I’ve seen this once before. As I recall, going into final jeopardy, 1st had $1 more than 2nd, with 3rd well back. 2nd and 3rd bet everything, while 1st bet all but $1. Again, not sure why 3rd bet anything.
Must have been an odd Daily Double wager then, since that’s the only way your score doesn’t end in 0 before Final.
For that matter, I’ve always found it odd when people make DD wagers that aren’t a multiple of $200. The clues are in $200 increments, getting an extra $42 (or whatever) on a Daily Double accomplishes pretty much nothing.
How old were the contestants? Some people who are still around today lived through the Civil Rights Era, or at least its immediate aftermath; for others, it’s purely History.
There was one older woman. Probably late fifties or early sixties. The other two contestants were in their thirties.
I’m a few years younger (than the older lady) and grew up in the 70’s. We had the Black Power and Black Pride movements. Roots etc. I remember them announcing a new Afro-American studies club at my high school. A few students wore dashikis and other African clothing. Students studied the civil rights movement in history classes in my high school. The events during the Civil Rights Movement (good and bad) were very up close and personal for people my age living in the South. It was changing our culture as we grew up.
It seemed like a very easy Jeopardy question. Especially since they mentioned it was in a city with a presidential library.
To some, perhaps. To others, not necessarily. There were a lot of things going on in the 1950s, and there are lots of cities with presidential libraries.
Prior to this, I never even knew Little Rock was home to a national historic site. Why should I? 
There’s nothing in the answer that “absolutely screams civl rights.” It might have been something to do with the space race. It might have had something to do with the three newspapers located in state capitals that won Pulitzer Prizes that year, or Profiles in Courage winning a Pulitzer Prize, or the fire at the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant in Denver.
And even if you make the civil rights association, you’re forgetting the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum in Austin and the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.
So that’s two more libraries in two more state capitals with two more Presidents (both of whom figured more prominently in the Civil Rights movement than Bill Clinton.)
The clue wasn’t obvious.
I disagree, of course. The clue was about as obvious as they get. Pulitzers don’t get national historic sites. Neither do fires. Boston and Austin didn’t have ground-breaking civil rights events in 1957, either.
Space race doesn’t enter into it, since neither Cape Canaveral nor Houston are state capitals.
Oh, well. It’s differences of opinion that make horse races.
I wouldn’t have got it from the information provided. At least not in the time provided for coming up with an answer. Yes, I know about the integration of Central High. I know it took place in the '50s.
But if you said “what happened in Little Rock in 1957” only even money I’d say the right thing and then add on the cognitive layer of having to decide on my own to even think of Little Rock and it just wouldn’t happen very fast.
I didn’t get the answer either. I figured it had something to do with civil rights because, well, what else significant happened in 1957. My first thought was Selma, but that isn’t a capitol. I also never think of Arkansas as culturally being ‘the South’, I always think of it as more ‘mid-western’ (when I think of it at all :D).
I was more shocked that they all bet everything! My guess is the leads both felt over-confident with State Capitols…
And this is my main complaint about Jeopardy.
Everything you said is correct, but it takes time to sift through those options. But if Brown v. Board is the ONLY thing you (general you) know about the late 50’s, then the answer is obvious.
Pulling a number out of my ass, it seems like with 90% of Jeopardy clues, the correct response is the ONLY thing most people know about the subject. Give a dummy a clue about relativity, and he’ll immediately say “Who is Einstein?”, and he’ll be right. But if the contestant happens to be a physicist, he might consider Weinberg or Penrose or somebody else, especially if the clue writer was unclear. He may still decide it’s Einstein, but not as fast as the dummy.
Anything to do with Mormons – Brigham Young. Greek philosopher — Plato. The more you know, the more choices you have, but the obvious one is usually right.
I’d guess that the ‘bet everything’ strategy had little to do with the topic. When you see that the other person has the same amount you do, you start thinking about the likelihood that you might get a question that you’ll both answer correctly—and then what if you bet “my total minus $1 to be safe” and the other person bets it all?
The prospective pain of losing by so little would override all logical thought. (I know that there is a specific term for this in game theory, but my search terms aren’t turning it up.)
Where does the clue specify that it was a state capital?
That was the Category of Final Jeopardy!
Aha! Yes, it does help if you remember the category… :smack:
I thought it was incredibly easy and I was completely shocked that none of them got it! 1957 historic event- duh Little Rock! I knew it before Alex even finished reading the question. And I certainly was not alive during that era.
And yeah the third place contestant made an awful bet (though that didn’t exactly surprise me given that she bet $200 on a DD when she could have bet $1000 in the very first couple minutes of the game! :rolleyes: )
In the past, in a situation such as this the two tied would likely have each wagered $0, as 3rd place did not have enough to surpass them, however I believe I read that they changed the rules for this season that games can no longer end in ties, and if there is a tie they do a sudden death question.
everyone is stupid except me
I think someone had made a good case that not only is the correct answer not entirely obvious but there a good argument can be made that Atlanta is a correct one:
http://www.thejeopardyfan.com/2016/01/mike-drummond-may-have-been-correct-last-night.html
The SCLC was founded in 1957 the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. While not the only reason, it is an important part of why the church is part of the Martin Luther King National Historic Site, officially created by Jimmy Carter in 1980 who has his library in Atlanta. Which is the state capital of Georgia.
The specificity of the information fits Arkansas more tightly but Atlanta does ring all the bells.
I’m from California, and it stood out starkly to me. It seemed obvious.
Are they all complaining the questions came before they were born? Kids today.
As a non-American, I wouldn’t have been able to get the answer. I know Brown v school board; Little Rock means nothing to me.
The obvious answer to a Mormon question isn’t Joseph Smith?