Lexington has a rich history of fielding superb game show contestants, dating back to Matt Dacey’s $32,000 run on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire more than a decade ago.
Lexington has sent eight players to Teen Jeopardy since 1999, including Henry Clay High School’s Barrett Block, who came in second in the Teen Jeopardy finals tournament that aired tonight, pocketing a cool $35,600. Little Rock, Arkansas senior Leonard Cooper won, and Nilai Sarda of Marietta, Georgia came in third.
Block hit the board for the first time tonight under the category, Guinness World Records. “In 2011, the world’s longest living snake was a 25-foot, 2-inch reticulated one of these.”
“What is a python?” and Block is on the board for $1,000.
Host Alex Trebek introduced each contestant after the first break, asking Block, a Henry Clay High School Senior, about the social networking site he built.
“I created a website called smilevolunteers.org with its purpose to connect people interested in performing community service with community service organizations in my community, which is Lexington, Kentucky.”
After the break, Block next hit the board under “Taking Off,” with “Beware of this unlicensed copy of a more expensive item like a brand name purse or watch.”
Cooper was incorrect with “what is off-brand?” and Block picked up $800 with “what is a knockoff?”
(None of the three could provide Hamlet, under a To Be or Not to Be clue.)
On to Double Jeopardy.
Redeeming the Hamlet loss, “‘Devon is sometimes considered the most beautiful school in New England’ is a line from this John Knowles novel,” Block snagged $1200 for “What is A Separate Peace?” He picked up another $800 for an O. Henry ‘Ransom of Red Chief’ response.
But Final Jeopardy came down to the subject Military Men. The clue: “On June 6, 1944 he said ‘The eyes of the world are upon you.'”
Block answered correctly, “who is Dwight D. Eisenhower?” He risked $9,000, taking his total for today to $18,000, added to yesterday’s total of $17,600, for a two-day total of $35,600. Sarda answered incorrectly.
Leonard Cooper answered, “Who is some guy in Normandy? But I just won $75,000.” The clever lad risked zero.
In fairness, it did seem that Block was plagued by buzzer difficulties throughout tonight’s contest.
“It feels incredible to win $35,600,” Block said. “It was a true blessing to be on the show, and to win all that money makes it all the better.”
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