recaps

Detailed statistics for the Wednesday, September 16, 2026 episode of Jeopardy! (Daniel Nicastro, Jen Spinoglio, Matthew Riggle).

(TJF Plus) Daily Details - Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Published September 16, 2026 - 8:59 a.m. Modified September 19, 2026 - 6:03 a.m.

Current Champion

Greg Monson, career statistics:
18 correct, 5 incorrect
4/4 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
29.82% in first on buzzer (17/57)
1/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $3,800)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $13,400

To win:
2 games: 56.855%
3: 32.325%
4: 18.378%
5: 10.449%
6: 5.941%
Avg. streak: 2.318 games.
(Click Here for Methodology )

Upcoming Encore Presentations

October 10-11: S42 E176 (May 11, 2026)
October 17-18: S42 E177 (May 12, 2026)
October 24-25: S42 E178 (May 13, 2026)
(Source: Bell Fibe TV program guide)

All Time Winnings

All Time Jeopardy! Winnings, Regular Play Only:

1. Ken Jennings $2,520,700
2. James Holzhauer $2,462,216
3. Matt Amodio $1,518,601
4. Amy Schneider $1,382,800
5. Jamie Ding $882,605
6. Cris Pannullo $748,286
7. Mattea Roach $560,983
8. Jason Zuffranieri $532,496
9. Scott Riccardi $455,000
10. David Madden $430,400
11. Julia Collins $428,100
12. Matt Jackson $411,612
13. Austin Rogers $411,000
14. Ray Lalonde $386,400
15. Harrison Whitaker $373,999
16. Adriana Harmeyer $349,600
17. Caleb Groen $346,968
18. Adam Remsen $306,415
19. Ryan Long $299,400
20. Arthur Chu $297,200

All Time Jeopardy! Winnings, Including Tournaments (and Consolation Prizes):

1. Brad Rutter $4,968,436
2. Ken Jennings $4,372,700
3. James Holzhauer $3,614,216
4. Matt Amodio $1,964,601
5. Amy Schneider $1,864,800
6. Yogesh Raut $1,598,403
7. Victoria Groce $1,023,801
8. Mattea Roach $897,983
9. Jamie Ding $885,605
10. David Madden $785,733
11. Cris Pannullo $754,286
12. Roger Craig $706,200
13. Andrew He $684,365
14. Larissa Kelly $671,930
15. Matt Jackson $623,612
16. Jason Zuffranieri $549,496
17. Paolo Pasco $548,717
18. Scott Riccardi $533,000
19. Jerome Vered $499,102
20. Julia Collins $495,767
21. Austin Rogers $493,000
22. Juveria Zaheer $491,000
23. Ben Ingram $449,201
24. Adriana Harmeyer $446,600
25. Buzzy Cohen $441,603

Welcome to the TJ!F Plus Daily Details section. For those free logged-in users, more information is available about the results of today's game!

Are you looking for today's main page? Find that here!

Today's Jeopardy! contestants:

Daniel Nicastro, a delivery driver from Las Vegas, Nevada

Jen Spinoglio, a financial researcher from San Francisco, California

Matthew Riggle, a community college math instructor from Madison, Alabama

Andy's Pregame Thoughts:

On July 8, 2026, Caleb Groen became the 296^th player during the post-1984 history of Jeopardy! to win 5 games in regular play. Today, Matthew Riggle looks to become the 297^th. Hoping to stop him are San Francisco's Jen Spinoglio and Las Vegas's Daniel Nicastro. The fact that Matthew seems to have been able to find another gear in pressure situations—interestingly, just like Yogesh Raut seems to do in pressure situations in his games—makes him a very difficult player to defeat, despite the numbers not quite working as much in his favor as you'd think.

After Monday night's issues surrounding the airing of the show in Detroit, and the fact that only The Jeopardy! Fan managed to get an official statement from WDIV, despite vox populi/reaction articles appearing elsewhere, it leaves me wondering whether some of my so-called colleagues on this Jeopardy! beat are only in this for the clicks and the clickbait, or if they are actually here to do some semblance of journalism in this space.

