Jeopardy! recap for Wed., Jan. 30 – Please welcome today’s contestants:

– Joan, a Montessori teacher from Washington state, won’t give up the Canucks when Seattle gets an NHL team;
– Sean, a library assistant from New Brunswick, is a recreational curler; and
– Jill, an auditor from Massachusetts, refrigerated bees in a bag marked “Bees – do not touch”. Jill is a two-day champ with winnings of $51,602.

Sean had more than double of his nearest opponent after round one, and extended the advantage as his rivals were shut out of DJ’s first nine clues. Then both Jill and Joan made solid progress to stay alive into FJ, with Sean at $21,200, Jill with $13,600 and Joan at $11,200.

DD1 ($800) – THE PRESIDENTS – Ex-candy factory owner Petro Poroshenko leads this nation dealing with Russia & rebellion in its east (Sean won $3,600)

DD2 ($2,000) – VALLEY – Once part of Thebes, this valley was the burial site of many Egyptian pharaohs of the 18th, 19th & 20th dynasties (Sean won $3,800)

DD3 ($1,200) – FRENCH MUSIC ABOUT SPAIN – Maurice Ravel’s Basque mother gave him a fondness for Spain most famously expressed in this 1928 work (Jill won $6,800 on a true DD.)

FJ – WOMEN WRITERS – One of her circle described her as “A lacy sleeve with a bottle of vitriol concealed in its folds”

Surprisingly, only Joan picked up on the key word “circle” in the FJ clue to be correct, adding $10,100 to win with $21,300.

TV troubles: The players missed three out of five in the “Recent TV” category, and even after Sean was incorrect with “Buckets”, his opponents were unable to come up with Louie Anderson’s Emmy-winning “Baskets”.

Judging the writers: Clever theme for the first round categories, clearly inspired by a question the writers must get all the time: “How do I prepare for Jeopardy!?”

Correct Qs:
DD1 – What is Ukraine?
DD2 – What is Valley of the Kings?
DD3 – What is “Bolero”?
FJ – Who was Dorothy Parker?