recaps
Today’s Final Jeopardy answer (in the category Religion) and statistics for the Thursday, November 5, 2026 game between Betty Hume, Cameron Bays, and 4-day champion Erica Doornek.
Today's Final Jeopardy - Thursday, November 5, 2026
Current Champion
Erica Doornek, career statistics:
76 correct, 6 incorrect
6/6 on rebound attempts (on 25 rebound opportunities)
30.26% in first on buzzer (69/228)
2/3 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $3,400)|
3/4 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $15,000
To win:
5 games: 60.775%
6: 36.936%
7: 22.448%
8: 13.643%
9: 8.291%
Avg. streak: 5.549 games.
(Click Here for Methodology)
Upcoming Encore Presentations
November 7-8: S42 E180 (May 15, 2026)
November 14-15: S42 E181 (May 18, 2026)
November 21-22: S42 E182 (May 19, 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
Attention: Due to coverage of election results on Tuesday, many stations around the United States have elected to show yesterday's game between Erica, Alexandra, and David instead of today's game. If you are looking for that game, you can find the recap for that game at this link here.
Warning: This page contains spoilers for the Thursday, November 5, game of Jeopardy! — please do not scroll down if you wish to avoid being spoiled. Please note that the game airs as early as 12:30 PM Eastern in some U.S. television markets.
Here's today's Final Jeopardy (in the category Religion) for Thursday, November 5, 2026 (Season 43, Game 39):
John Calvin, on this artifact: "Either St. John is a liar, or all those who boast of possessing the Holy Sudary are"
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today's Jeopardy! contestants:
Erica enters today's game as a 4-day champion with winnings of $72,401.
Andy's Pregame Thoughts:
Will today be the day that Jeopardy! gets its 297th 5-time champion since the show returned to the airwaves in 1984? Will today be the day that the state of Montana gets its first-ever in Erica Doornek? Challengers Cameron Bays and Betty Hume certainly hope that today won't be the day.
I have a few extra thoughts about what's happened in the world of Jeopardy! over the past 24 hours. First, I want to reiterate my disdain for any station that chose to slide the airings this week by a day. In the 21st century, especially with the show promoting next-day streaming on Hulu, Peacock, and Crave, viewers who really wanted to watch Tuesday's game already would have done so via streaming, and you have now either confused them or upset them by broadcasting the game a day late. Obviously, this has been a viable option before, but program directors should no longer use it; it only makes the industry seem like dinosaurs stuck in the past and unable to adapt.
Secondly, it was mentioned in the opening yesterday that Erica was a federal employee who has now matched her yearly salary with her winnings through three games. Quite frankly, I was aghast at this revelation. The fact that the "heaven forbid the government receives a single dollar of my money" crowd has become large enough that people think that any worker, let alone a public sector worker, should be making so little money and living paycheck to paycheck is normal and acceptable. Minimum wage used to be set so people could afford to live on a full-time minimum-wage job, and the fact that this no longer can happen is gross.
Thirdly, I would like to touch on some of the strategic aspects of yesterday's game. Anyone criticizing Alexandra's wager yesterday is incorrect. She made a wager in the "game theory optimal" range. Anyone suggesting Alexandra should have forced Erica to be correct and make a wager is suggesting a move that reduces your chances of winning the game overall by about 30%, while defending against a fluke occurrence that happens about once a decade. That being said, Erica's bet in this situation is incredibly savvy and wise—precisely because Alexandra's bet is game theory optimal. While essentially "punting" the Shakespeare category reveals a knowledge gap that absolutely would need to be filled before a Tournament of Champions appearance—and at least one of Erica's many friends online should probably consider gifting her a primer about The Bard for Christmas this year—it was her $0 bet that won her yesterday's game. However, if I were Cameron or Betty, I'd note that Erica won't just blindly cover and adjust my strategy accordingly today—if I were in second against Erica at this point, my Final Jeopardy bet becomes an automatic all-in.
Finally, after reading what appeared to be a "you are very smart" mockingly directed at me yesterday afternoon for daring to talk about wagering strategy: my words, and by extension those words about wagering strategy, are not required reading by anybody. However, I put my words out into the open because I want players to have the best opportunity to do as well as they can, and it is my hope that future contestants improve their own strategy as a result of their reading.
(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.
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 the Shroud of Turin?
More Information About Final Jeopardy!:
(The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2026 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)
The Shroud of Turin, a length of linen cloth, is venerated by members of the Catholic Church as the burial shroud of Jesus Christ, as the faint image of the man buried in it were similar to descriptions of Christ following his crucifixion. However, non-Catholics, especially the Presbyterian John Calvin in his Treatise on Relics, cited the fact that numerous alleged burial cloths were claimed to exist during the time frame, and their existence essentially mutually contradicted each other, ergo the Shroud of Turin was fraudulent.
I think there are a pair of "ins" to this clue: firstly, knowing that Calvin expressly wrote critically about relics such as the Shroud of Turin; secondly, knowing that "sudary" is an archaic synonym for "shroud". We shall see how it plays.
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