Olympic (b) Yosemite (c) Grand Canyon

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Scores at end of Round 1:
Fiona 600 Chris 600 Alex 500 / Ken 700 Muffy 500 Jonathan 700

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) CANADA: The first formal declaration of war in Canada’s history was made against which country?
(2) FICTION: In literature, Mildendo is the capital of what land inhabited by little people?
(3) AIR TRAVEL: If you just landed at John Lennon Airport, you’re in what city?
(4) ATHLETES: Monica Abbott became the first woman to sign a million dollar contract to professionally play what U.S. team sport?
(5) GEOGRAPHY: Which of America’s five Great Lakes gets its name from an Iroquois word meaning ‘sparkling water’?

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Scores at end of Round 2:
Fiona 800 Chris -400 Alex 500 / Ken 900 Muffy 500 Jonathan 900

Chris 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.

Fiona and Alex go first:

(500) In Greek mythology, Prometheus was punished by the gods for giving what gift to humans?
(600) On the Mohs scale of mineral hardness, what non-metal is the softest?
(700) Darjeeling tea leaves are named for a region in what country?
(800) What iconic TV actress financed “Star Trek” as the first female CEO of a major TV production company?
(900) The name of what type of comforter comes from a French word referring to ‘down feathers’?
(1000) A polliwog is another name for what?
(1100) If you’re watching a classic movie on VHS, what does ‘VHS’ stand for?
(1200) The most abundant in the human body, what protein is responsible for giving skin its elasticity?

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Scores at end of Round 3:
Fiona 800 Alex 4200

Alex 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 Alex.

(500) What Italian city, the birthplace of Antonio Stradivari, is considered the world capital of violin making?
(600) Gangster Al Capone was convicted of what crime, eventually sending him to Alcatraz?
(700) The parent company of what telecommunications grant trademarked the color magenta?
(800) What is the name of the secretive process used to elect new popes?
(900) A standard roux consists of butter and what?
(1000) Started in 1966, the annual 50-hour Great Midwest Trivia Contest is hosted by what Wisconsin University?
(1100) Whose 1952 composition instructs the musician to not play for four minutes and 33 seconds?
(1200) Who was the most recent U.S. President to be regularly seen with facial hair?

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Ken finished with 6000 to Jonathan’s 900 so Ken will join Alex in the Ultimate Trivia Challenge. If Alex beats Ken, she 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 individually and they say their answers out loud.

(1) The circus is a no-go for people with coulrophobia, the fear of what?
(2) In standard Scrabble, what is the only four-letter English word that can be made with the two highest-scoring tiles?
(3) What name is given to the oldest U.S. holiday honoring the end of slavery?
(4) In 2018, which of the Dow Jones’ original companies was dropped from the index?
(5) Covering the largest land area of any other house of worship, the world’s largest church is in what country?

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

Alex got 3 right. Ken got 4 so she is going home with $1,000 and there will be 3 new players on Monday.

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.)

See the pool of trivia experts participating in Master Minds