Good morning! Andy here with the October 30 recap!
Jeanie has been putting one year/two years/three years ago links, but I'm not quite sure how she's doing that, so I'm not going to. I'm sure I'll get a message from her within minutes of this post going up, though!
Neil Shah and Jennifer Spirko are the challengers for Sean Kram, who won $28,401 yesterday!
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In his opening, Alex mentioned something about a trip to the Galapagos. I'm confused, as I saw no further mention of it in the show!
J! round categories:
A PASSAGE TO INDIANA
GARDENING
SUPER BOWL-WINNING COACHES
HOMONYMS
LET'S TWIST AGAIN
LIKE WE DID LAST SUMMER
Sean did well in SUPER BOWL-WINNING COACHES, until he got tripped up by $800 (Chicago Bears). We also went through HOMONYMS, and parts of GARDENING and INDIANA before the first break. Clue #15 was A PASSAGE TO INDIANA $600 and it had the Daily Double! It was Sean's to play, and the scores were:
Jennifer $3,200
Sean $1,400
Neal $1,000
Sean bet $1,400. Clue: A log stockade made by a certain "mad" Revolutionary War general in 1794 gave this city its name. Sean said "Evansville" and zeroed out his score going into the first break. He gets a chance to regroup, though!
Neal Shah is a competitive pool player -- he does have his own two-piece cue, he's named it Veronica! Meanwhile...Jennifer's spelling bee trophy reads SPEILING BEE! Oops!
Meanwhile, Jennifer continued to ring in quickly after the break, and did well at the bottom of LET'S TWIST AGAIN and GARDENING! Neal's get on the $1,000 clue in Indiana broke the tie for second, leading to scores at the end of 30 of:
Jennifer $7,800
Neal $3,800
Sean $2,800
DJ! round categories:
SUE GRAFTON TEACHES THE ALPHABET
A "MAD" CATEGORY
THE LAW
THEIR BIBLICAL MAMAS
CULTURE AROUND THE WORLD
NEW YORK TIMES MOVIE REVIEWS
Jennifer did well to extend her lead at the start of the round, but an untimely neg or two kept pushing her score back to the chasing pack!
Remembering that Neal was introduced as an attorney, THE LAW $1600 had the first Daily Double. It was Neal's to play as well! Scores:
Jennifer $13,800
Neal $11,000
Sean $7,200
Neal wagered just $3,000. His clue: It's on you to give me this word preceding "probandi" in a legal phrase meaning "burden of proof". All Neal could come up with is "preponderance" and his score fell to $8,000. That awkward moment when the expert misses the question in his field...
Meanwhile, our contestants made no effort whatsoever to find the final Daily Double. Neal stumbled upon it under CULTURE $800. Let's see if he can forget about his past miss and play this like he's supposed to. Considering he only bet $3,000 in a bet on his own field, I can't see this being played right.
Scores:
Jennifer $13,800
Neal $10,000
Sean $7,200
Neal bet just $2,000. His clue: Drawing from the name of our motion picture capital, it's the name for India's movie industry. He did give the correct response this time, but only went to $12,000.
Meanwhile, Neal was forced to guess on the $2,000 clue -- which he missed -- dropping his score.
Scores going into Final:
Jennifer $13,400
Neal $10,000
Sean $7,600
FJ! category: INTERNET FIRSTS
FJ! clue: A broken laser pointer for $14.83 in 1995 holds this distinction
Sean 7600 + 7590 = 15190
Neal 10000 + 10000 = 20000
Jennifer 13400 + 6601 = 20001
It means Jennifer Spirko is our new champion. Neal's miss on the first Daily Double didn't cost him the game. His underbet on the $800 second one did.
$800 clues are easy. $800 Daily Doubles are not tougher. You need to take advantage of those opportunities and go huge on those easy questions. Not nearly enough contestants do. As Bob Harris wrote in "...Trebekistan": "Next question". Move on from your misses. They're in the past and you can't do anything about them. You need to play the next question as best you can. Neal didn't do that today -- and that's why Jennifer's the champ.
