# deciduous on tonight's Jeopardy! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 25, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deciduous-on-tonights-jeopardy/645078 "2012-12-25T00:38:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deciduous-on-tonights-jeopardy/645078/1 "2012-12-25T00:38:16Z")
On tonight’s (Dec 24) episode of _Jeopardy!_, there was a _Double Jeopardy!_ category in which all correct responses would contain the letters “DED”. The clue was about the fact that a deer’s antlers fall off each year, and the contestant’s response - judged to be correct - was “What is deciduous?” Perhaps I heard it wrong, but if so, my closed-captioning got it wrong also. Where is there a “ded” in the word “deciduous”? I expected that just before _Final Jeopardy!_, the score would be adjusted, but it wasn’t. Has anyone seen this episode? Is there a place on line to watch it? Am I mistaken or did they mess up? ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deciduous-on-tonights-jeopardy/645078/2 "2012-12-25T00:48:55Z")
The Category was **“DED” Ends** and Alex said that those three letters will appear in the correct response. Not necessarily consecutively. “Deciduous” fits that definition. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deciduous-on-tonights-jeopardy/645078/3 "2012-12-25T00:58:51Z")
Whoa…wait a minute. Just watched it on DVR and Alex clarified an incorrect response (“What is _Deadeye_”) as not fitting the category. “Coldblooded” “Bearded Lady” “Offended” and “Recorded” were the other correct words. Hmmm, something is amiss. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deciduous-on-tonights-jeopardy/645078/4 "2012-12-25T01:01:48Z")
Yes, that was indeed the name of the category. And some might say that the “Ends” part of the category name demonstrates that the DED would be the final three letters of the correct response. But I’ve seen enough other cases to teach me that “ends” is nothing more than a way to make it sounds like “dead ends”, which is a common phrase that we should not read anything into. But having some letters in quotation marks is a very common category, and this might be the first time I’ve seen non-consecutive letters used that way. I’m still hoping for a better answer. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deciduous-on-tonights-jeopardy/645078/5 "2012-12-25T01:04:36Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#): > > Whoa…wait a minute. Just watched it on DVR and Alex clarified an incorrect response (“What is _Deadeye_”) as not fitting the category. “Coldblooded” “Bearded Lady” “Offended” and “Recorded” were the other correct words. > > Hmmm, something is amiss. Yes! You’re right! If “deadeye” is wrong because they’re not consecutive, then “deciduous” wouldn’t be either. My guess is that no one at the taping caught it, not even the losing contestants (which I don’t blame them for - their brains are already overworked!). ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deciduous-on-tonights-jeopardy/645078/6 "2012-12-25T01:20:00Z")
Wasn’t the question, or answer, something to do with fish? How would “deadeye” have worked as a reply? ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deciduous-on-tonights-jeopardy/645078/7 "2012-12-25T01:41:51Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Wasn’t the question, or answer, something to do with fish? How would “deadeye” have worked as a reply? The answer is > [@](#): > > “Chilly” term for a fish or a callous killer ---
**Author:** ![colbeagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a88e4f/32.png) [@colbeagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colbeagle)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deciduous-on-tonights-jeopardy/645078/8 "2012-12-25T01:49:43Z")
I may not be remembering correctly, but wasn’t the deer question from the science category, not the ‘ded’ category? I think they went out of order. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deciduous-on-tonights-jeopardy/645078/9 "2012-12-25T02:01:17Z")
There was a “nature” category. Will the guy with the DVR check? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deciduous-on-tonights-jeopardy/645078/10 "2012-12-25T02:05:03Z")
It’s not that deadeye didn’t fit the category, it’s that it didn’t fit the _clue_. ‘Chilly’ is a key word in the clue. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deciduous-on-tonights-jeopardy/645078/11 "2012-12-25T02:05:08Z")
> [@colbeagle](#): > > I may not be remembering correctly, but wasn’t the deer question from the science category, not the ‘ded’ category? I think they went out of order. Yes. Deciduous was the $400 answer in the Science & Nature category. > [@notfrommensa](#): > > “Coldblooded” “Bearded Lady” “Offended” and “Recorded” were the other correct words. “Intended” was also in the “DED” category, so all the correct responses fit. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deciduous-on-tonights-jeopardy/645078/12 "2012-12-25T02:13:00Z")
> [@Just\_Ed](#): > > Deciduous was the $400 answer in the Science & Nature category." Ooops. My bad. Thanks for catching that. The mods may now close this thread. Good night! ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deciduous-on-tonights-jeopardy/645078/13 "2012-12-25T04:03:38Z")
Yes, checking the DVR, the antler question was in Science and Nature and specifically, it was a video clue with reindeer in Norway. obviously they knew the show would be broadcast on Xmas Eve. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2012, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/deciduous-on-tonights-jeopardy/645078/14 "2012-12-25T04:21:38Z")
Man, I thought that whole board was really easy. I can’t decide if I got some sort of egg nog boost or they wanted everyone to feel smart in front of their relatives. 🙂