Preliminaries: Schroeder/Stevens/Vogel
March 16
All the drama of a high stakes poker
match.
All the excitement of a big jackpot win.
All the tension of a blackjack double
down...
... and all for $250,000.
Fifteen of the year's best champions have
returned to face each other for bragging rights and the title of
Jeopardy! Grand Champion. The venue: a new high-def, high-tech battle
arena showcased at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las
Vegas.
Only nine will be invited to return next
week to play for one of three slots in the two-day final. Those nine
will include the winners of the five prelims and the four highest
scorers among non-winners... the Wild Cards.
Another standard two-week affair awaits with an minimum guarantee of
$100,000 for second place and $50,000 for third.
Semifinalists are guaranteed at least $10,000, while quarterfinalists
are guaranteed $5000 for participation. As always, any and all winning
accrued depends on how far up the ladder a player goes.
So far, Dan Pawson, Larissa Kelly, and
Ben Bishop have seats waiting for them in next week's party. Will one of
these three crash it?
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Aaron Schroeder
San Diego
grad student
Four days, $127,902 |
Jim Stevens
Fairview Park, OH
high school math teacher
Six days, $140,600 |
Donna Vogel
Bethesda, MD
scientist
Four days, $85,299 |
And the game is on. Jeopardy!
round...
HISTORICAL VOICEMAILS
FROM... |
CLASSIC ALBUMS |
FOOD FOR THOUGHT |
PREZ DISPENSERS |
LANDS O' LAKES |
GOING INTO O____T |
Daily Double: $800 Lands O' Lakes. Aaron is off by
$200, $2000 to Jim's $2200. Donna has yet to make a
move. Aaron wants to make this a True Daily Double.
The clue: the reservoir known as Lake Nasser in
Egypt is Lake Nubia in this country. "What is the
Sudan?" Correct for $4000!
At the end of the Jeopardy! round...
$9,400 |
$4,200 |
$2,800 |
Aaron |
Jim |
Donna |
Double Jeopardy! categories:
"MEN" OF THE WORLD |
ANIMATED MOVIE PLOTS |
LET'S TALK CHESS, CHAMPS |
FLOWER POWER |
EUROPEAN POETS |
POLYSYLLABIC VOCABULARY |
Daily Double #1: $1200 Flower Power.
Jim is lagging behind at $6200 to Donna's $7600. Both are dominated by Aaron,
who has $17,400. Jim bets $3800 on this: Japan's special day honoring this
flower is also called the Festival of Happiness. "What is a chrysanthemum?"
That... would've gotten Jim, who drops to $2400 on a cherry blossom, $10,000
even. Now he's literally behind the 8-ball.
Daily Double #2: $1600 European
Poets. Jim has $4400, far behind Donna's $13,800 and Aaron's $18,200. With one
clue left on the board, he can at least make a pretty good case for Wild Card
here. He bets $3400 on this: the Irish Literary Theatre opened on May 8, 1899
with this co-founder's drama "The Countess Cathleen." "Who is... Keats?"
Yeats... He drops to $1000 and is all but done for this tournament.
At the end of the Double Jeopardy!
Round...
$18,200 |
$1,000 |
$11,600 |
Aaron |
Jim |
Donna |
Final Jeopardy! category:
BRITISH PAINTERS
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TENNYSON CALLED THIS BRITISH
PAINTER, CONSTABLE'S CONTEMPORARY, THE "SHAKESPEARE OF LANDSCAPE" |
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Correct response: who was Turner?
Jim's response: who is Allison Stevens Hogarth? WRONG. Wager: $0. Total:
$1000.
Donna's response: who was R? WRONG. Wager: $1700. Total: $9900.
Aaron's response: who is Turner? CORRECT. Wager doesn't matter.
SEMI-FINALIST:
Aaron Schroeder
The name of the game
today... pressure. From the moment Kevin lit up the board to the moment
Alex revealed the Final Jeopardy! category, Aaron just kept hammering
away with correct response after correct response. And in the end... we
have our first upset of the tournament. If he keeps pouring on the
pressure, then he stands a better-than-fair chance of making next
Monday's final round.
Congratulations also go out
to Cora Peck from Wednesday and Dave Simpson from Friday. They will
return for the semis. Meanwhile, Donna with $9900 and Matt Kohlstedt
with $10,600 are on the outside looking in.
The final nine are revealed
tomorrow!
If you would like to
become a contestant on Jeopardy!, go to
jeopardy.com.
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