Today's Jeopardy -- 1/24

[TheConfessor]

There was a harsh ruling on Final Jeopardy (but consistent with their policy in recent years). Also some very poor wagering.

Spoiler

The contestant spelled Rockefeller with an extra R, as in Rockerfeller. I think a lot of people do that. If she had spelled it Raquaphelir, she probably would have gotten credit, and won the game.

[Catfish]

Spoiler

There was a harsh ruling on Final Jeopardy (but consistent with their policy in recent years). Also some very poor wagering.

The contestant spelled Rockefeller with an extra R, as in Rockerfeller. I think a lot of people do that. If she had spelled it Raquaphelir, she probably would have gotten credit, and won the game.

Wasn't she the one who had an FJ spelling malfunction yesterday as well, leaving out a syllable in Bessemer?

[ulysses5019]

My spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places. ~A.A. Milne

I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way. ~Mark Twain

It's a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word. ~Andrew Jackson

[etaoin22]

157000 hits for Rockerfeller

9.5 M for Rockefeller

On Google.


There is a case that in terms of descriptive rather than prescriptive spelling, Rockerfeller is an acceptable version. Not much of a case, and certainly not one which glows when you open it, but a case.

[silvercamaro]

Where was the contestant from? I can work up much greater sympathy if she was from Massachusetts or Noo Yawk -- or anyplace where an R in the middle of a word may not be pronounced at all, or if it registers, does so in a much fuzzier version than in the middle of the country, where we never met an R we didn't like.

[wintergreen48]

They get weird about some of their decisions. On one of my shows, they had the X's and O's category, and the clue was 'It's what the A&P stand for in the name of the grocery store chain,' and I answered, 'What are the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans?' Alex ruled me wrong, saying that the correct answer was 'What are oceans?' (because the category was X's and O's. I would respectfully disagree-- 'A&P' do not stand for 'oceans' but for 'Atlantic and Pacific', but I think I was right. I did not dispute it at the time (I had more than double the combined score of the other two players at the time, and arguing about a question at seemed tacky/greedy). But it did seem to me to be an odd, arbitrary sort of ruling. And further grist for the 'Alex hates me' mill.

That same season, the FJ category one day (not a day involving any of my shows) was Anagrams, and the clue was something like 'Dctloewitsoan is an anagram for this star of western and detective movies.' Two players had nothing, but the returning champion asked 'Who is Clint E.' They gave him credit for it (it should have been 'Clint Eastwood'). They gave that guy the win and let him go on another couple days: he ended up a four-day champion and went into the Tournament of Champions that year, where he lost in the first round. I happened to talk to the second place player-- who would have won that game if they had given the other guy credit for the (wrong/incomplete) answer, and she told me that Jeopardy! got more letters and phone calls complaining about that question/answer than they had ever received before about anything; they did not give her the money she should have won, but they did invite her back on to the show a couple months later, as a challenger.

It's very hard to see how they can justify 'What is Clint E?' as an answer to an anagram (which, by definition, requires you to use ALL the letters), but they will turn down the very slight mispelling that was involved in today's Final J!

[PlacentiaSoccerMom]

I always feel sorry for Emily Zhang was in game 5 of Jeopardy Kid's Week Maddie's year. She wrote Bejamin Franklin as an answer and lost the game. If she had just written Ben Franklin or Franklin, she would have won the game.

[TheConfessor]

That same season, the FJ category one day (not a day involving any of my shows) was Anagrams, and the clue was something like 'Dctloewitsoan is an anagram for this star of western and detective movies.' Two players had nothing, but the returning champion asked 'Who is Clint E.' They gave him credit for it (it should have been 'Clint Eastwood').

Rather than DCTLOEWITSOAN, I bet it was OLD WEST ACTION. That has become a standard trivia question in recent years, though it may have been new when it was used on Final J.

[thguy65]

I was more astounded at the poor FJ wagering. The med student threw away a chance to win with $800 by not being wise enough to bet zero. She had little to gain and everything to lose by her $700 bet.

[earendel]

There was a harsh ruling on Final Jeopardy (but consistent with their policy in recent years). Also some very poor wagering.

Spoiler

The contestant spelled Rockefeller with an extra R, as in Rockerfeller. I think a lot of people do that. If she had spelled it Raquaphelir, she probably would have gotten credit, and won the game.

From what I've observed the judges will give credit for a misspelled word if it doesn't change the pronunciation. Thus on Wednesday the champion was ruled wrong for omitting the "e" in "Bessemer" (leaving "Bessmer") because it changes the pronunciation. That would be the case here, also. I don't know that I would call it a harsh ruling.

[MarleysGh0st]

Spoiler

I was more astounded at the poor FJ wagering. The med student threw away a chance to win with $800 by not being wise enough to bet zero. She had little to gain and everything to lose by her $700 bet.

Yeah, the Betting Police must be raking her over the coals for that one!