PETER SAGAL, HOST:
Now onto our final game, Lightening Fill in the Blank. Each of our players will have 60 seconds in which to answer as many fill-in-the-blank questions as he or she can. Each correct answer now worth two points. Bill, can you give us the scores?
BILL KURTIS, BYLINE: Roy and Charlie each have three. Paula has two.
SAGAL: All right. Paula, you are in third place. You're up first. The clock will start when I begin your first question. Fill in the blank. This week, rescue workers in Tianjin, China continue to search for survivors following a series of blanks...
PAULA POUNDSTONE: Explosions.
SAGAL: That devastated parts of the city. That's right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: After marathon talks on Tuesday, leaders finally reached a billion-euro bailout deal for blank.
POUNDSTONE: Greece.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Monday, retail giant Target announced it was no longer separating its toy aisle by blank.
POUNDSTONE: Gender?
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: The favorite to win the BBC's annual baking competition this week was eliminated from the competition after she blanked.
POUNDSTONE: Went into a diabetic coma.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Forgot to turn on the oven.
POUNDSTONE: Oh. Oh.
SAGAL: Geno Smith, the starting quarterback for the New York Jets is expected to miss at least six games after he was blanked in the locker room.
POUNDSTONE: Punched.
SAGAL: In the jaw by his teammate - broke it.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, scientists were able to confirm that the blank only has a few trillion years left in it.
POUNDSTONE: Earth?
SAGAL: No, the entire universe. In response to claims that their claw machine games were rigged, a mall in China began blanking.
POUNDSTONE: Their claw machines were rigged. They began making it give toys to everyone who played.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: No. They began strapping kids to a giant claw and letting them grab the toys themselves.
CHARLIE PIERCE: What a great thing.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Isn't that the most awesome thing?
PIERCE: Yeah, I would go back - if I was a kid, I would go to that mall every day.
SAGAL: So the mall - people were saying, oh, these toy claw machines, they don't work. The Sichuan mall said, fine. They set up a huge pen filled with stuffed animals. They rolled in a crane. They strapped kids into a harness, lowered them in, let them grab the toys. Pictures are available online. They are adorable.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, how did Paula do on our quiz?
KURTIS: She got four right for eight more points. She now has a total of 10 and she's in the lead.
SAGAL: All right.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: We have flipped a coin, and Roy has elected to go next. Fill in the blank. After violent collisions between police and protesters, the city of blank declared a state of emergency on Tuesday.
ROY BLOUNT JR.: Ferguson.
SAGAL: Right, Missouri.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Wednesday, former President blank announced that he had cancer.
BLOUNT: Jimmy Carter and I'm sorry to say.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: For the first time since the 2011 Fukushima meltdown, blank activated one of its nuclear power plants.
BLOUNT: Japan.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Prosecutors in Sweden announced Thursday they're dropping the long-held charges against WikiLeaks founder blank.
BLOUNT: Oh, Assange.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A British man who drove his car into a lake called police and then blanked.
BLOUNT: Then sank down in a big bubble.
SAGAL: No, he sat back and calmly smoked his pipe.
BLOUNT: Oh, that's right.
SAGAL: They shall always be in England. On Tuesday, for the first time in baseball history, all 15 blank teams won their games.
BLOUNT: Home teams.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: In a mostly negative review for a newly unearthed book by Ayn Rand, The New York Times did praise the novel for being blank.
BLOUNT: Short.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL, LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: A fitness club in the U.K. came under fire this week for having its members do push-ups on top of blank.
PIERCE: Oh, God (laughter) I know this.
BLOUNT: Members doing push-ups on top of each other.
SAGAL: No...
PIERCE: Can I? Can I, Peter?
SAGAL: You may, Charlie.
PIERCE: On top of graves.
SAGAL: Yes, that's right. The Daily Fitness gym in South London released a video this week featuring one of their classes finishing up their training session by jogging out to a nearby graveyard to do some push-ups on the tombstones. The gym employee kept them motivated by shouting, keep your energy up, and, look alive - oh, sorry.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: The gym has since apologized, saying - and this is true - if anyone feels we have disrespected the dead, we would like to apologize to the disrespected and to offer them a free membership to the best gym in London.
BLOUNT: Oh, no.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Bill, how did Roy do on our quiz?
KURTIS: Roy got six right, 12 more points. He's got 15 and the lead.
SAGAL: All right.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: How many, then, does Mr. Charles P. Pierce need to win?
KURTIS: Six to tie, seven to win.
SAGAL: All right. This is for the game, Charlie. Fill in the blank. On Tuesday and Wednesday, officials in blank shocked national markets by devaluing their country's national currency.
PIERCE: China.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Tribal leaders from the Navajo Nation declared Wednesday that they were suing the EPA for contaminating a blank in Colorado.
PIERCE: A river.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: This week, a judge in Mississippi denied bail for a couple accused of trying to join blank.
PIERCE: ISIS.
SAGAL: Right.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Monday, Hillary Clinton proposed a $350 billion affordable blank plan.
PIERCE: College tuition.
SAGAL: Yes, indeed.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: A semi driver who overturned his truck and spilled cans of beer all over an interstate in Florida blamed the accident on blank.
PIERCE: Being drunk.
SAGAL: No, his adorable puppy that he could not stop staring at.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: Let that be a warning to you, dog owners. On Thursday, Fidel Castro celebrated his 89th birthday by insisting that blank owed Cuba millions of dollars.
PIERCE: The United States.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: On Sunday, pro football Hall of Famer and "Monday Night Football" commentator blank passed away at the age of 84.
PIERCE: Frank Gifford.
SAGAL: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF BELL)
SAGAL: Yes, the California State Fair announced this week it would be selling blank for people looking for healthier food options.
PIERCE: Deep-fried kale.
SAGAL: So close - deep-fried SlimFast bars.
PIERCE: Damn.
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: After years of offering fairgoers food like deep-fried, bacon-wrapped pickles and the Krispy Kreme doughnut triple-decker cheeseburger, California's state fair announced this week they're finally offering something for health-conscious Californians, a SlimFast bar dipped in pancake batter, deep-fried and drowned in chocolate syrup.
(LAUGHTER)
POUNDSTONE: Yum.
SAGAL: Bill, did Charlie do well enough to win?
KURTIS: Listen, we have a tie. Charlie and Roy both have 15.
(APPLAUSE)
SAGAL: Wow. Paula, I thought you had it. You did so well.
POUNDSTONE: So there's really only one loser in today's game. Is that correct?
(LAUGHTER)
SAGAL: I like to think we're all winners, in a way.
POUNDSTONE: It's kind of a turn-off to the Donald. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.