Final Jeopardy! Category: Names In Tech News

Final Jeopardy! Clue: This last name in A.I. news has the same origin as a Latin name meaning "lover of God" or "loved by God":

(Content continues below)

Add The Jeopardy! Fan to your preferred sources on Google by clicking the button below!

Would you like to be a guest on my new Jeopartalk! podcast? Friends are welcome to contact me via any method you have for me; current contestants who need that information can find my email in the About section.

My friends over at Geeks Who Drink have a daily trivia game—Thrice! Existing to make daily clever trivia content accessible to a wide audience, it's a daily challenge that tries to get you to the answer via three separate clues. It has a shareable score functionality to challenge your friends and new questions every day will give you a new daily social ritual. You can find it at thricegame.com.

Are you going on the show and looking for information about how to bet in Final Jeopardy? Check out my Betting Strategy 101 page. If you want to learn how to bet in two-day finals, check out Betting Strategy 102. In case the show uses a tournament with wild cards in the future, there is also a strategy page for betting in tournament quarterfinals.

Are you looking for information on how to stream Jeopardy! in 2026? Find out information here on how to stream from most places in North America!

You can find game-by-game stats here at The Jeopardy! Fan of all 23 players, including Caleb Groen, Adam Remsen, Tristan Williams and Jamie Ding, that have won 10 or more games on Jeopardy!

Correct response: What is Amodei?

More Information About Final Jeopardy!:

In 2021, siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei founded Anthropic, one of today's major A.I. companies; Anthropic is the company behind the large language model Claude; prior to that, both siblings held positions at OpenAI.

I hate this clue today so much, but not from an "I hate Jeopardy! for writing it"; it's more of a "I hate the fact that the world has reached a point where tech and Congressional leaders alike have started to panic about the direction where A.I. is taking us. It's a perfectly cromulent current events clue in 2026. (But I do miss the show going for some sort of oddball clue about the calendar during Opening Week like they traditionally used to, after the wipeout that was Episode #2.)

In terms of the wording of this clue, though, I love that them specifying just the last name is also a hidden clue, because Anthropic was founded by siblings—thus, if you have enough knowledge and can answer the "Why did they ask for just a last name here?" question, it's one last clue to confirm that you have the correct response.

Game Recap & Tonight's Game Stats:

Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here's the Wednesday, September 16, 2026 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:

Jeopardy! Round:

(Categories: A Trip Back To 1986; Musical Idioms; Happy 60th, Star Trek!; That's A Bit Messy; Do Me A Flavor; I Need A Ride To The Airport)

In an opening segment littered with incorrect responses, Daniel missed the Daily Double and Matthew led through 15. At the interviews, the scores were Matthew $4,200 Jen -$400 Daniel -$600.

Statistics at the first break (15 clues):

Matthew 7 correct 1 incorrect
Jen 3 correct 2 incorrect
Daniel 4 correct 4 incorrect

Today's interviews:

Daniel wants to get tattoos of the national animal of every country he's visited.
Jen had a flag flown for her over the U.S. Capitol.
Matthew went to all 48 contiguous U.S. states without getting on a plane.

Both challengers did well in this segment to get out of the hole, but Matthew still led through 30. On the opening board, Matthew got 4 in airports, while Jen got 3 in messy things.

Statistics after the Jeopardy round:

Matthew 11 correct 3 incorrect
Jen 11 correct 3 incorrect
Daniel 6 correct 5 incorrect

Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:

Matthew $4,800
Jen $2,600
Daniel $400

Double Jeopardy! Round:

(Categories: Atomic Physics Glossary; From Ear To Ere; Unfinished Lit; Languages; That's A Long Time; Closing Credit Songs)

The Daily Doubles continued their massacre of the players' scores today, as Daniel and Matthew both lost most of their scores. Jen played very well after Matthew's Daily Double miss as well to take a near-runaway lead entering Final Jeopardy. On the second board, Matthew got 3 in atomic physics, while Jen got 4 in closing credit songs and 3 in things that lasted for a long time.

