FAITH SALIE, HOST:
Now on to our final game, Lightning Fill in the Blank. Each of our players will have 60 seconds in which to answer as many fill-in-the-blank questions as they can. Each correct answer is worth two points. Bill, can you update us on the scores?
BILL KURTIS: I can. Paula has two. Peter has two. Cristela - wait for it - has four.
CRISTELA ALONZO: Yes, yes, yes.
SALIE: All right. You know what? I just flipped a coin in my brain, and, Paula, would you like to go first?
PAULA POUNDSTONE: Oh. Yeah, sure.
SALIE: You and Peter are tied for second place. You're going to go first. The clock will start when I begin your first question.
POUNDSTONE: The clock will start, Faith, when I say start the clock.
(LAUGHTER)
PETER GROSZ: She never treats Peter Sagal this way. This is real - Paula is being very rebellious.
POUNDSTONE: Faith, you are not the boss of me.
SALIE: Oh, my God.
(LAUGHTER)
SALIE: On Wednesday, the House voted to approve a select committee to investigate the attack on the...
POUNDSTONE: On the Capitol on January 6.
SALIE: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SALIE: Following U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria and Iraq, militias backed by blank have vowed to respond.
POUNDSTONE: Iran.
SALIE: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SALIE: This week, the blank that's been hammering the West Coast began moving inland.
POUNDSTONE: The heat dome.
SALIE: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SALIE: After seven years, Meghan McCain announced she was leaving "The...
POUNDSTONE: "View."
SALIE: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SALIE: This week, a wanted fugitive in Mexico was arrested after he decided to give police a fake name and chose blank.
POUNDSTONE: One of the cops' names?
SALIE: No, the name of another wanted fugitive.
POUNDSTONE: Oh.
SALIE: On Tuesday, a leg injury forced tennis legend blank to drop out of Wimbledon.
POUNDSTONE: Serena Williams.
SALIE: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SALIE: This week...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SALIE: ...A woman in Moscow didn't suffer any injuries when the trust fall she was doing with her boyfriend went wrong and she blanked.
POUNDSTONE: And she fell 1,000 feet off the Russian Grand Canyon.
SALIE: No, fell forward into a stream.
POUNDSTONE: Oh.
SALIE: In a video of the incident, you can see the woman standing with her arms out, ready to be caught by her boyfriend waiting behind her. Unfortunately, instead of falling backwards, she leaned forward and tipped right into a stream. So the trust fall didn't so much go wrong as go opposite.
Bill, how did Paula do?
KURTIS: Very well. She had five right, 10 more points. She now has 12 and the lead.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE SOUND EFFECT)
SALIE: OK. Peter, you are up next. Fill in the blank. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court left the CDC's moratorium on blanks in place.
GROSZ: Evictions.
SALIE: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SALIE: State Department officials announced Wednesday that U.S.-issued blanks will now offer a third gender option.
GROSZ: Passports.
SALIE: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SALIE: Fearing further collapse, rescue operations for the condo in blank were suspended this week.
GROSZ: Miami.
SALIE: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SALIE: In a dissent, Justice Kagan called the Supreme Court's decision to uphold Arizona's restrictive blank laws, quote, "tragic."
GROSZ: Voting laws.
SALIE: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SALIE: This week, a man in New Jersey parallel parking his car accidentally drove onto the curb and into blank.
GROSZ: Into the arms of his soulmate.
(LAUGHTER)
SALIE: No, into the front of a driving school. On Tuesday, former Defense Secretary blank died at the age of 88.
GROSZ: Donald Rumsfeld.
SALIE: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SALIE: This week, a driver in Iowa...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SALIE: ...Blamed her GPS when she accidentally blanked.
GROSZ: Drove into the arms of her soulmate.
(LAUGHTER)
SALIE: No, drove into a construction site and sank in a pile of wet cement. The woman explained to police that she thought her GPS knew what it was doing, and that's why she drove through several warning signs, a handful of barricades and all those construction workers screaming at her to turn around as they bounced off her windshield.
ALONZO: Is she the one that did the trust fall forward?
(LAUGHTER)
SALIE: Bill, how did Peter do?
KURTIS: Peter had five right for 10 more points. She now has 12, and that means he is tied with Paula for the lead.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE SOUND EFFECT)
SALIE: Well, thank you, Bill. How many does Cristela need to win?
KURTIS: Well, she needs four to tie, so she needs five to win.
SALIE: All right, Cristela. Let's see how you do. Ready?
ALONZO: Let's do it.
SALIE: This is for the game. Fill in the blank. According to a new report, Pfizer and Moderna's blanks will likely provide years of immunity.
ALONZO: Vaccines.
SALIE: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SALIE: This week, the House passed a bill seeking to remove all blank statues from the Capitol.
ALONZO: Confederate.
SALIE: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SALIE: On Thursday, a judge denied blank's request to remove her father as her financial conservator.
ALONZO: Britney Spears. Free Britney.
SALIE: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SALIE: After it went missing for almost a full day, a family found their lost dog when it blanked.
ALONZO: Rang the doorbell.
SALIE: Yes...
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SALIE: ...Showed up on their porch in the middle of the night and rang the doorbell. After two years in prison, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned disgraced comedian blank's conviction.
ALONZO: Bill Cosby.
SALIE: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SALIE: This week...
(SOUNDBITE OF GONG)
SALIE: ...Police in Pennsylvania were called to a Home Depot to remove a group of people blanking in the lumber aisle.
ALONZO: Fighting?
SALIE: No, performing an exorcism on the wood.
(LAUGHTER)
SALIE: According to the police, it was the middle of the afternoon when a group of people wandered into the Home Depot and started exorcising the wood. And you know how it is at Home Depot. The demon left the wood and immediately looked for someone to possess, but it could not find a single damn person who worked there.
(LAUGHTER)
SALIE: Bill, did Cristela do well enough to win? I think she might have.
KURTIS: Did she ever - five right, 10 more points. That means, with 14, she's the champion this week.
POUNDSTONE: Yay.
GROSZ: Yay.
POUNDSTONE: Yay.
SALIE: Congratulations, Cristela. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.