Saturday, May 01, 2021

Oz Not In Jeopardy!

It has been a very long time since I featured a Jeopardy! clue here, because it was becoming too big of a problem to keep track of games and snag the graphics. But last night, in the final game with guest host Anderson Cooper, the most extraordinary clue came up that I just had to share—and it wasn't even about Oz! The Final Jeopardy! category was Books and Authors, which is pretty broad, so I really didn't think much about it. Then this clue was revealed…

IN BOOKS BY HIM,
THE KINGDOM OF
NOLAND, RULED BY
AN ORPHAN NAMED BUD,
BORDERS A COUNTRY
CALLED IX, WHERE
QUEEN ZIXI REIGNS

My mind was blown! A clue about Queen Zixi of Ix, my favorite book by L. Frank Baum (yes, even better than the Oz books)? Wow! But would any of the players know that? After thirty seconds of the most iconic game show music ever, we were about to find out. First, Andy, the challenger on the right who struggled all game and really didn't have much of a chance, wasn't able to finish and only had "Who is And". At first I thought he might be trying to flatter the host, but now I realize he was probably referring to Hans Christian Andersen. With a pot of $3400 and a wager of $3400, he lost it all. Next was Sheila, in the middle, who responded with, "Who is Roald Dahl?" She bet $1500 of her $8400 and ended up with a final score of $6900. Finally, defending champion Emily's response was revealed: "Who is Baum?" Hooray! Anderson Cooper added that the author's name was Lyman Frank Baum (giving it the German pronunciation, not the American pronunciation preferred by the family making it sound like "bomb"), and that Noland was in the deadly desert surrounding Oz (which is not the case, Noland is on the other side of the desert, across from Oz). Emily had bet $1401, adding that to her $15,400 for a final score of $16,801. For knowing that, Emily has now become my all-time favorite Jeopardy! champion.

2 comments:

Robert Flach said...

Based on her wager, I'd guess she did not know that at all, and much like the guess of Dahl and Anderson, she was simply naming a children's author whose style could encompass that phrasing rather than knowing it for sure.

Eric said...

All J! contestants make their wagers before they see the clue, so it's based more on what they have and how much they need to either catch up or get ahead of other players. There are all kinds of strategies and schools of thought on Jeopardy! wagering. But even if she'd gotten it wrong, Emily would have won this game. Had Sheila made a more aggressive wager and gotten it right, however, she could have won if Emily had been wrong.