Final Jeopardy: Playwrights (12-5-11)
The Final Jeopardy question (12/5/2011) in the category “Playwrights” was:
For a 1953 play, he spent time in Salem doing research at the courthouse & at the witch house.
Friday’s champion, Bhibha Das, returned today to take a shot at beating these two contestants: Brendan Barnwell from California, and Scott Russell from Virginia.
Not long after getting out of the hole, Bhibha found the Jeopardy! Daily Double in “Monograms in Fashion.” She was in last place with $1,200 and did not hesitate to risk it all. It was easy and she was RIGHT.
In 2010, she launched a children’s line: Yeah, Yeah Yeah: SM. show
There was one clue left on the board and Brendan got that one. He was in the lead with $5,000. Bhibha now was second with $2,400 and Scott was last with $1,400.
Bhibha got the first Double Jeopardy Daily Double in “Health and Medicine.” She now had $5,200 and boldly risked it all. It was not quite the no-brainer that she encountered earlier but she still got it RIGHT, giving her a $3,400 lead over Brendan.
“A transplant rejection problem, GVH stands for graft versus this.”show
Brendan got the last Daily Double in “Word Origins.” With $9,800, he chose to risk $3,000. He took a wild guess with “crude” but that was WRONG, bringing him down to $6,800.
“From the Italian for ‘of a cave’, this adjective today refers to anything strange or ugly.” show
Bhibha could have just coasted with the $15,200 she had at this point, but she picked up some more moolah on 3 clues before the buzzer went off, leaving 2 clues on the board. She was unbeatable with $19,200. Brendan was second with $8,000, and Scott was last with $2,600.
Before reading the clue, Alex noted that the category didn’t specify whether the playwright was American or foreign. All 3 contestants got the Final Jeopardy answer correct:
WHO IS ARTHUR MILLER?
The play that Arthur Miller went to Salem to research is “The Crucible.”
“The play was first performed at the Martin Beck Theater on Broadway on January 22, 1953. Miller felt that this production was too stylized and cold and the reviews for it were largely hostile (although The New York Times noted “a powerful play [in a] driving performance”). Nonetheless, the production won the 1953 “Best Play” Tony Award. A year later a new production succeeded and the play became a classic.” wikipedia
Scott bet $2,500 bringing his total to $5,100.
Brendan bet $7,122 bringing him up to $15,122.
Bhibha bet $1,979. Her winning total today was $21,179 and her 2-day total is $41,380.