Jeanie has been putting one year/two years/three years ago links, but I'm not quite sure how she's doing that, so I'm not going to. I'm sure I'll get a message from her within minutes of this post going up, though!
Neil Shah and Jennifer Spirko are the challengers for Sean Kram, who won $28,401 yesterday!
J! round categories:
A PASSAGE TO INDIANA
GARDENING
SUPER BOWL-WINNING COACHES
HOMONYMS
LET'S TWIST AGAIN
LIKE WE DID LAST SUMMER
Sean did well in SUPER BOWL-WINNING COACHES, until he got tripped up by $800 (Chicago Bears). We also went through HOMONYMS, and parts of GARDENING and INDIANA before the first break. Clue #15 was A PASSAGE TO INDIANA $600 and it had the Daily Double! It was Sean's to play, and the scores were:
Jennifer $3,200
Sean $1,400
Neal $1,000
Sean bet $1,400. Clue: A log stockade made by a certain "mad" Revolutionary War general in 1794 gave this city its name. Sean said "Evansville" and zeroed out his score going into the first break. He gets a chance to regroup, though!
Neal Shah is a competitive pool player -- he does have his own two-piece cue, he's named it Veronica! Meanwhile...Jennifer's spelling bee trophy reads SPEILING BEE! Oops!
Meanwhile, Jennifer continued to ring in quickly after the break, and did well at the bottom of LET'S TWIST AGAIN and GARDENING! Neal's get on the $1,000 clue in Indiana broke the tie for second, leading to scores at the end of 30 of:
Jennifer $7,800
Neal $3,800
Sean $2,800
DJ! round categories:
SUE GRAFTON TEACHES THE ALPHABET
A "MAD" CATEGORY
THE LAW
THEIR BIBLICAL MAMAS
CULTURE AROUND THE WORLD
NEW YORK TIMES MOVIE REVIEWS
Jennifer did well to extend her lead at the start of the round, but an untimely neg or two kept pushing her score back to the chasing pack!
Remembering that Neal was introduced as an attorney, THE LAW $1600 had the first Daily Double. It was Neal's to play as well! Scores:
Jennifer $13,800
Neal $11,000
Sean $7,200
Neal wagered just $3,000. His clue: It's on you to give me this word preceding "probandi" in a legal phrase meaning "burden of proof". All Neal could come up with is "preponderance" and his score fell to $8,000. That awkward moment when the expert misses the question in his field...
Meanwhile, our contestants made no effort whatsoever to find the final Daily Double. Neal stumbled upon it under CULTURE $800. Let's see if he can forget about his past miss and play this like he's supposed to. Considering he only bet $3,000 in a bet on his own field, I can't see this being played right.
Scores:
Jennifer $13,800
Neal $10,000
Sean $7,200
Neal bet just $2,000. His clue: Drawing from the name of our motion picture capital, it's the name for India's movie industry. He did give the correct response this time, but only went to $12,000.
Meanwhile, Neal was forced to guess on the $2,000 clue -- which he missed -- dropping his score.
Scores going into Final:
Jennifer $13,400
Neal $10,000
Sean $7,600
FJ! category: INTERNET FIRSTS
FJ! clue: A broken laser pointer for $14.83 in 1995 holds this distinction
Sean 7600 + 7590 = 15190
Neal 10000 + 10000 = 20000
Jennifer 13400 + 6601 = 20001
It means Jennifer Spirko is our new champion. Neal's miss on the first Daily Double didn't cost him the game. His underbet on the $800 second one did.
$800 clues are easy. $800 Daily Doubles are not tougher. You need to take advantage of those opportunities and go huge on those easy questions. Not nearly enough contestants do. As Bob Harris wrote in "...Trebekistan": "Next question". Move on from your misses. They're in the past and you can't do anything about them. You need to play the next question as best you can. Neal didn't do that today -- and that's why Jennifer's the champ.