The Challenges of Survivor: Caramoan
Join me back in the Philippines for the latest entry in my series, "The Challenges of Survivor." Caramoan is not one of my favorite seasons, but the quality of challenges may surprise you. I'm sorry for taking two years to finish this entry. Please enjoy.
Good luck to everyone who applied for the writer position this week! I know a lot of people were disappointed that submissions closed early (myself included), but I thought maybe we could share some of the categories we wrote in this thread. I know many of you worked really hard on your clues and they deserve to be seen. I transcribed all of mine into images just to be efficienct (answers are here you want to play along), but feel free to just post one or two of the categories that you're most proud of.
One of the rarest oddities in all of Jeopardy! is the top row Daily Double. In over 40 years, the Daily Double has appeared in the top row in only 40 games (that we know of). I had some time to kill the other day, so I decided to go and track them all down. (Credit to the J! Archive, of course.) I’ll post the full list at the end, but wanted to point out some interesting observations.
Daily Doubles are typically assigned to the three clues (out of 60) that read most similarly to Final Jeopardy! Clues. It's never been about the toughest clues on the board, but rather, which clues involve lateral thinking, multi-step solve paths, and culminate in an "aha" moment. Top row clues are usually very straightforward, so it makes sense that they would rarely standout as the ideal Daily Double candidate across an entire board.
Still, for as rare as the top row Daily Double is, it has been an abnormally long time since we last saw one. The most recent occurred during Mattea Roach’s run in 2022. That’s four years without one, and for the record, there were 5 top row Daily Doubles between 2019 and 2022.
Personally, I would not be surprised if the top row Daily Double is gone for good. With Audio Daily Doubles and more notably Video Daily Doubles also vanishing in recent years... increasingly meta gameplay, and continued efforts by the executives to transform Jeopardy! into a competitive sport, it appears that the placement of Daily Doubles has become a very sacred thing. Perhaps the producers believe it would be a bad look, for example, if a superchamp lost a game due to a 1/500 Daily Double placed in the top row as opposed to where they’ve been conditioned to hunt.
Now, here is the complete list of top row Daily Doubles across every season of Jeopardy!:
Show #265 (audio) – Category: Islands
"We had it all / Just like Bogie and Bacall / Starring in our old late, late show..." Longest of the Florida Keys or title of this song
What is >!Key Largo? !<
Show #704 (audio) – Category: Black America
Heard here, he was 1st major black performer to host a prime time TV network variety series: "They tried to tell us we're too young..."
Who is >!Nat King Cole?!<
Show #731 (audio) – Category: Tough TV Trivia
Though the following wasn't one of his biggest hits, this artist used it as the theme for his TV show: “And the ink stains that have dried up on some line / That keeps you in the back roads by the rivers of my memory / That keeps you ever gentle on my mind”
Who is >!Glen Campbell?!<
Show #738 (video) – Category: Theatre
1928 play by Bertolt Brecht which featured the following
What is >!the Three-Penny Opera?!<
Show #748 (audio) – Category: The ‘60s
In 1965, she became 1st British female to top Billboard's Rock Era Pop Charts: "When you're alone, and life is making you lonely / You can always go / Downtown..."
Who is >!Petula Clark?!<
Show #784 – Category: 10-Letter Words
1 of 3 forms of "flying" transport that start with "H" & are able to take off & land in water
What is (1 of) >!a hydroplane (hovercraft or helicopter)?!<
Show #791 – Category: Presidents
He was the last vice president to become president
Who is >!Gerald Ford?!<
Show #793 (audio) – Category: Tough TV Trivia
1987 Emmy-winning actor featured in series with the following theme: [The theme to “Moonlighting” plays]
Who is >!Bruce Willis?!<
Show #830 (audio) – Category: 9-Letter Words
9-letter word found in the title of the following: "Spider Murphy played the tenor saxophone / Little Joe was blowin' on the slide trombone / The drummer boy from Illinois went crash, boom, bang..."
