DD1 - $1,000 - HIS WIDOW LIVED ON: NOTORIOUS EDITION - Lester Gillis, known by this adorable alias, was killed by the FBI in 1934; Helen Gillis died in 1987 & is buried beside him

DD2 - $1,600 - THE NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM - In 1500 B.C. LA.'s Poverty Point was home not just to hunter-gatherers but to hunter-these-gatherers, getting their omega-3s

DD3 - $800 - POST-WWII ASIAN HISTORY - The Geneva Agreements of 1954 partitioned this country into North & South entities at the 17th parallel

Correct Qs: >!DD1 - Who was Baby Face Nelson? DD2 - What is fishermen? DD3 - What is Vietnam?!<

View Poll

CJ! aired in the fall the first two seasons, but apparently not this fall.

https://deadline.com/2024/05/abc-fall-2024-25-schedule-greys-anatomy-golden-bachelorette-the-rookie-conners-will-trent-1235915296/

Here are today's contestants:

• Ashley Atkin, a stay-at-home mom & part-time graduate student from Jerome, Idaho;
• Omar Ahmed, an analytics manager from Old Hickory, Tennessee; and
• Will Stewart, a political organizer originally from Nashville, Tennessee. Will is a two-day champ with winnings of $44,301.

Jeopardy!

PICTURE THE 21st CENTURY FILM // ETYMOLOGY // HIS WIDOW LIVED ON: NOTORIOUS EDITION // THE "BURG"s // ATOM // EVE

DD1 - $1,000 - HIS WIDOW LIVED ON: NOTORIOUS EDITION - Lester Gillis, known by this adorable alias, was killed by the FBI in 1934; Helen Gillis died in 1987 & is buried beside him (Ashley lost $2,000.)

Scores at first break: Will $6,600, Omar $1,800, Ashley $2,200.

Scores entering DJ: Will $7,800, Omar $1,200, Ashley $2,000.

Double Jeopardy!

POST-WWII ASIAN HISTORY // DANCE MUSIC // THE NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM // THAT HAS SOME APPEAL // PREQUELS & SEQUELS // STARTS & ENDS WITH "L"

DD2 - $1,600 - THE NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM - In 1500 B.C. LA.'s Poverty Point was home not just to hunter-gatherers but to hunter-these-gatherers, getting their omega-3s (Omar added $2,600 to tie Will for the lead at $9,400.)

DD3 - $800 - POST-WWII ASIAN HISTORY - The Geneva Agreements of 1954 partitioned this country into North & South entities at the 17th parallel (Will added $10,000 to his total of $16,600 vs. $11,000 for Omar.)

Will made a solid wager on DD3 and pulled out the correct response just in time, allowing him to score a runaway at $28,600 vs. $12,200 for Omar and $7,200 for Ashley.

Final Jeopardy!

BUSINESS LOGOS - Early 1900s labels for this beverage brand featured a beaver sitting on a log at the top of a map

Everyone was incorrect on FJ. Will dropped $2,400 to win with $26,200 for a three-day total of $70,501.

Final scores: Will $26,200, Omar $9,999, Ashley $2,199.

That's before their time: No one knew the most notorious Clyde from many decades ago had the last name of Barrow.

Correct Qs: >!DD1 - Who was Baby Face Nelson? DD2 - What is fishermen? DD3 - What is Vietnam? FJ - What is Canada Dry?!<

Does anyone know if the contestants are paid appearance fees for playing on Masters beyond the prize money? I would assume they are given expenses.

Now that we know the matchups for the last quarterfinal episode of Masters — Yogesh / James / Matt in Game 1, Victoria / Amy / Mattea in game 2 — we can work through all the outcomes and figure out who has what at stake on Wednesday night.

At the Top…

With there being a four-point gap between second and third, Victoria and Yogesh will finish 1-2 in some order. Victoria will take first and Yogesh second, unless all of the following happen:

• Yogesh wins
• Victoria places third
• Yogesh overcomes Victoria on tiebreakers. If they were tied on 13 points, they'd each have four wins. Through the first five episodes, Yogesh is behind by 15 correct responses, 25,800 total Coryat, and 58,805 total pre-Final points. (The tiebreakers are applied in that order.)

Who Else Moves On?

One of those two remaining semifinal spots goes to whoever of Amy and Mattea finishes higher in Game 2.