Statistics after Double Jeopardy:

Jen 20 correct 4 incorrect
Matthew 19 correct 5 incorrect
Daniel 10 correct 7 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 0 (0 today).

Scores going into Final:

Jen $10,600
Matthew $5,400
Daniel $100

Jen was the only player correct in Final Jeopardy today, and that makes her the new champion! She will be back tomorrow in order to defend her title.

Tonight's results:

Daniel $100 - $98 = $2 (What is Theodore?)
Matthew $5,400 - $5,201 = $199 (What is Amadeus?)
Jen $10,600 + $201 = $10,801 (What is Amodei?) (1-day total: $10,801)

Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:

Daily Double locations:

1) MUSICAL IDIOMS $600 (clue #3)
Daniel 1800 -1800 (Matthew 0 Jen 0)
2) LANGUAGES $1600 (clue #4)
Daniel 2000 -1900 (Matthew 4400 Jen 1400)
3) UNFINISHED LIT $1600 (clue #10, $20400 left on board)
Matthew 9600 -7000 (Jen 1400 Daniel 100)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -268

Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:

J! Round:
Matthew 5
Jen
Daniel 4 3*

DJ! Round:
Matthew 4 4 3 5 5 4*
Jen
Daniel 3 2 4* 5†

† - selection in same category as Daily Double

Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:

Jen 0.00
Matthew 4.29
Daniel 3.50

Unplayed clues:

J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 0 (0.00 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles

Game Stats:

Jen $10,600 Coryat, 20 correct, 4 incorrect, 38.60% in first on buzzer (22/57), 0/2 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Matthew $12,400 Coryat, 19 correct, 5 incorrect, 31.58% in first on buzzer (18/57), 3/5 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Daniel $3,800 Coryat, 10 correct, 7 incorrect, 21.05% in first on buzzer (12/57), 2/3 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $26,800
Lach Trash: $11,600 (on 8 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $15,600
Lead Changes: 4
Times Tied: 2

Player Statistics:

Matthew Riggle, career statistics:

116 correct, 20 incorrect
5/7 on rebound attempts (on 17 rebound opportunities)
41.40% in first on buzzer (118/285)
4/6 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$3,200)
2/5 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $18,040

Jen Spinoglio, career statistics:

21 correct, 4 incorrect
0/2 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
38.60% in first on buzzer (22/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $10,600

Daniel Nicastro, career statistics:

10 correct, 8 incorrect
2/3 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
21.05% in first on buzzer (12/57)
0/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$3,700)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $3,800

Jen Spinoglio, to win:

2 games: 48.601%
3: 23.621%
4: 11.480%
5: 5.579%
6: 2.712%
Avg. streak: 1.946 games.

Andy's Thoughts:

I don't think people are going to listen to what I have to say, but I think it's necessary to say this anyway. Matthew did not lose this game because of the Daily Double miss. He still had a lead and was in a position that he had come back from earlier in the week. I don't even hate the wager—it was a $1600 clue in a category where he had just been correct at the $2000 level. Sometimes the results don't work out, that doesn't mean the process was bad. But this was definitely a game where Matthew did not lose it, it was a game that Jen won because she did very well on the rightmost two categories on the Double Jeopardy board, and she consolidated that by being the only player to be correct in Final Jeopardy. (And Jen's singleton get in Final is a major reason why Matthew's Daily Double miss didn't cost him—because he wasn't correct in Final himself.)
If the 35th Tournament of Champions ends up having 13 regular-play players in it and not 19, Matthew's Tournament of Champions qualification chances drop to about 82%.
Today's J!6 clues can be found at the monthly archive.

Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:

(Scores: Jen $10,600 Matthew $5,400 Daniel $100)

Matthew: To have any chance of victory today, you'll need to bet at least $5,000. (Actual bet: $5,201)

Jen: Standard cover bet is $201. (Actual bet: $201)

Daniel: Second place is potentially still at play here, but your best option depends on what you think Matthew will do. His two most likely bets are $5,201 and $5,400. If you think he'll bet $5,201, then you have to go all in for a chance at second. If not, pick any bet but everything. (Actual bet: $98)