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A Celebrity Jeopardy! veteran, the Bethesda native famously flubbed a question he feels he should have gotten during his first time playing regarding one of Shakespeare's most famous plays.
The journalist and podcast host got a second shot, but one of his competitors had other ideas.
"I do have good memories (of Celebrity Jeopardy!), but I'm still troubled by the fact that when I was asked about Shakespeare's Julius Ceasar, I mixed up Brutus and Mark Antony," he recalled. "And the only reason I felt bad is because I kept thinking, what if my high school English teacher is watching."
He later got a shot at the ultimate redemption toward the end of the first round, when the category "Shakespeare Plays By Initials" was in play, but his moment was upended by actress Kyra Sedgwick, who was quicker on the trigger.
The stage was set and for $100 the question came up: "The title character utters the famous line 'Et tu, Brute?': J.C."
Laughter erupted from comedian Amanda Seales, who was willing to let Rocca avenge his missed moment, but the New Yorker came out of Sedgwick, who ripped the rug right out from under Rocca as his eyes widened and he feverishly and animatedly attempted to be the first to buzz in.
He was not.
"What is Julius Caesar," the actress correctly answered
"This was my shot at redemption!" Rocca crowed, as host Ken Jennings laughed. "I was actually going to give it to you," a chuckling Seales added.
"Back to therapy," Rocca wearily responded.
However, even without the $100 - and shot at glorious absolution - Maryland is moving on in Celebrity Jeopardy!
One week after a Virginia-themed Final Jeopardy! question sent Cynthia Nixon packing, Rocca rocked the stage, earning $25,200 to top Seales ($12,300) and Sedgwick ($0) to move on to the semifinals.
Playing for the Inner-City Scholarship Fund, Rocca was sitting pretty heading into the final question, having amassed an insurmountable $33,200 total before missing out on the last one.
"Applied Geometry" got the better of Rocca, when he was stumped on this prompt:
"Thomas Hales proved hexagonal structures are the most compact way to fill a plane, a centuries-old theory based on the behavior of these."
Turns out it was not "bathroom tiles," though the Marylander got a laugh from the crowd, but by then his total was out of reach and he will move on to the semifinals, though no showtime date has been released by ABC.
The correct answer, which only Seales got: Bees.
Joining Rocca in the semifinals of the charitable tournament:
- Baltimore native Utkarsh Ambudkar;
- Actor Lisa Ann Walter;
- Sports comedy host Katie Nolan;
- Actor Steven Weber;
- United Nations Goodwill ambassador Mira Sorvino;
- Actor Dule Hill;
- Actor Rachel Dratch;
- Comedienne Heather McMahan.
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