| 100% | TURNRED | 7 | What the focus of a 125-Across will do at its climax |
| 52% | SWELL | 5 | What the music might do at the emotional climax of a movie |
| 50% | SLAYINGSLOW | 11 | What Buffy might be doing at the end of a long, hard night? |
| 49% | CASTING | 7 | With 146-Across, what the center of this puzzle is doing during a 125-Across |
| 46% | POT | 3 | What may be at stake as a result of the ruling at 37-Across |
| 43% | SNAP | 4 | What a center will do to a football at the start of a play |
| 42% | TAKEABOW | 8 | What performers do at the end of a play |
| 42% | ADE | 3 | It may be at the end of a block |
| 42% | TODO | 4 | It might be at the top of a list |
| 42% | PTS | 3 | What is tallied at the end of a competition: Abbr. |
| 41% | YEN | 3 | What a "Y" with a pair of horizontal lines through it is the symbol for |
| 41% | STATE | 5 | With 70-Across, what the first word of each long Across answer is vis-à-vis the bracketed place in its clue |
| 41% | SCATTER | 7 | What players do at the start of a game of tag |
| 41% | RHYME | 5 | What the lines of a limerick do |
| 41% | OVATION | 7 | It may be standing at the end of a concert |
| 41% | EXAM | 4 | It might be given at the end of a unit |
| 41% | AMEN | 4 | "So be it" at the end of a prayer |
| 40% | WOOWOOWOO | 9 | With 80 Across, what it's like after a meeting of the Curly Fan Club? |
| 40% | ACT | 3 | Anagram of the animal in 23a which is what Ryan Reynolds does for a living |
| 40% | FALLS | 5 | What a Jenga tower does at the end of the game |
| 40% | WILDFLOWERS | 11 | Colorful elements of a meadow, and what can be found at the starts of the answers to the starred clues? |
| 40% | MIC | 3 | It may be dropped at the end of a triumphant performance |
| 40% | PITS | 4 | "If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries What Am I Doing in the ___?" (Erma Bombeck book) |
| 40% | ERMA | 4 | "If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits?" writer Bombeck |
| 40% | ALIBI | 5 | What a suspect claims he was doing at the time a crime was committed |
| 40% | GENRE | 5 | What the start of 17-, 29-, 45- or 61-Across is, in a bookstore |
| 40% | ROPE | 4 | What the sides of a wrestling ring are made from |
| 40% | ERMA | 4 | Bombeck who wrote If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits? |
| 39% | CUTTINGTHECARDS | 15 | Part of a blackjack dealer's ritual … or what this answer is doing vis-à-vis the answers to the starred clues |
| 39% | ROAR | 4 | What the MGM lion does at the beginning of a movie |