DANIEL MOORE, A CONTRACT COMPLIANCE ANALYST FROM PITTSBURGH, WITH JEOPARDY! HOST KEN JENNINGS
It pays to be smart.
Daniel Moore, “a contract compliance analyst from Pittsburgh,” as announcer Johnny Gilbert boisterously says, won $25,000 in dominating fashion on the game show Jeopardy! on Friday, July 14. Moore, who is African American, then turned around and defended his title on Monday, July 17, winning $14,800, for a two-day total of $39,800.
Seemingly everyone has noticed Moore, the clean-cut 38-year-old who, according to Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, works in the City of Pittsburgh’s Office of Business Diversity. “Comma Unity join me in congratulating Daniel Moore, Contract Compliance Analyst in the Office of Business Diversity, for a great 1st win on the game show Jeopardy!!!” the mayor wrote on Twitter on Friday night, July 14.
It’s no secret; African Americans are rare on Jeopardy!, but when a Black contestant wins not once, but twice in a row, it makes headlines. It’s so rare that a search of “Black Jeopardy winners” on YouTube or Google primarily brings up the “Black Jeopardy!” spoofs that sometimes spring up on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.”
But Moore, who, like many people who appear on national game shows, aren’t allowed to publicly discuss the results of a show that’s been taped weeks in advance, was downright dominant in his first-ever appearance on the show on July 14. Moore, with his suit perfectly tailored, actually missed his first guess to start the July 14 show. But then Moore took a bulldozer to the Jeopardy! board.
DANIEL MOORE WON ON JULY 14 AND JULY 17
“Margerie Durant, who set out to popularize air travel in 1931, was the daughter of the founder of this Big 3 car company…”
“What is General Motors?” answered Moore.
“Correct,” said the Jeopardy! host, Ken Jennings.
Other correct “questions” that Moore got right on his glorious opening night were: “Macropus Giganteus, the Eastern Grey type of this marsupial, can cover 30 feet in a single bound…” Moore’s response: “What is a kangaroo?”
“The synthetic slippery resin polytetrafluoro-ethylene, or PTFE for short, has been trademarked under this name…” Moore said: “What is teflon?”
During Double Jeopardy!, Moore picked both of the clues that turned out to be a “Daily Double.” One of the “answers” came from the category, “Dying in the Capital City:” “Suddenly ex-president for life, Papa Doc Duvalier…”
Moore, after a pause, the entire studio audience quiet as a church mouse, responded: “What is Port Au Prince?”
“Correct, in Haiti,” the host said, the studio audience following with its usual clap in unison.
For those who aren’t history junkies, “Papa Doc” was the nickname for longtime Haitian president Francois Duvalier, who served as president from 1957 until his death in 1971. In 1964, he claimed he would be “President for Life” in Haiti, though his dictatorship was often criticized. His son, “Baby Doc,” Jean-Claude Duvalier, took over as Haitian president following his father’s death. Jean-Claude Duvalier ruled until 1986.
Knowledge about the “Duvalier Dynasty” and super-fast recall are among the ways one can make almost $40,000 in less than an hour, like Moore did on the two Jeopardy! shows. However, not all the clues were steeped in science, history or medieval times. Even the casual African American Jeopardy! watcher on Friday, July 14, could have correctly guessed these clues: “John Amos played the father on this ‘70s sitcom until he was killed off and JJ became the man of the house…” And, “Last name of Ricky, Michael, Ronnie, the R&B trio who dripped ‘Poison’ in the ‘90s…”
Like Moore on the show, if you guessed, “What is Good Times?” and “What is Bel Biv Devoe?”, then you are correct.
So, along with Moore’s high IQ and fast recollection, how did Moore begin enjoying Jeopardy! in the first place? During the Monday, July 17 episode, which is shown in Pittsburgh at 7:30 p.m. on WPXI-TV (Channel 11), Moore said he’s watched the show with his parents and grandparents seemingly his “entire life.”
Moore’s dominant run on Jeopardy! ended on Tuesday, July 18, when he lost by $1 — yes, just $1 — in a photo finish. But Moore’s accomplishments on Jeopardy! won’t soon be forgotten.
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