Final Jeopardy: Russian History (2-21-13)
The Final Jeopardy question (2/21/2013) in the category “Russian History” was:
Launched Oct. 1, 1928, it was brought to a premature end in 1932 amid growing hunger.
Another contestant will win a spot in the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champion finals today, and we’ve got the last two Wild Card winners today. Stephanie Jass and Dan McShane against each other and natural semi-finalist, Colby Burnett. Yesterday, a finalist spot went to a Wild Card winner. Let’s see what happens today.
Colby found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Organizations.” He was in second place with $3,000, $800 behind Dan in the lead. He only bet $600 — he’s been very gun-shy on the DDs after a bad experience with one, but he did sort of look like he wished he’d bet more on this no-brainer. Of course, he was RIGHT.
The March of Dimes was established by FDR in 1938 to put an end to this disease. show
Dan finished in the lead with $7,800. Colby was second with $5,600 and Stephanie was last with $1,800.
Colby found the first Double Jeopardy Daily Double in “U.S. Geography.” He was in the lead with $8,400, $600 more than in second place. This time he bet $2,000 and he was RIGHT.
Dubuque, Iowa lies at the junction of 3 states: Iowa, Illinois and this one. show
Dan found the last Daily Double in “Directors’ Big Screen Farewells.” He was now in second place with $12,600, $5,400 less than Colby’s lead. He bet $2,600, and he was RIGHT.
His second and last talkie, 1931’s “The Struggle.” show
Colby finished in the lead with $22,000. Dan was next with $19,200 and Stephanie was in third place with $10,600.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
“Stalin’s willingness to use brutality to achieve political aims was well established by the time he took power; nevertheless, the Soviet Union (as it was known after 1922) was unprepared for the extreme violence and oppression that Stalin unleashed in 1928. This was the first year of Stalin’s Five Year Plan, a radical attempt to bring the Soviet Union into the industrial age.” (About.com: Stalin’s Five Year Plans)
Stephanie wrote down “Stalin’s Modernization Plan.” That cost her $10,000 and she finished with $600.
Dan thought it was the “pogroms.” He lost $2,801, finishing with $16,301.
Colby got it right and bet a whopping $16,401 so he ended up with $38,401 and the finalist spot. Alex Trebek said it didn’t matter what he bet, but we think it does. It’s good to see Colby overcome his bet hesitancy because he might need a big bet or two in the finals.
All the same, we can’t help but point out that, unlike Monday’s game, when Patrick Quinn was dinged for leaving out Redeemer in his description of the Christ statue in Rio de Janeiro, it would have changed the results today if Colby was judged incorrect for leaving out “First.” There were a total of 13 Five-Year Plans. On the other hand, there were only two Van Halens, and earlier in the game, Stephanie had to give the first name of the guitarist vs. the drummer in a clue about guitarists! So we agree with sinflut17’s comment that they need to be more consistent.
Other notes: They talked about the twitter trend where Stephanie called Alex Trebek the devil, and Trebek kept the reference going a couple of times. If you missed all that, here’s the game where it happened.
