All Hail Julia Collins: The Queen Of Jeopardy!
Another Jeopardy! post because you never get over coming in second in the 1987 Teen Tournament.
Today, Julia Collins won her twentieth consecutive Jeopardy! match, raising her total to $428,100. But today's victory (actually taped at least 60 days ago, but only shown today) was not easy. For the first match in many, Julia did not enter Final Jeopardy as a runaway winner. She was in the lead with $11,600, but only a little ahead of Wendy Hardenberg ($9,000) and Sami Siegelbaum ($8,100). It was a game that anyone could win. But Queen Julia came through with correct response to the Final Jeopardy Clue in the category of 19th Century Politics:
'A Senate seat from this southern state sat vacant for 4 years; when it was filled, its ex-occupant had become U.S. President.'
The correct response and some analysis of Julia Collins' (many) strengths and (few) weaknesses after the fold.
The correct response was: 'What is Tennessee?' Andrew Johnson's Senate seat was not filled during this term as V.P. because of the Civil War. After the Lincoln assassination, Johnson ascended to the Presidency and Tennessee finally elected a replacement senator.
Julia Collins' Strengths:
Extremely quick on the buzzer. On the easier clues where all of the contestants tend to know the correct response, she consistently rings in first. This not only gives her early points, it gives her control of the board. As a result, her second strength is
Finds Daily Doubles and takes advantage of them. Julia is good at hunting for the Daily Doubles. When she finds them, Julia bets big early in order to take a commanding lead. She bets enough late to make certain she has a runaway lead going into final jeopardy.
Wide base of knowledge. She has been able to convert her Daily Doubles into big money because she is so strong in so many areas. She was an art history major in college (so she has humanities covered) and got her graduate degree in engineering (so she has deep knowledge in science, math and technology).
Calm confidence. It is so easy to panic in front of the studio audience of 250 plus Alex, under the hot lights. Jeopardy tapes five games per day, so she is physically exhausted by the time she faces her Friday opponents. Her easy going nature helps her maintain stamina.
Julia's Weaknesses:
Sports. This is the one substantive area that Julia is not particularly strong. It cost her a $2,400 and a runaway victory when she missed a Daily Double in (of all things) Poetic Lines. The clue was: "10,000 eyes were on him as he rubbed his hands with dirt; 5,000 tongues applauded when he wiped them on his shirt".Julia had no guess because she did not recognize the line from "Casey at the Bat" - a poem well-known by virtually all baseball fans. Throughout her run, Julia has avoided sports categories and, when sports are selected, not buzzed in virtually all cases. Sports is a hard study. It's a knowledge base that is ordinarily gained through osmosis during countless hours of play-by-play banter by aging announcers.
Tougher Opponents: Anyone who passes the Jeopardy! qualifying test is strong, but lately the opponents seem to be getting stronger. Wendy Hardenberger was a young, energetic Yale University reference librarian (with side job of translating five languages). Sami Siegelbaum was a young, energetic art history professor. He actually laughed during the interview, because he did his dissertation work at the Rodin museum in Paris, and Rodin was a category in single Jeopardy. Julia and Sami, both art historians, battled to a draw in the Rodin category.
There Are No More Easy Milestones
Julia has won the most games and the most money for any woman in Jeopardy! history. She has won the second most games in a row. She has won the second most money in ordinary competition (the big money for Brad Rutter was accumulated in tournaments). But she is miles away from catching Ken Jennings' records.
With 20 wins, she is less than one-third of the way to Jennings' 74 consecutive victories.
With $428,100, she is less than one-fifth of the way to Jennings' $2.5 million in regular season winnings.
Can she get there? Anything is possible. Anyone baseball player could surpass Joe DiMaggio's 56 game hitting streak, but no one has in the last seventy years. And if I thought Julia Collins knew who won the AL batting title in 1941 when DiMaggio hit in 56 straight games, I would give her a slim chance of catching Jennings' streak (It's Ted Williams (.406) by the way). But since she has a void in sports, I think her chance drops from slim to virtually none.
I sure hope I am wrong. It is fun to watch Queen Julia reign.