Today’s Final Jeopardy – Thursday, January 16, 2025

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Current Champion

Matthew Riggle, career statistics:
47 correct, 6 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
41.23% in first on buzzer (47/114)
3/3 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $7,600)
1/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $21,300

To win:
3 games: 68.027%
4: 46.277%
5: 31.481%
6: 21.415%
7: 14.568%
Avg. streak: 4.128 games.
(Next game: September 14)
(Click Here for Methodology)

Upcoming Encore Presentations

August 12: S42 E98 (January 21, 2026)
August 13: S42 E99 (January 22, 2026)
August 14: S42 E100 (January 23, 2026)
August 15-16: S41 E141 (March 24, 2025)
August 17: S42 E101 (January 26, 2026)
August 18: S42 E105 (January 30, 2026)
August 19: S42 E102 (January 27, 2026)
August 20: S42 E103 (January 28, 2026)
August 21: S42 E104 (January 29, 2026)
August 22-23: S41 E142 (March 25, 2025)
August 24: S42 E106 (February 2, 2026)
August 25: S42 E107 (February 3, 2026)
August 26: S42 E108 (February 4, 2026)
August 27: S42 E109 (February 5, 2026)
August 28: S42 E110 (February 6, 2026)
August 29-30: S41 E143 (March 26, 2025)
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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 $1,098,403
7. Mattea Roach $897,983
8. Jamie Ding $885,605
9. David Madden $785,733
10. Victoria Groce $773,801
11. Cris Pannullo $754,286
12. Roger Craig $706,200
13. Larissa Kelly $671,930
14. Matt Jackson $623,612
15. Jason Zuffranieri $549,496
16. Andrew He $534,365
17. Scott Riccardi $533,000
18. Jerome Vered $499,102
19. Julia Collins $495,767
20. Austin Rogers $493,000
21. Ben Ingram $449,201
22. Paolo Pasco $448,717
23. Adriana Harmeyer $446,600
24. Buzzy Cohen $441,603
25. Juveria Zaheer $441,000

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Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category Trees) for Thursday, January 16, 2025 (Season 41, Game 94):

Order Arecales, this tree gets its name from Roman times; a leaf from one was placed in a victor’s hands after a contest was won

(correct response beneath the contestants)

Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:

Eamonn Campbell, a lawyer originally from Manchester, Vermont

Mehal Shah, a software engineer from Seattle, Washington

Joey DeSena, a development engineer from Raleigh, North Carolina

Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:

Day 4 of Champions Wildcard features Joey DeSena, Mehal Shah, and Eamonn Campbell. Coming in to this event, the prediction model felt that Mehal may be ToC-caliber whose original run on the show was unfortunately cut short too soon; until Drew Goins won Second Chance, Mehal was looking to be a favorite to take this tournament overall. Joey and Eamonn are also good players; I am thus looking forward to a spirited matchup today.

I’m also going to go as far as to predict that this tournament will be the last time we ever see wild cards in a Jeopardy tournament; I can’t see anyone in Culver City being happy that the general takeaway from yesterday’s game was essentially “Player Plays To Lose.”

Correct response: What is the palm tree?

More information about Final Jeopardy:

(The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2025 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)

After a statue was a palm tree at Delphi was used as part of a victory monument built to commemorate the Battle of the Eurymdeon in the mid-400s BCE, the tree became associated with victory, and winners of Greek athletic contests would be awarded palm branches (or fronds). This practice eventually migrated into Rome, where the tree became associated with any victory, military or civilian.

One more thing that I would like to say is that taxonomic classification is not often used on Jeopardy! to unequivocally pin an answer like today’s Final Jeopardy is; Harry Eisenberg’s book, published in the 1990s, said that in early seasons of the show, that tactic would be often used, but it was phased out as it made for a worse viewing experience overall.

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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:

Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Thursday, January 16, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:

Jeopardy! Round:

(Categories: Dams; 10-Letter Vocab; Where’s The Beef?; History; Look At This Photograph; Every Time I Do It Makes Me Laugh)

All three players got off to a good start with everyone separated by just $800 after 15 clues. At the interviews, the scores were Mehal $3,400 Joey $3,000 Eamonn $2,600.