The other will go to James, unless everything listed below unfolds:

• James places third
• Victoria places third
• Whoever finishes second in Game 2 overcomes James on tiebreakers (this player, either Amy or Mattea, would be tied with James on 6 points; the other would win Game 2 would be in solo third with 8). Both players in that tie would have one win. The deficits to James on the others are —
  • Amy: 31 correct responses, 26,200 total Coryat, 45,000 total pre-Final points
  • Mattea: 38 correct responses, 30,600 total Coryat, 52,200 total pre-Final points

These deficits being virtually insurmountable, it would be extremely unlikely for James not to go through.

Playing for Pride

Being four points behind Amy and Mattea, Matt is locked into sixth and will take home $50,000.

—

Just like for Episode 5, below is the table showing all 36 possible outcomes. (edit: replaced image; fixed Matt's totals — got lucky, making a mistake that's totally irrelevant to the calculations)

https://preview.redd.it/icvygg05tb0d1.png?width=1217&format=png&auto=webp&s=9f490be67cc197acbd119b18cfaace719881b1ef

After the contestants had already written their answers and time was out, he'd mention some little detail that could help the viewer at home right before going over what each person wrote down. Just a little thing I liked.

Jeopardy is more or less a solved game now, especially when the elite play each other.

J has been employing different formats in tournaments to try to keep things fresh.

One easy modification where they can introduce a bit more variance is in the DD.

They can do 2 to 4 DD in each game and distribute them with at least 1 in each round. So instead of always 1 DD in single J and 2 DD in double J, they can have the following possible distribution of DD between the 2 rounds:

1&1 1&2 1&3 2&2 2&1 3&1

The suggestion is for tournaments only, as regular play should keep the 1&2 DD distribution. Thoughts?

I've been trying to find what the sound sample is at the beginning of Jeopardy Masters that sounds like a phone call or a number being dialed before it connects to a modem sound. Does anyone know what this might be from originally or where it is sampled from? Thanks in advance.

Game 9: Victoria, James, Matt

Game 10: Yogesh, Amy, Mattea

Tournament points so far:

10: Victoria, Yogesh

5: James

4: Amy

2: Mattea

1: Matt

I've broken out the spreadsheet and come up with some of the combinations of results that will confirm players either into or out of the semifinal round of Masters at the conclusion of tonight's episode. These do not go to the tiebreakers — they only look at whether a player will be four points or more ahead of fifth (putting them in), or four points or more behind fourth (eliminating them). Here's what things look like.

Clinching scenarios

James clinches a semifinal berth if:

1. He wins, AND Game 2 finishes in any order other than Mattea-Amy-Yogesh. (That one case in Game 2 would leave James on 8 points and Amy and Mattea with 5 each)
2. He finishes second to Victoria, AND Mattea places third in Game 2

Amy clinches a semifinal berth if:

1. She wins, AND Matt does not win Game 1

Elimination scenarios

Matt is eliminated if:

1. He finishes third, AND Game 2 finishes in any order other than Yogesh-Mattea-Amy. (In that case, it would be Amy 4, Mattea 3, Matt 1).
2. He finishes second to James, AND Amy wins Game 2

Mattea is eliminated if:

1. James wins Game 1, AND Amy wins Game 2
2. James finishes second in Game 1, AND Game 2 finishes Amy-Yogesh-Mattea

—

I'm including in this post an image from my Excel file with all 36 possible combinations and the standings that result from each. In the formula bar is how I calculated the numbers in row 19; immediately below in row 20 are functions that return a check mark if the number immediately above is greater than three.

Enjoy tonight's episode!

Screen shot from Microsoft Excel showing all possible combinations of results for Jeopardy! Masters Season 2, Episode 5, and the standings that result from each.

DD1 - $1,000 - BIG GEO - At just shy of 500,000 square miles of mountains, jungle & arid coastline, it's the third largest country in South America

DD2 - $1,600 - MEN OF MEDICINE - In 1853 this British anatomist wrote "On the Structure and Use of the Spleen"; his more famous work came 5 years later

DD3 - $2,000 - LEXICONGRESS - Jason Smith currently holds this title that includes the name of the legislature of the United Kingdom

Correct Qs: >!DD1 - What is Peru? DD2 - Who was Gray? DD3 - What is Parliamentarian?!<

View Poll

I wanted to take a moment to post for Matt. His initial run, pre-everyone except James, was such an exciting time in Jeopardy history. It was the first winning streak we had seen in so long, second-longest to Ken at the time, although he was followed by many other long streaks. He played through the guest host roulette during peak Covid times and remained so humble during the whole thing. I find his quirks (“what’s”, never saying “true daily double”, long pause before responding) and the fact that he still seems a little nervous on stage extremely endearing. I also love that he doesn’t take himself too seriously. While it seems unlikely he will advance further in the Masters tournament (you never know), he seems to be happy in life and doesn’t rely on Jeopardy! to be his whole personality. I’m not sure we’ll ever see him on the Jeopardy! stage again (I hope we do!) so I wanted to say while he’s still on our screens, as I found myself saying repeatedly watching his initial run, what an incredible mind Matt has.

