Andy with a quick recap of today’s game before we get to today’s interview. It seemed as if some of our friends over at J! Board had some fun to make of some of the categories and difficulty of the game today!
FJ category: THE PRESIDENCY
FJ clue: Between January 1, 1841 & December 31, 1850 the U.S. had this many presidents, the most in a 10-year period (What is 6?)
Claudia Gray: 5000 – 5000 = 0
Regina MacDowell: 7800 – 7800 = 0
Ernest Nino-Murcia: 13600 – 2001 = 11599
Ernest will be back tomorrow as champion! I know a bunch of people will be sad to see Claudia go; she looked like this whole experience was a huge amount of fun for her!
Remembering that Fillmore took over in 1850 (and of course, the end of Van Buren’s term at the start of 1841) helped immensely to me getting the Final.
And now, as promised, the Q&A between Jeanie and Terry Kent from Monday’s episode!
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Jeanie: Hello, Terry. I think you did a lot of things right, like the champions: big true Daily Doubles, diving for high-value clues. I even thought you looked like David Madden, and that was early in the game! Anyway I lost too, and I’m sorry you did. I appreciate your willingness to answer questions for my blog.
How long have you been watching Jeopardy! How many times did you try out?
Terry: I’m a little embarrassed to say that I don’t watch the show with any regularity. I’m usually at work when it comes on. I tried out in 1990 for the teen tournament and passed the written exam to get to the mock games, but I wasn’t picked. After I moved to Los Angeles, I tried out in 2007, went to Culver City, but wasn’t selected. I tried again in 2010, and that resulted in my finally appearing on the show.
Jeanie: You talked about a wedding in your interview. Is that your own?
Terry: I got married April 14, 2012.
Jeanie: I was surprised that the Whitney Houston clue was a triple-stumper. Had she died yet when you taped?
Terry: No, taping was in February. My knowledge of pop music is much smaller than the general population.
Jeanie: Did you know the Final Jeopardy response?
Terry: Yes. Which made me feel better about wanting to use that last daily double to get ahead of Claudia before Final Jeopardy.
Jeanie: I was happy to see you back with the contestants and Mr. Trebek after the show ended. Are you sick of people asking what you talked about?
Terry: Not sick of being asked, because I would want to know if it had been someone else in that position. I was happy to be back on, lest people think that if you fail to make Final Jeopardy, you get kicked out of the studio.
Jeanie: Anything else you want to say?
Terry: I thought I needed to get a big lead at the end with that fatal daily double because I knew nothing about the remaining Terriers category, and I believe that the other two contestants were both big dog lovers. And if I was going to make a big wager, I might as well go all the way. And seeing myself, I think I only buzzed in on one of the Terriers questions. Claudia is a smart cookie and she deserved to win.
Jeanie: Thank you again.
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Thanks again to Terry for answering some of Terry’s questions. Here are the Tournament of Champions standings through June 6:
1. Monica Thieu $100,000 (College Champion)
2. Patrick Quinn $100,000 (Teacher’s Champion)
3. Jason Keller $213,900 (9 wins)
4. Joel Pool $116,800 (6 wins)
5. Dave Leach $98,054 (6 wins)
6. David Gard $84,700 (4 wins)
7. Dan McShane $62,001 (4 wins)
8. Patrick Morrison $80,701 (3 wins)
9. Francis Lansangan $78,401 (3 wins)
10. Joey Falco $53,999 (3 wins)
11. Beau Henson $51,203 (3 wins)
12. Claudia Gray $45,202 (3 wins)
13. Dan Adkison $37,400 (3 wins)
14. Jacob Silverman $35,998 (3 wins)
15. Jessamine Price $26,803 (3 wins)
Jeanie will have tomorrow’s recap, and I’ll be back with Friday’s show!