The Parsons took the game and the cash, but can they take it again?. Round 1: besides gifts, something you buy every Christmas (6). Bobbie gets #1, a tree. You also buy food and lights. The Parsons try a poinsettia for the steal. Count it. Plants/mistletoe get the champs 69. Other answers: cards, gift wrap/boxes.

Round 2: something you associate with Eskimos (6). Michael's Eskimo kiss is beaten by Charise's igloo, 2 to 1. The champs also get coats, Alaska, and huskies. The Cerdas try to steal with shorts... oh, BEING short. Well, it doesn't make it anyway. The champs have 163. Other answer: blubber/whales

Double Round: 100 men, something your wife might be desperate for (5). Arthur gets #5, sex. Tiffany gets #3, money. Taryn gets #4, a house. Tim does his best Rich Fields, and a new car is #1. The Cerdas want children for the steal... and not there. The Parsons have 261. Other answer: vacation (said).

Triple Round: a living thing that hops (4). Chantel gets #1, a bunny rabbit. A frog, a grasshopper, and... a kangaroo sweep the board, giving the Parsons the big win, 543-0.

Tim gets 50 the hard way in Fast Money. Taryn gets another 62 for $560, giving the champs $20,560 for two days.

Today in the offing: "Really Tough Wheel of Fortune Puzzles" as Kingslea and Jim hope to teach the teacher a thing or two. Maria starts with $200 A La "Cart". So far, Maria's carting away with it, $4400 to Kingslea's $1000 and Jim's $1800.

Maria finds the Daily Double under $800 Company Symbols. With $5000, she makes her lead insurmountable by spitting out a $2500 bid on the polishing soap whose baby chick created in the 1890s still "hasn't scratched yet". "What is Bon Ami?" Right for $7500. After taking on the really tough Wheel puzzles (I wouldn't have gotten any of them on punctuation alone), Maria leads, $8700, with Kingslea and Jim level pegging at $2400 and $2200 respectively, but it's the man from Rhode Island who'll start Double Jeopardy!...

... with $400 Military Matters. But it's all about Maria, as she finds the Daily Double under $1600 "Geo"pardy!. With a damn-near-impossible-to-catch lead of $21,900 over Kingslea's $2400, she bets $10,000. In the grand scheme of things, pocket change, I know, but still... wow. The clue: a "petty" way of referring to a member of the middle class. "What is a bourgeois?" Correct! For $31,900. Going to something I know a bit about, $1600 Bacteriology is the second Daily Double. Kingslea, with $4400, fronts $1400 on body part controlled by the masseter muscle (affected by Clostridium tetani). Now I know it's the jaw, but let's see what Kingslea says. "What is the heart?" Nope. She goes into the final with $3000 to Jim's $7000, but Maria is all but won with $37,900.

Final Jeopardy! in "Celebrities": calling him a revolutionary, in 2000 Fidel Castro dedicated a statue of this man on the 20th anniversary of his murder. Correct question: Who is John Lennon?

Kingslea blanks. Jim loses a grand on Che Guevara. Maria THOUGHT about John Lennon... but didn't write anything. Better safe than sorry, I suppose. It only costs her $7900, but she returns for the Friday show with a total of $111,700. I believe she is now TOC-eligible.

Carla Moore gets a washer-dryer in round 2, but she'd rather have a Chevrolet Cobalt. Her game is Let'em Roll. Let's win two rolls to go with the free roll. First product: a box of Hot Pockets at $2.29. Is the Flexitol higher or lower? Carla goes higher. She's right, $4.99. How about that can of cream of mushroom soup? Carla says lower. It's $1.02. So she has three rolls. First one, $3000 and two cars. She banks the cars and rolls again. This time, $1500 and two cars. Same deal. One more roll.... and it's the car!

Hagop Fujian scores luggage in round 3, and he can use that on trips to Maui and Montreal! Now the dilemma. Is the Maui trip $3350? Is the Montreal trip $4066... or should Hagop Switch? He switches, we rock out to the music... and he's right! But it's big winner Carla who makes a trip to the Showcase.

Betty Ashwell (of the flipping dual-sided hat) wins a grill, but can she win a player piano? She can if she Picks the right Number, either 0, 2, or 6, to fill in the blank here: $750_.  Betty goes for the 6 after Bob thought it was a nine (and a lengthy debate to the fact)... but she should've zeroed out.

Elizabeth Apellado wins a bracelet and a chance at a Ford Focus playing the Money Game. Middle number is 0. She only manages to get the front two (17), and ends up with $245. The back two? 47.

Finally, Rhonda Guilliam, who is now expecting no less than "Bob's Future Replacement", gets a wine secretary and a chance to stock it with $10,000 worth of wine. The game is, of course, Punch-a-Bunch. With punches from a blender, a gumball machine lamp, and a nacho cheese maker, Elizabeth wins $1000... takes it back for $500... and takes that back for $250. But the good news! A second chance! With that second chance... $1000. That's all the cheese she'll get, as Elizabeth goes to the Showcase?

And did someone say cheese? Brandi's doing some Italian cooking in our first Showcase. She uses some small appliances and a sound system, but when all is said and done, Brandi is on her way to Italy. Top winner Carla passes to Elizabeth, who bids $12,000. Meanwhile, Carla gets a visit from the Price Police, as she's presented with a gas range, a hot tub, and a party pontoon. Her bid: $23,000. Actual price: $28,484. Actual price of Elizabeth's Showcase: $17,550. So by $66, Carla wins the day with $45,422!

Golden-Road.net's Joe Capitano reports that this is actually the first of two replacement shows for shows previously scheduled today, which would explain lack of a ticket plug. Final stats: 2/6, $61,088.

Michael... Jordan... hey.. that's rich. No, really. On the line today, a date with a snowboarder in Puerto Vallarta. Vanessa's words: Vanessa, road trip, picnic, cloud nine.

First in the writing room, Jordan likes a soaring chorus, but wants to write a country song. *Buzzer* Wrong. Michael, meanwhile, wants to write something for a fun-loving rascal. Meanwhile, the band writes the first line and gets all the challenge words in: "Take a road trip for a picnic on cloud nine with Vanessa." Can't be TOO hard, can it? Ryan's notes on Jordan: a big rich deep voice can only help.

Time to switch, there. Michael... compares Ryan to Clay Aiken. And that's just the hair. The song, meanwhile, is still chugging along. Meanwhile Jordan just titled his own song. All by himself! No, not really. Ryan's notes on Michael: a really good voice and a lot of range. And he looks like Bo Bice... "slash Fabio."

Avalon time. Scary drummer time. Vanessa time. Isolation time. Michael time! The song is "Vanessa". "That was hot! It was all about me." Yes it was.

Next up, Jordan with "So Nervous." What did Vanessa think of poor-man's-Coldplay? "It was so romantic! He really knows me."

So does the battle of the uglies get nice or the other way round? Vanessa picked.... Jordan!