*this is nothing against any of the other Masters, they are all wonderful and obviously smart. There’s just a special place in my heart for Matt that I’m sure some of you relate to.

Here are today's contestants:

• Joyce Yang, a data analyst from Germantown, Maryland;
• Michael Richter, an elections worker from Portland, Oregon; and
• Will Stewart, a political organizer originally from Nashville, Tennessee. Will is a one-day champ with winnings of $25,601.

Jeopardy!

THE GOLDEN AGE // CELEBRITIES // SAME 3 LETTERS, 2 DIFFERENT MEANINGS // HELLO, WALLS // BIG GEO // ALSO A COLLECTIVE NOUN

DD1 - $1,000 - BIG GEO - At just shy of 500,000 square miles of mountains, jungle & arid coastline, it's the third largest country in South America (On the second clue of the game with $0, Will lost $1,000.)

Scores at first break: Will $1,000, Michael -$200, Joyce $2,000.

Scores entering DJ: Will $2,400, Michael -$400, Joyce $5,200.

Double Jeopardy!

LITERARY TITLE OCCUPATIONS // ____ FROM THE ____ // COLONIAL AMERICA // LEXICONGRESS // MEN OF MEDICINE // TV'S FANTASTICAL PLACES

DD2 - $1,600 - MEN OF MEDICINE - In 1853 this British anatomist wrote "On the Structure and Use of the Spleen"; his more famous work came 5 years later (Will added $1,000 to his leading score of $7,200.)

DD3 - $2,000 - LEXICONGRESS - Jason Smith currently holds this title that includes the name of the legislature of the United Kingdom (Will added $4,000 to his total of $13,400 vs. $7,600 for Joyce.)

Will was correct on both DDs in DJ, building just enough of a lead to lock down a runaway at $18,600 vs. $9,200 for Joyce. Michael had a chance to stick around for FJ on the last clue but missed, ending at -$400.

Final Jeopardy!

CINEMA HISTORY - Films made outside the U.S. in the ’50s like “Three Coins in the Fountain” & “Quo Vadis” led to an era dubbed “Hollywood on” this river

Both players were correct on FJ. Will added $100 to win with $18,700 for a two-day total of $44,301.

Final scores: Will $18,700, Michael -$400, Joyce $10,000.

That's before their time: No one knew "The Golden Age of" this medium that included the shows "Suspense" and "Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar" is radio, or the title occupation of a Rod Steiger movie, a person who often deals with desperate people, is pawnbroker.

Correct Qs: >!DD1 - What is Peru? DD2 - Who was Gray? DD3 - What is Parliamentarian? FJ - What is the Tiber?!<

Jeopardy has too many pop culture clues lately, which often stump contestants who usually don't watch a lot of fluff TV shows. I suspect that the writers are being ordered to "advertise" other shows that are owned by the studio. I hope that infamous all-Seinfeld round from twenty years ago won't become a regular occurrence.

I went to the website to look at today’s contestants and it already had the results for today. Did the game already air somewhere else ( I’m on the West Coast), or is it a mess up on Jeopardy’s part?

After a crucial win against Matt and Mattea, Amy now up to 4th with 4 points, two ahead of Mattea and three ahead of Matt.

Can she hold it, or somebody else will take 4th?

Welcome to the daily r/Jeopardy Coryat performance review.

How did everyone do today? Were these boards to your liking? Did they trip you up more than you would like or leave you reluctant to buzz in? Let’s share how we did and talk over today‘s clues. Were they tricky? Just really difficult? Or surprisingly easy for you?

What's a Coryat score? It’s a way of measuring your performance on each day’s game and can be a tool to track progress in training. Here's a primer:

On every clue, decide whether you are "ringing in" or not.

If you ring in correctly, add the value of the clue.

If you ring in incorrectly, subtract the value of the clue.

If you don't ring in, count it as zero.

Daily Doubles = add the nominal value of the clue (the row it's in) if you get it right, zero if you guess wrong, no penalty for incorrect

Add 'em all up, that's your Coryat score!

(Final Jeopardy is not factored in at all for a Coryat score.)

You can learn more from Karl Coryat about his score tracking method at his webpage: http://www.pisspoor.com/jep.html

View Poll

What's your moment that would have risked making you go viral (at least in the online J! sphere?)

