Same.
More pointedly, I remember really liking that part - it made that part of the competition non-subjective. And some of the athletes that were much better at other parts (athleticism or artistry) really struggled with precision.
I went through there many times in the '80s, taking the Trailways bus from STP to MKE. ( It was cheaper than Greyhound.)
I had absolutely no idea about FJ, barely understood the clue. But somehow, the correct response just randomly entered my head. That happens a lot.
Interestingly, she won more money than the winner. I wonder how often that has happened. Of course, the winner gets to return.
You’re right! That didn’t occur to me. I think it would only be fair to guarantee the winner at least, say, $3,000, if their final score is lower than that.
So, the other night, someone misspelled the answer to FJ and it was accepted (can’t remember which question). Then tonight, the answer was ‘William Jennings Bryan’ and one contestant’s answer was ‘William Jennings Bryant’ (with a t)… and it was deemed unacceptable.?? I don’t get this apparent double standard.
You can get away with misspelling a word so long as you don’t change the pronunciation.
Anyway, “Bryant” wasn’t his name. It was Bryan. Wrong in any case.
If a misspelling changes the pronunciation significantly, it will not be ruled correct. They seem more likely to err toward ruling incorrect (Berry is not significantly different than Barry!).
[quote=“Kamino_Neko, post:1828, topic:832696”]
(Berry is not significantly different than Barry!).
[/quote] It depends on your accent. In my native Eastern Canadian, for example, berry and Barry (or merry and marry) would never be confused. The first syllable has a completely different vowel sound. “Merry Christmas” doesn’t sound like “Marry Christmas”.
Blockquote
Sorry for the bad formatting above!
Would they take into consideration the hometown of the contestant? I’m from a location where Mary/marry/merry are all pronounced the same. So are Barry/berry.
I’m sure that they would. Bryant for Bryan is just wrong (although the contestant was certainly thinking of the correct person). They probably would have accepted Brian.
Barry and berry are pronounced very differently for me, but for another example, in my dialect berry and bury are pronounced the same. I don’t think Jeopardy! should accept my answer of berry if the correct response is bury.
I just want to complain that Ken Jennings mispronounces zoology and zoological. Anyone else catch that?
He mispronounced “Ocala” a couple weeks ago, but most people do if they aren’t from the area.
That would have been hilarious if one contestant wrote “Brian” and they accepted it (“close enough, we don’t penalize for spelling in Final Jeopardy”) and the next one wrote “Bryant” and they didn’t (“Oh, sorry, we can’t accept that.”).
I thought that the adding of a letter at the end was the offense.
They would not. Or at least, they didn’t.
Barry/Berry is a specific reference to an episode that aired toward the end of last year, near the end of Alex’s run. The Final Jeopardy clue dealt with the founder of Motown Records, whose name is Berry Gordy. One of the contestants wrote “Barry Gordy,” and it was not accepted. Despite the fact that many people would pronounce the names identically. There was some controversy about it at the time, I recall. It was a runaway game, so it wouldn’t have made any difference in the outcome anyway, but several people were a bit upset about it.
Incidentally, according to wikipedia, the full Mary-marry-merry merger, in which all three words are pronounced identically, is found in a majority of American English speakers (57%). So going by the numbers, those of us who pronounce them all the same are right, and the rest of you are wrong. 
I didn’t remember that, so I looked it up. There was more than a bit of controversy:
“Wiley Coyote” was definitely wrong. Not only is it pronounced differently from “Wile E Coyote,” it ruins the joke inherent in the name.