Today’s Final Jeopardy – Thursday, September 25, 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)
(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 $1,098,403
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 U.S. Towns) for Thursday, September 25, 2025 (Season 42, Game 14):

This southern town known for big watermelons is the birthplace of the politicians who were governors of its state in 1983, 2003 & 2023

(correct response beneath the contestants)

Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:

Vickie Talvola, a quantitative trader from Jersey City, New Jersey

Erik Nielsen, a substitute teacher from Hollywood, California

Steven Olson, a band director from Princeton, Illinois (4-day total: $74,382)

Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:

Yesterday, Steven Olson became the 474^th player since 1984 to win 4 times on Jeopardy!; today, he attempts to become the 289^th player to win five. Today’s crisis alert, though, comes in the form of Vickie Talvola and Erik Nielson; Erik might be familiar to sitcom fans for his role as Garrett on Community; that said, I personally have absolutely no issues with him taking part in the civilian version of the show, even though I’m sure some Community fans would absolutely have thought Erik would be famous enough for Celebrity Jeopardy. He passed the same test as everybody else, and from the show’s perspective, it does actually lead to more publicity, as the inevitable pregame comments about it will lead to the tabloids doing a lot of the show’s publicity work for it here.

Correct response: What is Hope, Arkansas?

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.)

Hope, Arkansas, with a population of 8,952 in the 2020 United States Census, is the birthplace of three well-known Arksansas governors, each of who served about a generation apart: Bill Clinton in the 1980s, Mike Huckabee in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and Mike’s daughter Sarah Huckabee Sanders currently. Some of the largest watermelons in the world have also been grown in Hope, with some of them ending up larger than 250 pounds.

This is one of those clues where I think watching the show for a long time will help contestants figure out where to guess; the show has asked many times over the years about Hope, Arkansas due to it being the birthplace of Bill Clinton.

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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:

Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Thursday, September 25, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:

Jeopardy! Round:

(Categories: Port Is In Session; Song Lyrics Of The Aughts; Prisons; Cooking With Cayenne; Book Character Inspo; Foreign Bodies)

Steven found the Daily Double very early, picking up $1,000 from it and taking a good-sized lead into the break. After 15 clues, the scores were Steven $4,200 Erik $1,600 Vickie $1,000.

Statistics at the first break (15 clues):

Steven 7 correct 2 incorrect
Erik 4 correct 1 incorrect
Vickie 2 correct 0 incorrect

Today’s interviews:

Vickie won a poker tournament playing in her mother’s stead.
Erik was a spelling bee champion in Florida; his name was misspelled in the newspaper.
Steven plays in the Online Quiz League and is teammates with Grant deYoung.

By virtue of seven correct and not being incorrect at all, Vickie jumped into the lead at the midway point of this game.

Statistics after the Jeopardy round:

Vickie 9 correct 0 incorrect
Erik 9 correct 2 incorrect
Steven 9 correct 4 incorrect

Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:

Vickie $4,200
Erik $2,800
Steven $2,800

Double Jeopardy! Round:

(Categories: Truman Capote’s Black-&-White Ball; Plant Facts; That’s My Philosophy; Word Origins; Beastly History; Before & After At The Movies)

This round went the way of both challengers. Erik jumped into the lead early, but he left an opening when he bet less than half of his score on DD2. Vickie took full advantage, picking up DD3, doubling her score, and ending up with a runaway at the end of Double Jeopardy.

Statistics after Double Jeopardy:

Vickie 22 correct 0 incorrect
Erik 18 correct 3 incorrect
Steven 13 correct 7 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 3 (0 today).

Scores going into Final:

Vickie $26,400
Erik $12,700
Steven $6,400

Vickie put the exclamation point on this one by getting Final Jeopardy correct; she’ll be back tomorrow to defend her title!

Tonight’s results:

Steven $6,400 – $6,399 = $1 (What’s… Big Melon Town)
Erik $12,700 – $200 = $12,500 (What is Little Rock Arkansas???)
Vickie $26,400 + $7 = $26,407 (What is Hope?) (1-day total: $26,407)

Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:

Daily Double locations:

1) BOOK CHARACTER INSPO $600 (clue #2)
Steven 800 +1000 (Erik 0 Vickie 0)
2) WORD ORIGINS $1600 (clue #3)
Erik 5600 +2300 (Steven 2800 Vickie 4200)
3) PLANT FACTS $1200 (clue #11, $20000 left on board)
Vickie 9400 +9400 (Steven 2000 Erik 11500)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 241

Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:

J! Round:
Steven 4 3*
Erik
Vickie

DJ! Round:
Steven 4
Erik 3 4* 3 4 5 3
Vickie 4 5 2 3*

Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:

Vickie 3.50
Erik 3.67
Steven 3.67

Unplayed clues:

J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 3 (0.21 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles

Game Stats:

Vickie $18,200 Coryat, 22 correct, 0 incorrect, 31.58% in first on buzzer (18/57), 3/3 on rebound attempts (on 9 rebound opportunities)
Erik $12,000 Coryat, 18 correct, 3 incorrect, 29.82% in first on buzzer (17/57), 2/3 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
Steven $6,000 Coryat, 13 correct, 7 incorrect, 33.33% in first on buzzer (19/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $36,200
Lach Trash: $9,400 (on 7 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $8,400
Lead Changes: 3
Times Tied: 2

Player Statistics:

Steven Olson, career statistics:

128 correct, 24 incorrect
3/6 on rebound attempts (on 15 rebound opportunities)
45.74% in first on buzzer (129/282)
10/12 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $17,200)
3/5 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $16,880

Erik Nielsen, career statistics:

18 correct, 4 incorrect
2/3 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
29.82% in first on buzzer (17/57)
1/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $2,300)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $12,000

Vickie Talvola, career statistics:

23 correct, 0 incorrect
3/3 on rebound attempts (on 9 rebound opportunities)
31.58% in first on buzzer (18/57)
1/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $9,400)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $18,200

Vickie Talvola, to win:

2 games: 64.961%
3: 42.199%
4: 27.413%
5: 17.808%
6: 11.568%
Avg. streak: 2.854 games.

Andy’s Thoughts:

• If there are still 21 players in the Tournament of Champions and only 1 coming through Champions Wildcard, then Steven has qualified already for the ToC. If not, then he may still need to play the waiting game.
• Today’s J!6 clues can be found at the monthly archive.

Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:

(Scores: Vickie $26,400 Erik $12,700 Steven $6,400)

Steven: In the battle for second, bet at least $6,200. (Actual bet: $6,399)

Erik: Standard cover bet over Steven is $101. (Actual bet: $200)

Vickie: Bet no more than $999. (Actual bet: $7)

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