For example, in a category about rock musicians, there was a picture clue asking to identify Ann and Nancy Wilson (of Heart). I misidentified them as Courtney Love and Melissa Auf der Maur.

I have 2 questions

1 if you end in the hole could they legally make it pay it back

2 what if everyone is in the whole at the end of double jeopardy?

Is it just me or when a contestant gives the wrong answer and Ken says “no”, the intonation he occasionally uses is “of course not”. I’m not putting him down, I just think that he unconsciously uses that tone when he feels that the answer was obvious.

Not sure if this was already covered in the recaps but there are too many comments to read through. And this is no disrespect to James whose Jeopardy bona-fides are beyond question.

Last year, the stopped doing the occupation intros with the semi-finals. This year, that was bumped up to Episode 3. And I can't help but wonder if this has to do with with James being the self-described "Final Boss" but (so far) turning in a less-than-dominant performance. That line doesn't seem so funny under these circumstances and could even be interpreted as a little embarrassing.

I wonder if either James or the producers said "let's stop that line" and they had the choice of either changing James' occupation (which is a bit like admitting he is no longer the Final Boss) or eliminating them altogether.

Not that we need the occupations since we have already seen everyone play so many times. They can almost start the game cold.

Yesterday in the “Andy’s Weekly Thoughts” section of his blog, Thejeopardyfan (Andy Saunders, a journalist specializing in Jeopardy! coverage) called this community “A Cancer Upon The Fandom” and leveled a number of accusations against it and the mod team. You can see his blog entry at this link: https://thejeopardyfan.com/2024/05/andys-weekly-thoughts-5-11-a-cancer-upon-the-fandom.html Here, we respond.

Mr. Saunders’s opening sentence states his thesis that this sub is a place where comments that dissent from a putative “groupthink” are unwelcome. This is an accusation he has leveled against the sub numerous times, and it seems to stem from a fundamental misunderstanding of how we moderate the sub. Unlike his blog, where comments are not visible unless he personally approves them (and in so doing, he applies a heavy filter in favor of opinions he wants to see), comments are immediately publicly visible in our sub. Furthermore, while it is his right to filter comments in his blog however he sees fit, we take a different approach to this sub, and we would appreciate it if he would respect our right to do that. Specifically, we do not feel it is our place to decide what people should think. The sub has rules that everyone must abide by, and those rules apply equally regardless of what someone’s opinion is about what the show is doing. We do not moderate content on the basis of the nature of the opinion being expressed, unless that opinion is fundamentally incompatible with the rules of the sub (bigotry being an example of something that is unwelcome in our space).

On numerous occasions, both publicly and privately, Mr. Saunders has provided less-than-constructive feedback that he disagrees with that approach, and has gone so far as to make unfounded accusations that by allowing free expression of opinions, we are somehow attempting to influence the show. Nothing could be further from the truth. We allow and encourage discussion of both sides of any topic that is both germane to Jeopardy! and not in violation of our rules. That one viewpoint or another is more vocal or more common does not and will not change our approach.

Unlike in his post about us and the community, we will not speculate about the motives for his actions – we will only point those actions out and respond to them. We do not dispute that in a group of over 100,000 members, there are likely to be some bad actors, including those whose motivation comes from conscious or subconscious prejudice or bias. However, anyone who reviews our rules and watches our actions would know that when we see or become aware of evidence of white supremacy or any other form of intolerance, we are quick to delete the corresponding comments and issue immediate permanent bans. This approach is a key part of our efforts to keep the sub welcoming, inclusive, and excellent toward people.

Mr. Saunders then points out that a moderator posted, in his words, “misleading statistics” about Jeopardy! viewership. In accordance with what we have stated above, our moderators are allowed to have opinions of their own and post them, and they are allowed to post any links or data they wish, as long as they are on-topic and in line with the sub’s rules. When doing that, they are speaking as individuals, as fans of the show, and not on behalf of the mod team – which is why you will not see them distinguish such comments with the mod shield. Likewise, if he felt those statistics were misleading, he was (and still is) welcome to chime in with his opinion, make a case for his point of view, and engage in a respectful debate. Instead, he chose to retreat to a corner where he could prevent us from replying directly and take his shots from there without seeking comments from us. This is an unfortunate abdication of the neutrality that one would expect in the high-quality journalism he aspires to.

