A province that's a Jeopardy! category: What is New Brunswick?
Canadian-born Alex Trebek botches pronunciation of Kouchibouguac as players' N.B. knowledge tested
I'll take "What the heck is going on?" for $200, Alex.
New Brunswickers might have been surprised to see their province as a category during Jeopardy! Monday night.
Contestants rattled through the whole category quickly — in under two minutes — and it's unlikely the questions would have puzzled a New Brunswicker, had one been lucky enough to be on the long-running television game show.
Contestant Joe Di Dio, a "daylight engineer and stay-at-home dad" from Queens in New York City, ran the category.
But he missed questions about the Atlantic Salmon Museum in Doaktown and Campobello Island in Charlotte County.
Mispronunciations abound
He also pronounced "Fredericton" as "FredericTOWN" in one answer.
"We have to take money away from you," Canadian-born host Alex Trebek told the disgruntled-looking contestant.
For the $1,600 answer, "The name of Kouchibouguac National Park means 'Rivers of long' these, for which the area's seacoast is famous," Trebek mispronounced the park's name as "Koo-shee-BOO-quack." It was never acknowledged on the show. (A more correct pronunciation would be KOO-shib-boo-guack.)
The question, for those curious, was, "What are tides?"
The $400 answer, "With these two official languages, New Brunswick is the only legally bilingual province in Canada," probably would have left even non-Canadians rolling their eyes.
New Brunswick contestant reflects
Michael Ireton, a former New Brunswicker who was on Jeopardy! in the mid-1990s, certainly didn't get questions about bilingual New Brunswick during his own appearance on the show.
"I wish that had been a category like it was this week," Ireton, who now lives in Calgary, said in an interview.
"There was no 'Maritime provinces' category," he said. "No 'lobster' category."
While Ireton used to watch the show regularly, he doesn't anymore and missed last night's episode.
He is still knowledgeable, however, about his home province, and knew the response to this $800 answer: "At the Atlantic Salmon Museum In Doaktown, you can learn to tie one of these to hook a salmon."
"Well, what is a fly?" said Ireton, a former host of CBC Radio's Information Morning Saint John. "At least they weren't asking for a particular type of fly."
And for those wondering how Fredericton figured into a question, here is the answer: "This capital was laid out by Tories in 1785 and named for the son of King George III — not the son's wife, Frederica."
And Campobello? An international park maintained by the U.S. and Canada on this island
features the summer home of Franklin Roosevelt.