Can a contestant who gets the Daily Double choose not to make a wager?
No. They must wager at least one dollar.
They have to bet, but the minimum wager is $5, not $1.
At least, that was the rule back in 1991, when I was a contestant. (Since you ask, I won the first game–$7,200, back before they doubled the values–and came in second on the second.)
What was your final jeopardy answer?
Jeez, it’s been almost 13 years! It’ll take me a couple of days to dredge that up out of my so-called memory! (I wouldn’t have a chance of doing well on the show now! I’d ring in and say, What is… ahhh… ummmm…it was just on the tip of my tongue…)
Actually, now that I think about it, I can remember the one I missed on the second show. It was, “She used a Simon and Garfunkel song in her campaign to become Prime Minister of Ireland.” (That may not be it exactly, but pretty close. The clue may have mentioned a year.)
But the Final on the first show… sorry, maybe it’ll come to me later.
slight hijack:
If two contestants (or god forbid all three) tie in amount at the end of final jeopardy, a tie breaker is played, one answer and question (It is Jeopardy remember) both write down there question, and wager… I saw this happen once, and I think the amount tied at 599. The Screen for the name changed to “Tie Breaker”
Really? I’ve seen ties where both players came back the next day. Perhaps the rule you’re talking about is for tournaments.
Max_Castle is correct, if two (or three!) contestants are tied after the Final Jeopardy round, the tied contestants come back as co-champions for the next show. Tie-breaking rounds occur only during tournaments.
(Why doesn’t the Jeopardy! website publish all the rules to the game?)
Do contestants get the categories ahead of time? Or maybe just a study guide with broad spheres of knowledge?
Because there are some rules they don’t really want you to know about.
Like the rule that says that contestants have to pay their own airfare and accomodations to Los Angeles to compete. That way, if you come in third while competing, it’s a sure bet you’ll actually lose money, because the consolation prize won’t be worth what you paid to get to LA.
When I competed in 2000, though, I came in second. The consolation prize was a week at the Wyndham El Conquistador Resort in Puerto Rico that was worth making the trip to LA to win. Mrs. Moto and I went there for our honeymoon.
No, the contestants do not get the categories ahead of time. As you may have heard, five shows (one week) are taped at a time. Which new contestants will join the current champion on any particular show is determined only minutes before taping, by a random draw among the group of contestants waiting backstage. Also, no person on the Jeopardy! staff who has access to the categories and clues (including Alex Trebeck) is allowed any contact with the contestants before the taping.
The one exception to this “blind-category” rule is celebrity Jeopardy!, when the writers deliberately insert categories that cater to the celebrities’ strengths. For instance, when football player Reggie White, a lay minister, was on, there was a Bible category (he did poorly in it, BTW!). When Ashton Kutcher, a chemical engineering major in college, played, there was a chemistry category.
Who is “Robinson?”
We have a winner! (The song was “Mrs. Robinson,” of course.)
And I still can’t remember my first Final Jeopardy question. Where the heck is that tape? I had it here somewhere…
I remember one show where Stormin’ Norman Schwartzkopf was competing against a Boobwatch girl (and some other similar fluff actress). He won by a landslide, but one of the few questions the Baywatch girl beat him to was one about Patton.
:eek:
Correction: He was a biochemical engineering major… 
Just because someone plays dumb guys in the movies doesn’t mean he actually are one!
She used a song about an alchoholic who as an affair with a much younger man in her campaign? What was her platform?
That is the plot of the movie The Graduate, not the story of the song Mrs. Robinson.
Getting the 18-25 male vote! Yowza!