In his final paragraph, Mr. Saunders states that r/Jeopardy has become “the worst part of being a Jeopardy! fan.” We are saddened to hear he feels that way, but if he does, he, like anyone else who feels the sub is no longer for them, is welcome to discontinue his engagement with the community, or even start his own competing sub that he can run however he chooses. One thing that will not happen, though, is we will not allow ugly and unfounded accusations, posted against us in a space where the speaker has the unilateral ability to control the message, to go unanswered. Unlike in his space, he is invited to join this thread if he so chooses and answer anything we are saying here.

Mr. Saunders’s last comment – that the sub no longer has the show’s best interests at heart – is incorrect, insulting, and unsupported by facts or our actions. He does not even attempt to hazard a guess at the elephant-in-the-room question of why we, as fans of the show ourselves, would bother to devote countless hours to moderating the sub only to have some ulterior motive against the success of the show.

Again, our opinion is that the best way to run the sub is to let people speak their minds, not to force positivity upon people if they have other thoughts. If we were reading the sub on behalf of the show, we would want to know people’s true opinions, not a sugar-coated version. Furthermore, we feel Mr. Saunders is overestimating the sub’s ability to influence the show in the first place. We are under no delusion that we know what is best for the show better than those who run it for a living. Whether the show reads this sub or not, or whether anything in this sub may influence the show in any way, is outside the scope of our jobs as moderators. We stay in our lane: providing a respectful, supportive environment for contestants, serious fans, and casual fans alike to come together and discuss the show we all love.

The mod team respectfully declines Mr. Saunders’s suggestion that we all resign.

Minor spoilage if you haven’t seen the latest episode of AGIM…

So both of these were released on the same day. I watched A Gentleman in Moscow first. BTW- also coincidentally Episode “7” ☺️.

Then, as I watched Final Jeopardy of Game 7, I had the ‘ pause to collect yourself’ moment… 💭 Woa, that was 1 of those wild-timing life coincidences 💭 But after the 🤯 cooled down, I considered… 💭 Wait, is it possible the networks coordinated this subtle “coincidence” just for fun? 💭

Context:

1. Jeopardy Masters Game 7 FJ: de stalinization (and Khrushchev’s secret speech)
2. A Gentleman in Moscow Ep 7: major plot point was the end of Stalin & the secrecy leading to Khrushchev

I try to consider the law of averages when seemingly crazy coincidences happen, but so specific + same day = pretty cool.

Whaddya think?

• The universe winking at us? 🌌
• The entertainment biz winking at us? 📺

(postscript) I’m enjoying AGIM. Good story with a spectrum of emotions. Hope it holds up to the book (?). Also, the “Piano Anthem Rebellious Riff” scene in this episode was 👨🏻‍🍳😘.

During Double Jeopardy, “Find the Greek Letter In…”, the clue “the species of mushrooms that produce a hallucinogenic experience”. James correctly answered Psi, but Ken’s followup- psilocybin- is not a species of mushroom but a compound magic mushrooms contain. Said mushrooms are several species in the genus Psilocybe, with the most well known species being Psilocybe cubensis.

It’s a small thing that didn’t affect gameplay but if there was ever a game for extreme pedantry, it’s Jeopardy!

I grew up watching Jeopardy! with my grandparents and have always really loved the show. It is a part of American culture and is something I hold dear.

However, that is not to say there aren’t things I don’t like about the show. As I have already stated the things I love about the show, this will be a post dedicated to what I don’t like.

1: 2nd and 3rd place contestants aren’t awarded their money:

The biggest reason for this is it’s chintzy, unfair, and doesn’t reward knowledge. Sure, contestants who end up minus get rewarded. However, the vast majority of Jeopardy! players make more in the game than the consolation prizes, and they really should be rewarded for what they can muster. Another reason is that forcing them to try and win just to keep their money doesn’t really make them try to win. Sure, if a category that they know comes up they’ll risk it, but in general it seems if they don’t know the category, they more often then not risk nothing and hope the leader goofs up so they can win.

2: Having to wait until the answer is fully read:

The main reason for this is that it doesn’t reward the first player to know an answer. Someone could recognize the answer early on in the clue and still lose it to someone who only recognized it at the end. Sure, back in Fleming’s day when you could ring when the answer was exposed, there were plenty of times people just rang right away and the first person to recognize the answer didn’t get it. However, many times, the players who rang right away were caught. Thus, the first person to recognize the answer usually got it because people knew it wasn’t wise to ring right away.

3: The show has given hugely successful contestants too much spotlight:

What I mean to say here is that I do not like how many times the most successful contestants have been brought back. An initial run and the tournament of champions is fine, but the amount of times these same people have been brought back to me is overkill.