What is >!jailhouse?!<
Show #833 (audio) – Category: “Y” Not?
It's what Roy Rogers is doing in the following song: [audio of Roy Rogers yodeling plays]
What is >!yodeling?!<
Show #917 (audio) – Category: “Up” & “Down”
Title of the following that went up to No. 7 in 1967: "Would you like to ride in my beautiful balloon / Would you like to ride in my..."
What is >!“Up, Up and Away”?!<
Show #933 (video) – Category: France
France's unknown soldier of WWI is buried under this Paris landmark
What is >!the Arc de Triomphe?!<
Show #956 (audio) – Category: Dance
Dance mentioned in the title of the following; it used to be a religious dance: [unknown audio plays]
What is >!hula?!<
Show #999 (audio) – Category: "R.D."
A New York City street urchin provided the inspiration for this 1964 No. 1 hit: "When she was just a kid her clothes were hand me downs..."
What is >!“Rag Doll”?!<
Show #1051 (audio) – Category: Famous Quotes
His famous quote from the 1932 film "The Fatal Glass of Beer": "It's not a fit night out for man nor beast."
Who is >!W.C. Fields?!<
Show #1127 (video) – Category: Hodgepodge
January 22, 1989 event these people are prepared for:
What is >!the half time show at the Super Bowl?!<
Show #1138 (audio) – Category: Kisses
Pete Seeger wrote this folk ballad which was a big hit in the 50s: ”When I was a young man and never been kissed / I got to thinking it over what I had missed / I got me a girl, I kissed her and then / Oh Lord, I kissed her again..."
What is >!"Kisses Sweeter Than Wine"?!<
Show #1162 (audio) – Category: Black America
He won a 1962 Grammy for the following: "I can't stop loving you, I've made up my mind..."
Who is >!Ray Charles?!<
Show #1203 (audio) – Category: U.S. Rivers
At least 4 U.S. rivers have this name that's in the title of the following song: "Come sit by my side if you love me..."
What is >!the Red River?!<
Show #1207 (audio) – Category: The Academy Awards
Film whose theme is heard here, it won 1966 Oscars for both "Original Music Score" & "Best Song": [Theme to “Born Free” plays]
What is >!“Born Free”?!<
Show #1280 (audio) – Category: Time
In the '50s it was the response that followed this: "Say kids, what time is it?"
What is >!It's Howdy Doody time?!<
Show #1605 (audio) – Category: Composers
He wrote the following while employed by the U.S. Marine Corps: ["Semper Fidelis" plays]
Who is >!John Philip Sousa?!<
Show #2297 (video) – Category: ‘70s Fads
Popular in the early '70s, they've now gone the way of the dodo
What are >!8-tracks?!<
Show #2626 (audio) – Category: American Music
Early press reports claimed this singer took his name from a poet he liked; he's denied it "Well, it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe..."
Who is >!Bob Dylan?!<
Show #3308 (audio) – Category: Johnny Gilbert Does Shakespeare!
Johnny's performance in this role featured the death scene heard here: "O happy dagger this is thy sheath; there rest and let me die..."
Who is >!Juliet?!<
Show #4267 – Category: Royalty
Franz Joseph's 68-year reign over Austria-Hungary was the longest of any ruler of this royal family
Who are >!the Hapsburgs?!<
Show #4948 – Category: It’s a Mystery!
