Ron LaLonde is proving that his twin brother Ray LaLonde isn’t the only trivia genius, and Jeopardy! champion, in the family. Ron had a runaway win in game two and aimed to get another in his third game. Find out if he won big again.
The medical physicist, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, played against Margaret Dunlap, from Burbank, California, and Youssef Shareef, from Houston, Texas, on Friday, December 5. LaLonde’s two-day total equals $35,601.
“It was a runaway win yesterday for champion, Ron LaLonde, who is just dialed in on the buzzer,” host Ken Jennings said at the beginning of the game. “72 percent accuracy. Now, just 11 wins stand him Ron and the LaLonde family Jeopardy! record set by his identical twin brother, Ray.”
Ron found the Daily Double on clue one. He had $0, so he wagered the allotted $1,000. In “Let’s Give Star Wars a Hand,” the clue read, “The genetic template for the title characters, Jango Fett got unhanded, then unheaded in this film Episode 2.”
“What is Revenge of the Clones?” LaLonde answered. Since it was Attack of the Clones, he dropped down to -$1,000.
Shareef, a cashier, took the lead with $2,600 when he answered the rest of the clues in that category correctly. LaLonde got out of the hole by the first commercial break and took second place.
Although LaLonde was on a roll at the end of the round, he ended in second place with $4,000. Shareef took first place with $4,800. Dunlap, a writer, had $3,000.
In Double Jeopardy, LaLonde found the first DD on clue five. He went all in with $3,600 in “Chemistry.” If he got it right, he would take the lead. The clue was, “An important reference point in calculations that involve gases, STP — equal to 273.15 K & 1 atmosphere — is short for this.” “What is standard temperature and pressure?” he answered, doubling up to $7,200.
Shareef caught up to LaLonde and tied him for first place after correctly answering a question about Canada, where LaLonde is from. However, LaLonde took the lead back when he answered four out of the five clues in “Classic Artists’ B-Side” correctly.
On clue 26, Dunlap answered, “What is idyll?” on, “At age 16, pope wrote his first of this type of poem dealing with the life of shepherds or rural life.” She was deemed wrong, and LaLonde was awarded the money for pastoral.
However, before LaLonde found the second DD on clue 28, Ken Jennings shared that the judges decided to accept Dunlap’s answer as a synonym, which added $3,200 to her score.
“If the writers and judges had anticipated ‘idyll’ as being an acceptable response, then Margaret probably would’ve won the game. With only four clues left on the board there’s a pretty good chance she would have selected the DD if she’d had control at that point, but even if she had kept going to the $2000 clue and everything else played out the same (including Ron making the same DD bet), Ron having $1600 less would have put him at exactly double Margaret’s score, and then she was the only one to get FJ right. Arguably borders on the threshold of ‘invited back to play again because a ruling error affected the outcome of the game’ like they used to do; ought to at least be good for a Second Chance spot,” a Reddit user said.
LaLonde had $19,200 and wagered $2,000. In “Stock Symbols,” the clue read, “FIZZ is the stock symbol for National Beverage Company, famous for this drink brand whose name looks très français.”
“What is La Croisette?” he answered incorrectly, dropping him to $17,200. The correct response was LaCroix.
The round ended in a runaway for LaLonde. He had $17,200 going into the final clue. Shareef ended with $8,400. Dunlap was in third place with $7,800.
“History” was the category for Final Jeopardy. “A storm in the 1960s blew off what looked like a spout on this sandstone formation that made the news in the early 1920s” was the clue.
Only one contestant got the correct response of “What is teapot dome?” Did it affect the standings?
Dunlap had the correct response and wagered $601, giving her $8,401. Shareef answered, “What is idk?” He ended with $0 after wagering all of his money. LaLonde’s response was “What is ???” Hoe only wagered $300, leaving him with $16,900.
This gave LaLonde his third win and a three-day total of $52,501. Will his streak continue? Find out on Monday.
Jeopardy!, Weekdays, check local listings, stream next day on Hulu and Peacock