Jeopardy! recap for Wed., Jul. 12

 Let's meet today's contestants:

- Mia, a communications specialist, is a fan of Wikipedia movie plot summaries;

- Ittai, a digital journalist & news producer, studied in Ecuador and visited the Galápagos Islands; and

- Justin, a director of orchestra personnel, shared victory bagels with George Brett. Justin is a one-day champ with winnings of $14,701.

Jeopardy! 

STATE INSECTS // THE ____ OF CANADA // REVIVAL // TV QUICK TAKES // SLANG // READING WITH JENNA BUSH HAGER

DD1 - $800 - STATE INSECTS - This industrious insect important to agriculture was chosen by Nebraska & Missouri (Ittai risked making his grandmother nervous with a true DD and won $1,000.)

Scores at first break: Justin $2,600, Ittai $4,000, Mia $2.000.

Scores going into DJ: Justin $3,400, Ittai $5,800, Mia $4,200.

Double Jeopardy! 

ROMAN LANGUAGES // DOUBLE-VOWEL PLACES // "HIGH" THERE // KEVIN SENT // WALKING & TALKING // TAKING A RIDE

DD2 - $1,200 - DOUBLE-VOWEL PLACES - The sea of this, a name big in the Bible, is really a freshwater lake that gets most of its inflow from the Jordan River (Justin doubled to $3,600 vs. $4,200 for both opponents.)

DD3 - $1,200 - ROMAN LANGUAGES - Hadrian had his wall & this cousin who immediately preceded him had his column (Ittai dropped $2,000 from his score of $7,000 vs. $4,400 for Justin.)

Close, low-scoring contest in which Ittai missed DD3 but still narrowly held the lead into FJ at $6,600 vs. $6,200 for Mia and $4,800 for Justin.

Final Jeopardy!

NAME'S THE SAME - A 1931 Charlie Chaplin film & a West Coast bookstore open since 1953 both bear this name

Everyone was correct on FJ. Ittai added $5,801 to win with $12,401.

Final scores: Justin $9,314, Ittai $12,401, Mia $12,200.

Odds and Ends

That's before their time: Very depressingly, no one knew the 70s sitcom that featured scheming dispatcher Louie De Palma was "Taxi".

FJ wagering strategy: From a close third place, Justin chose to bet almost everything, giving up the chance to win on a possible Triple Stumper.

Judging the producers: The combination of a guest presenter video category, many Triple Stumpers and an over two-minute interview segment resulted in three leftovers in DJ. In a game this close, playing those clues could easily have impacted the outcome.

Correct Qs: DD1 - What is honeybee? DD2 - What is Galilee? DD3 - Who was Trajan? FJ - What is City Lights?