Statistics at the first break (15 clues):

Mehal 5 correct 0 incorrect
Joey 6 correct 1 incorrect
Eamonn 4 correct 0 incorrect

Today’s interviews:

Eamonn had a very noisy watch party where the NYPD got called.
Mehal has added a few birds to his birding list since he was last on.
Joey missed his viewing party because of taping Champions Wildcard.

Joey and Mehal got their correct response totals into double digits as they pulled away from Eamonn during the second segment.

Statistics after the Jeopardy round:

Mehal 12 correct 0 incorrect
Joey 11 correct 1 incorrect
Eamonn 5 correct 0 incorrect

Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:

Mehal $6,600
Joey $6,200
Eamonn $2,800

Double Jeopardy! Round:

(Categories: Short Stories; Common Bands; Travel USA; The Jeté Set; Make Mine Math; “More” Or “Less”)

In a marked difference to yesterday, Mehal and Joey found the Daily Doubles—and made extremely large bets. Both were in excellent positions going into Final Jeopardy.

Statistics after Double Jeopardy:

Joey 20 correct 2 incorrect
Mehal 21 correct 2 incorrect
Eamonn 11 correct 1 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 26 (0 today).

Scores going into Final:

Joey $24,000
Mehal $19,600
Eamonn $9,600

All three of our players went for laurel; Eamonn went all in, while Mehan and Joey bet $0.

Tonight’s results:

Eamonn $9,600 – $9,600 = $0 (What is Laurel?)
Mehal $19,600 – $0 = $19,600 (What is a laurel?)
Joey $24,000 – $0 = $24,000 (What is a laurel? ❤️ to Lorelai) (Semi-Finalist)

Wild Card standings:

Monday: Will Yancey, $13,800
Tuesday: Evan Dorey, $20,600
Wednesday: Drew Goins, $23,400
Thursday: Joey DeSena, $24,000
Friday:
1. Mehal Shah, $19,600, 100% to advance
2. Jay Fisher, $15,400, 100% to advance
3. Jen Feldman, $8,200, 78.097% to advance
4. Paul Clauson, $8,000, 27.081% to advance
5. Stevie Ruiz, $5,199
6. Eamonn Campbell, $0 ($9,600)
7. Davey Morrison, $0 ($8,800)
8. Aiden Orzech, -$2,400
9.
10.

Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:

Daily Double locations:

1) HISTORY $600 (clue #1)
Joey 0 +1000 (Mehal 0 Eamonn 0)
2) TRAVEL USA $1600 (clue #2)
Mehal 7800 +7800 (Joey 6200 Eamonn 2800)
3) “MORE” OR “LESS” $800 (clue #22, $5200 left on board)
Joey 11800 +11000 (Mehal 18800 Eamonn 9200)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 293

Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:

J! Round:
Joey 3*
Mehal
Eamonn

DJ! Round:
Joey 5† 3 3 4 5 3 4 2† 2*
Mehal 4* 4 3 3 4 2 5
Eamonn 3 5 2 4 5 2

† – selection in same category as Daily Double

Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:

Joey 3.40
Mehal 3.57
Eamonn 3.50

Unplayed clues:

J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 26 (0.28 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles

Game Stats:

Joey $13,400 Coryat, 20 correct, 2 incorrect, 35.09% in first on buzzer (20/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Mehal $13,400 Coryat, 21 correct, 2 incorrect, 38.60% in first on buzzer (22/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Eamonn $9,600 Coryat, 11 correct, 1 incorrect, 15.79% in first on buzzer (9/57), 2/3 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $36,400
Lach Trash: $11,600 (on 8 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $6,000
Lead Changes: 8
Times Tied: 3

Player Statistics:

Joey DeSena, career statistics:

73 correct, 18 incorrect
2/4 on rebound attempts (on 13 rebound opportunities)
33.77% in first on buzzer (77/228)
6/6 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $23,200)
1/4 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $11,950

Mehal Shah, career statistics:

93 correct, 15 incorrect
4/4 on rebound attempts (on 10 rebound opportunities)
41.15% in first on buzzer (93/226)
5/7 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $28,600)
0/4 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $15,850

Eamonn Campbell, career statistics:

65 correct, 12 incorrect
6/7 on rebound attempts (on 17 rebound opportunities)
28.07% in first on buzzer (64/228)
1/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$400)
2/4 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $11,900

Andy’s Thoughts:

• Your reminder that the players have been sequestered and don’t know what the wild card scores are at this point.
• Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.

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