Current Champion
Nikolas Polsinelli, career statistics:
44 correct, 6 incorrect
2/2 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
35.96% in first on buzzer (41/114)
4/5 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $10,600)
1/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $17,500
To win:
3 games: 64.111%
4: 41.102%
5: 26.351%
6: 16.894%
7: 10.831%
Avg. streak: 3.786 games.
(Click Here for Methodology)
Upcoming Encore Presentations
September 26-27: S42 E174 (May 7, 2026)
October 3-4: S42 E175 (May 8, 2026)
October 10-11: S42 E176 (May 11, 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
Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category The Southern Hemisphere) for Friday, October 8, 2021 (Season 38, Game 20):
British zoologist George Shaw looked for stitches when he first saw this mammal in 1799, thinking he was being tricked
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s contestants:
Max Godnick, a producer originally from New York, New York
Claire Lyon, an engineer originally from Ashland, Kentucky
Matt Amodio, a Ph.D student from New Haven, Connecticut (37-day total: $1,467,801)
Andy’s Pregame Thoughts: Today is the final era of the Mike Richards era of Jeopardy!; he was fired as Executive Producer a few days after the taping of this episode. After yesterday’s judging debacle in Final Jeopardy—the judges accepted “triathalon” in 1999 and “pentathalon” in 2013—I’m glad to see this era end. In better news, Matt Amodio picked up win #37 yesterday, bringing him to exactly half of Ken Jennings’ record of 74 wins. Moreover, we’re also in the midst of an incredibly long streak of episodes where we haven’t seen any clues left on the board, with yesterday being the 21st consecutive game where we’ve seen every clue. We haven’t seen a streak this long in regular play since there were 40 straight games between May 31 and September 6 of 2002.
PSA: The best way to keep COVID-19 at bay (and keep Jeopardy! producing new episodes) is for everybody to get their vaccinations as soon as they are able to. When wearing a mask, ensure that your mask covers both your nose and your mouth.
(Content continues below)
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.
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Correct response: What is the platypus?
More information about Final Jeopardy: (The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2021 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)
Thinking that someone might have been trying to trick him with a creature put together like Frankenstein’s monster, George Shaw was very befuddled by the platypus with its combination of avian, reptilian, and mammalian features. Shaw described it as “of all the Mammalia yet known it seems the most extra-ordinary in its conformation; exhibiting the perfect resemblance of the beak of a Duck engrafted on the head of a quadruped.”
Interestingly, researchers in January presented the platypus’ genome in Nature along with its fellow monotreme, the echidna.
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Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Tonight’s results are below!
Scores going into Final:
Matt $43,800
Max $7,600
Claire $5,600
Tonight’s results:
Claire $5,600 + $1,691 = $7,291 (What is platypus?)
Max $7,600 – $3,601 = $3,999 (What is a zebra?)
Matt $43,800 + $7,000 = $50,800 (What is duckbill platypus?) (38-day total: $1,518,601)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Matt $14,200
Max $3,600
Claire $0
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) OCTOBER $1000 (clue #3)
Matt 2000 +2000 (Claire -1000 Max 0)
2) NOT YOUR AVERAGE GEMSTONE! $1200 (clue #4)
Matt 18600 +6000 (Claire 0 Max 3600)
3) I’D LIKE A WORD WITH “U” $2000 (clue #11, $19200 left on board)
Matt 31800 +2000 (Claire 0 Max 5600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 139
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:
Matt $38,000 Coryat, 40 correct, 0 incorrect, 63.16% in first on buzzer (36/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Claire $5,600 Coryat, 7 correct, 2 incorrect, 15.79% in first on buzzer (9/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 0 rebound opportunities)
Max $7,600 Coryat, 11 correct, 0 incorrect, 19.30% in first on buzzer (11/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $51,200
Lach Trash: $1,000 (on 2 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $1,800
Matt Amodio, career statistics:
1282 correct, 116 incorrect
55/63 on rebound attempts (on 124 rebound opportunities)
56.23% in first on buzzer (1210/2152)
76/86 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $304,200)
29/38 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $28,368
Claire Lyon, career statistics:
8 correct, 2 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 0 rebound opportunities)
15.79% in first on buzzer (9/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $5,600
Max Godnick, career statistics:
11 correct, 1 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
19.30% in first on buzzer (11/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $7,600
Matt Amodio, to win:
39 games: 93.910%
40: 88.540%
41: 84.594%
42: 79.941%
43: 75.403%
Avg. streak: 54.420 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Considering that Max was granted a correct response today for a response that appeared to be pronounced “triathalon”, my point regarding yesterday’s Final Jeopardy! stands.
- $50,800 is tied for the 50th-best one-day total of all time on the show.
- $38,000 is the 5th-best Coryat score of all time on the show. Matt now has 3 of the top 5 Coryat scores of all time.
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