The title of this 1939 mystery by Raymond Chandler is a slang term for death
What is >!The Big Sleep?!<
Show #5575 – Category: Reelin’ in the Years
It's the year of the quote "Not since Adam has any human known such solitude as Mike Collins"
What is >!1969?!<
Show #5615 (video) – Category: Grand Central Terminal
(Kelly of the Clue Crew delivers the clue from Grand Central Terminal in New York.) Many youngsters arrived in Grand Central to make it in New York and exited to this street. You're going out a youngster and you've got to come back a star
What is >!42nd Street?!<
Show #6031 – Category: 10-Letter Words
Jay M. Arena, director of the Duke Poison Control Center, devised this type of bottle cap
What is >!childproof?!<
Show #6515 – Category: Let Me Preface That
"The tribe... was a mighty people, called the 'Mahicanni,' or, more commonly, the 'Mohicans'"
Who is >!James Fenimore Cooper?!<
Show #7355 – Category: Word Origins
The word for this part of speech is from the Latin for "word"
What is >!verb?!<
Show #7582 – Category: Philosophers
When this philosopher died around 347 B.C., his nephew Speusippus took over the Academy
Who is >!Plato?!<
Show #7791 – Category: The American Revolution
General Thomas Gage, military governor of this colony, gave the orders that started the war in 1775
What is >!Massachusetts?!<
Show #8036 – Category: Give Me 5-Letter Words
In medieval legend, it was the cup or plate used by Jesus at the Last Supper
What is >!grail?!<
Show #8120 – Category: Writers Go Way Back
This Shakespeare play is set in 44 B.C.
What is >!Julius Caesar?!<
Show #8287 – Category: Bodies of Water
This mighty river rises in the Tibetan Plateau & empties into the South China Sea near Ho Chi Minh City
What is >!the Mekong?!<
Show #8385 – Category: Authors
Charles Dickens asked to be buried quietly in Kent, but he ended up in this section of Westminster Abbey
What is >!Poets’ Corner?!<
Show #8464 (video) – Category: Classic British Novels
Seen here is a cover for one of the earlier editions of this Wells novel
What is >!The Invisible Man?!<
Show #8629 – Category: Ballet & Opera
M-m-m-my Verona! On February 9, 1965 Nureyev & Fonteyn danced this ever-doomed couple in London
Who are >!Romeo & Juliet?!<
I wanted to get some opinions on the ruling on Final Jeopardy! in a recent episode. The categorie was "Advertising & Show Biz."
This was the clue:
"Celebrating the 20th anniversary of a film in 2024, this restaurant chain offered collectible cups & a digital release of the movie"
Jonathon & McShane (a.k.a. One Baddie After Another) answered "What is Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle?" Colin Jost explained that even though that was the right movie, "we were asking for the name of the restaurant" and they were ruled incorrect.
I was quite surprised by this ruling and thought it was not consistent with how responses are handled outside of Final Jeopardy. I always thought that as long as the correct response was contained in a response given by a player (and barring any further restrictions based on the category), the response is accepted as correct. I feel like this happens all the time. I don't have time right now to go looking for examples on the archive, but I feel pretty confident, for instance, that if a clue was asking for "this title fruit in a Fannie Flagg novel" and a contestant answered "What is Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe", Ken might clarify "tomatoes is correct" but the response would still be accepted.
Are the rules different in Final Jeopardy? Has this ever happened before in Final Jeopardy? Or are the rules different in Pop Culture Jeopardy? Or am I just wrong about the judging precedent?
Regardless of how you feel about what happened in tonight's episode, I think we need to take a step back and just appreciate the hilarity of this Final 5. It's literally this subreddit's nightmare scenario. The univerise is trolling r/survivor. It's so absurdly disappointing that it almost wraps around to being incredible.
If you did a poll the day the cast was announced, and asked everyone to vote on who they were least excited to see return for Survivor 50, I think there is a genuine possibly the top five would be some combination of Joe, Jonathon, Tiffany, Aubry and Rizo. Maybe, maybe Savannah would have been there too, simply because nobody knew who she was. I know all of these players have fans, especially outside of the Survivor subreddit, but "Watch the final 5 be Joe, Jonathon, Tiffany, Aubry and Rizo" legitamately sounds like a joke someone would have made on the cast reveal thread. The fact that not even one Colby/Cirie/Coach-type name managed to slip through is unbelievable.
And the subtitle being "In the Hands of the Fans" just makes the outcome all the more beautiful.