Last week, Jeopardy! set up shop in Washington, D.C. and invited a gaggle of smarty-pants D.C.–types to play for charity. Anderson Cooper — who is apparently still reeling over his loss to Cheech Marin during Celebrity Jeopardy! in 2010 — saw the game as bit of a redo, crushing opponents Tom Friedman and Kelly O’Donnell on Friday. But no one had a perfect game and plenty of questions had the entire group stumped. Below, some of the questions (er, answers) that your power-player contestants answered (uh, guessed) incorrectly. But first, some video highlights:
Day one: Chris Matthews, Lizzie O’Leary, and Robert Gibbs
CATEGORY: Law & Order ($2,000)
CLUE: In 1986 the Supreme Court ruled that the “hostile environment” type of this can be sex discrimination.
(O’Leary: “What is a work environment?”, Matthews: “What is a hostile workplace?”)
CORRECT RESPONSE: What is sexual harassment?
CATEGORY: 6-Letter World Capitals ($800)
CLUE: St. Basil’s Cathedral is there
(Matthews: “What is Istanbul?”)
CORRECT RESPONSE: What is Moscow?
Final Jeopardy!
CATEGORY: Awards
CLUE: This performer is the only person to win an Emmy, the Mark Twain Prize, and the Spingarn Medal.
(Matthews: “Who is Mary Tyler Moore?”, Gibbs: no guess, O’Leary: “Who is Tina Fey?”)
CORRECT RESPONSE: Who is Bill Cosby?
Day two: Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Dana Perino, and David Faber
CATEGORY: The Five ($200)
CLUE: The five movie ratings in the U.S. are NC-17, R, PG, PG-13, and this one.
(Abdul-Jabbar: “What is X?”)
CORRECT RESPONSE: What is G?
CATEGORY: Great American Women ($800)
CLUE: In 1983, she made history as the first American woman in space.
(No guesses.)
CORRECT RESPONSE: Who is Sally Ride?
CATEGORY: Translate, Please ($2,000)
CLUE: From the Hebrew, a period of time: Yom.
(Abdul-Jabbar: “What is Yom Kippur?”, Perino: “What is a year?”, Faber: “What is good?”)
CORRECT RESPONSE: What is a day?
Day three: Dr. Mehmet Oz, Katty Kay, Chris Wallace
CATEGORY: Fair and Balanced ($800)
CLUE: Since 2000, Starbucks has coffee certified “fair” this, from small-scale farmers organized into cooperatives.
(Oz: What is a latte?)
CORRECT RESPONSE: What is Fair Trade? (Guessed correctly by Kay.)
CATEGORY: The New York Times, The Arts ($2,000)
CLUE: A 2011 review said the acoustics of this famous NYC hall turned a chorale’s words into whooshes.
(Wallace: What is Lincoln Center?)
CORRECT RESPONSE: What is Carnegie Hall?
Day four: Chuck Todd, Clarence Page, and Lewis Black
CATEGORY: The Daily Rundown (Daily Double for Chuck Todd, betting $1,000)
CLUE: Thursday, Nov. 26, 1863 was proclaimed as “a day of” this “and praise.”
(Todd: “What is remembrance?”)
CORRECT RESPONSE: What is Thanksgiving?
CATEGORY: The New York Times, Movies ($2000)
CLUE: Manohla Dargis titled the review of this 2011 drama “Finding the Humanity in the F.B.I.’s Feared Enforcer.”
(Page: “Who is Dillinger?”)
CORRECT RESPONSE: “What is J. Edgar?”
CATEGORY: Haul ($1,200)
CLUE: In trucking, it’s been defined as a run that covers more than 1,000 miles.
(Todd: “What is a convoy?”)
CORRECT RESPONSE: What is a long haul?
Final Jeopardy!
CATEGORY: Sporting Events
CLUE: First held in May 1875, it is the oldest continuously held major sporting event in the United States.
(Black: “What is the U.S. Open?”, Page: “What is baseball?”, Todd: “What is the U.S. Open?”)
CORRECT RESPONSE: What is the Kentucky Derby?
Day five: Anderson Cooper, Kelly O’Donnell, and Tom Friedman
CATEGORY: 21st Century Lingo ($600)
CLUE: In 2011, BusinessWeek said European government bonds were this “poisonous” kind of debt.
(Friedman: “Sub-prime?”)
CORRECT RESPONSE: What is toxic? (Guessed correctly by O’Donnell.)
CATEGORY: 21st Century Lingo ($800)
CLUE: It’s the “tiny” term for a person who writes short posts about one’s personal life on Tumblr or Twitter.
(Friedman: “What is a Tweeter?”)
CORRECT RESPONSE: What is a micro-blogger?
CATEGORY: Stock Ticker ($800)
CLUE: This company providing energy products and services is HAL.
(Cooper: “What is IBM?”)
CORRECT RESPONSE: What is Haliburton? (Guessed correctly by Friedman.)
Final Jeopardy!
CATEGORY: Inventors
CLUE: The National Inventors Hall of Fame said his work “brought the South prosperity” but he was out of business within five years.
(O’Donnell: “Who is Carver?”, Friedman: “WHO” — either shorthand for the World Health Organization or having no clue, Cooper: “Who [gibberish.])
CORRECT RESPONSE: Who is Eli Whitney?
