Master Minds Recap: November 15, 2023

Here’s a recap of the clues on Master Minds (Season 4) for Wednesday, November 15, 2023 with host Brooke Burns

Today’s episode title: “Trivia, Smarts & Teenagers”
Today’s Master Minds: Mark “The Beast” Labbett, Muffy Marracco, Cliff Galiher
Today’s challengers: Ryan, Mae, Jen

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) MUSIC: With songs like “Jamaica Farewell” and “Day-O”, Harry Belafonte earned what nickname?
(a) King of Calypso (b) Gent of Jamaica (c) Sultan of Salsa
(2) MONEY: What animal appears on the back of a Canadian quarter?
(a) caribou (b) beaver (c) raccoon
(3) NATURE: A stretch of the Palquella Pucamayu River in Peru has what unique characteristic during the rainy season?
(a) it flows uphill (b) it’s cherry red or pink (c) it’s louder than a jet
(4) TECH: Who was the first celebrity voice option for Amazon’s cloud-based digital assistant Alexa?
(a) Morgan Freeman (b) Gilbert Gottfried (c) Samuel L. Jackson
(5) LITERATURE: In reference to a Robert Frost poem, what are Johnny Cade’s last words to Ponyboy in S.E. Hinton’s “The Outsiders”?
(a) be strong (b) call it a day (c) stay gold
(6) HISTORY: Who was the only U.S. president to serve in the House of Representatives after he was president?
(a) Millard Fillmore (b) John Quincy Adams (c) Franklin Pierce
(7) ETIQUETTE: According to Miss Manners, when a man and a woman walk in the rain, which person should hold a shared umbrella?
(a) the man (b) the woman (c) the taller of the two

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Scores at end of Round 1:
Ryan 200 Mae 400 Jen 200 / Beastie 400 Muffy 500 Cliff 500

Round 2: There are 5 subjects and questions. No multiple choice. Correct answers are worth 200 points for the first 4. The last question is worth 400 points. At the end of the round, the person with the lowest score on each team is eliminated.

((1) TV: Adapted from the post-apocalyptic video game of the same name, what TV show broke HBO streaming records in its first season?
(2) GARDENING: What propagation technique involves uniting two plants into a single plant to ensure desirable characteristics of each?
(3) SPORTS: In Olympic fencing, the three disciplines concern the saber, epee, and what other sword?
(4) FASHION: The flat-topped hat, known as a fez, is named for a city in what North African country?
THE ARTS: William Wegman is most famous for his photographs of what breed of dog, often seen wearing clothes?

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Scores at end of Round 2:
Ryan 800 Mae 800 Jen 800 / Beastie 1200 Muffy 1500 Cliff 1300

CONTESTANT TIE-BREAKER: In a courtroom, the judge traditionally holds a little mallet called a what?
ANSWER show

Ryan and Mae buzzed in first with the right answer.

Jen and Beastie are eliminated.

Ryan and Mae advance to the next round, as do Muffy and Cliff.

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.

Ryan and Mae go first:

(500) What recurring sketch on “Saturday Night Live” serves as a fake, comedic newscast?
(600) What Levi Strauss lot number, originally assigned to copper-riveted waist overalls in the 1890s, is still in use today?
(700) The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is an official within what department of the United States cabinet?
(800) Before his overthrow, Juan Peron was the
president of what South American country?
(900) What term is used for the collection of ordered dance pieces performed in a concert like “The Nutcracker”?
(1000) A flying boat with a wingspan of 320 feet, the “Spruce Goose” was built by what business magnet?
(1100) Shunning toy stores, the creators of the “Cranium” board game initially sold their product through what coffee chain?
(1200) Rediscovered in 1812, what lost city in Jordan was named one of the Seven New Wonders of the World?

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Scores at end of Round 3:
Ryan 2500 Mae 3800

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

(500) Used in horse riding, what term refers to a spiked wheel on the back of a cowboy boot?
(600) In its logo, the San Jose company Cisco uses a rendering of what bridge to the north?
(700) What partly hollow structure connects the middle ear to the throat to help equalize air pressure inside your ears?
(800) In the 1930s classic film “Grand Hotel”, what Swedish-American actress utters the immortal line, “I want to be alone”?
(900) Contrasted with the anode, the end of a standard cylindrical battery with the metal bump is called a what?
(1000) Featuring two homicidal aunts, what dark comedy by Joseph Kesselring has a toxic element in its title?
(1100) Used in ice cream, carrageenan is an additive that’s obtained from a red variety of what type of marine life?
(1200) According to Matthew 5:5, who shall inherit the Earth?

CORRECT ANSWERS show

Muffy finished with 6200 to Cliff’s 2500 so Muffy will join Mae in the Ultimate Trivia Challenge. If Mae beats Muffy, Mae will win $10,000 and return on the next show. Any player who makes it through 2 shows and wins $20,000, 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 character’s balloon has appeared the most times in Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?
(2) First performed in 1904, what famous Puccini opera features snippets of music from “The Star-Spangled Banner”?
(3) William Shakespeare is credited with creating what common girl’s name, an anglicized form of the Hebrew name “Iscah”
(4) Gustave Eiffel originally pitched his famous tower to what Spanish city, but they thought it was too ugly?

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

Muffy got 3 right to one for Mae. Mae is going home with $1,000 and we will see 3 new challengers tomorrow.

FYI: If you see someone on Master Minds that you think was on Jeopardy!, you can look up their player page on J-Archive. JBoard keeps track of Jeopardy! contestants’ appearances on their Master Minds thread. Also, IMDB has a list of many contestants that includes their last name.

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