WWTBAM Bored

Chris Breen
New York, NY
Investment banker

Chris's dad, Richard, is in the audience. Chris has $24,500 in his bank, with one Jump The Question lifeline left.

Question Topics (Randomized):
* What a Prude
* No Bull
* Where is Paul?
* The Forecast Calls For...
* $500
* $1,000
* $5,000
* [Jumped]
* $3,000
* $15,000


Question #7 * The Forecast Calls For...
California's Death Valley is among the world leaders in what category of extreme weather?

A: Highest average snowfall B: Most yearly tornadoes
C: Most frequent hailstorms D: Highest temperature recorded

Answer/Value/Bank

D: Highest temperature recorded
Question Value: $7,000
Bank: $31,500

Question #8 * Where is Paul?
Actor Paul Rudd had roles in all but which of the following comedy blockbusters?

A: The 40-Year-Old Virgin B: Knocked Up
C: The Hangover D: Night at the Museum

Chris knows who Paul Rudd is, but he's not sure of the answer, so he jumps the question. He was pretty sure the answer was

Spoiler

The Hangover.

Answer/Value/Bank

C: The Hangover
Question Value: $100
Bank: $31,500

Question #9 * No Bull
Following a heated debate in 2010, what European country's Catalonia region outlawed bullfighting?

A: France B: Portugal
C: Greece D: Spain

Chris's sister is studying there, right now.

Answer/Value/Bank

D: Spain
Question Value: $2,000
Bank: $33,500

Question #10 * What a Prude
Which of these adjectives inspired by historical figures is a synonym for "prudish"?

A: Elizabethan B: Napoleonic
C: Victorian D: Jeffersonian

Answer/Value/Bank

C: Victorian
Question Value: $10,000
Bank: $43,500

Chris will be playing Classic Millionaire when we come back from commercial!


-- Commercial Break --


$100,000
Statue of Liberty sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi designed another large statue of a woman intended to be displayed where?

A: Biscayne Bay B: St. Lawrence Seaway
C: Suez Canal D: Strait of Gibraltar

Meredith: Ring any bells?

Chris: Not really.

Chris walks away with $43,500

Answer

C: Suez Canal

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$100,000
Statue of Liberty sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi designed another large statue of a woman intended to be displayed where?

A: Biscayne Bay B: St. Lawrence Seaway
C: Suez Canal D: Strait of Gibraltar

Meredith: Ring any bells?

Chris: Not really.

Chris walks away with $43,500

Answer

C: Suez Canal

Suez Canal made the most sense to me, both for the time period and the location's relevance to France, but I wondered why I couldn't recall this statue. Well, that's because he drew up a design for the statue, but it was never built!

http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pbio?245290

A journey to Egypt and Yemen in 1855 and 1886, in the company of Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824-1904) and other orientalist painters, fueled Bartholdi's fascination with colossal sculpture. He returned to Egypt in 1869 with a proposal to create a lighthouse--in the form of a gigantic draped figure holding a torch--at the entrance to the newly completed Suez Canal. The commission never came, but his plan found a new form later in the Statue of Liberty.

I wonder how low Chris' bank would have had to have been before he would have taken a random guess. A contestant facing the $100K question could have as little as $28,600. It would seem foolish not to risk $3600 for the additional $71,400 (or more) at that level. At the other extreme, a contestant could be risking as much as $43,600, for as little as a $31,400 reward. That seems imprudent unless one could definitely eliminate one or two answers. Chris would have been risking $18,500 for an additional $56,500 or more. For him, apparently this was too risky.

Where would everyone's cutoff be for that situation?

I am thinking that at $40K I would definitely go for it. Risking $15K for a 1 in 4 chance of winning an additional $60K makes perfect sense to me. Over $40K I would expect to be walking unless I felt I could reasonably narrow down the choices.

The audience goes wild and many contestants get super-emotional when the $25,000 amount comes up on the big screen, but in some cases that could mean the contestant actual leaves with less money than they would have if the $25K question had been jumped.

I just saw this episode and Meredith did not run through the get-it-right, get-it-wrong or walk scenarios. Maybe it was left on the cutting room floor.

megaaddict wrote:I wonder how low Chris' bank would have had to have been before he would have taken a random guess. A contestant facing the $100K question could have as little as $28,600. It would seem foolish not to risk $3600 for the additional $71,400 (or more) at that level. At the other extreme, a contestant could be risking as much as $43,600, for as little as a $31,400 reward. That seems imprudent unless one could definitely eliminate one or two answers. Chris would have been risking $18,500 for an additional $56,500 or more. For him, apparently this was too risky.

Where would everyone's cutoff be for that situation?

I am thinking that at $40K I would definitely go for it. Risking $15K for a 1 in 4 chance of winning an additional $60K makes perfect sense to me. Over $40K I would expect to be walking unless I felt I could reasonably narrow down the choices.

The audience goes wild and many contestants get super-emotional when the $25,000 amount comes up on the big screen, but in some cases that could mean the contestant actual leaves with less money than they would have if the $25K question had been jumped.

Your logic is sound, and I think I would go the same way, IF I stopped to think about it. I suspect that a lot of that ratiocination goes out of the window, though, when you are in the Hot Seat (I'm sure it would have gone out the window in the days of TDC): a lot of people lose rationality when under pressure, especially when the pressure involves money.

Another factor is perhaps 'math phobia,' a lot of people seem to freeze up when it comes to making any numerical calculations. People have lots of time to figure their wagers on Final Jeopardy, for example, but when you see what people actually come up with, you see an awful lot of pitifully bad bets; you don't get onto Jeopardy! by being stupid, but once you are on, you are often capable of doing stupid things involving numbers. I speak from experience: when I was on, back in the days before the really ballooned up the numbers (first round questions were worth $100 - $500, second round was $200 - $1,000, average Champion each day won about $8,500, although 3-5 day winners averaged about $11,000 per day), I had a Daily Double in a category I felt pretty good about during the second round, I had about $5,500 at the time, my closest competitoy had less than $2,000, and I was debating between wagering $1,500 or $3,000, and when Alex asked me my wager, I blurted out '$4,500' (I somehow added my two choices). It was, of course, the only question in the category I missed... On the other hand, my two opponents both seem to have figured that I was a crazy man, and pretty much stopped even trying to answer questions after that, and I pretty much cleared the rest of the board and went into Final Jeopardy with double their combined scores (and I bet properly, and answered correctly, so it ultimately worked out). But still...

BBTranscriptTeam wrote: Chris Breen
New York, NY
Investment banker

Chris's dad, Richard, is in the audience. Chris has $24,500 in his bank, with one Jump The Question lifeline left.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:Question #8 * Where is Paul?
Actor Paul Rudd had roles in all but which of the following comedy blockbusters?

A: The 40-Year-Old Virgin B: Knocked Up
C: The Hangover D: Night at the Museum

Chris knows who Paul Rudd is, but he's not sure of the answer, so he jumps the question. He was pretty sure the answer was

Spoiler

The Hangover.

Answer/Value/Bank

C: The Hangover
Question Value: $100
Bank: $31,500

I couldn't pick Paul Rudd out of a lineup. Since I would have had a JTQ left I use it here.

BBTranscriptTeam wrote:$100,000
Statue of Liberty sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi designed another large statue of a woman intended to be displayed where?

A: Biscayne Bay B: St. Lawrence Seaway
C: Suez Canal D: Strait of Gibraltar

Meredith: Ring any bells?

Chris: Not really.

Chris walks away with $43,500

Answer

C: Suez Canal

I could have answered this one, so would be looking at the $250K question, but no lifelines available.