Today’s Final Jeopardy – Thursday, September 28, 2023

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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 Symphonies) for Thursday, September 28, 2023 (Season 40, Game 14):

Debuting at Carnegie Hall in 1893, it was written by a European living in New York & partly inspired by “The Song of Hiawatha”

(correct response beneath the contestants)

Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:

Barb Fecteau, a high school librarian from Beverly, Massachusetts

Jilana Cotter, a senior data analyst from Dade City, Florida

Michalle Gould, a librarian from Laguna Beach, California

Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:

Week 3 of September 2023’s Second Chance play has reached its final two games. Michalle Gould, Jilana Cotter, and Barb Fecteau can now all call themselves Jeopardy! champions. Now, one of them will get to advance to this fall’s Champions Wildcard event. All three of these players have similar statistics through their first two games; I’m looking forward to an evenly-matched final.

I’ll have more to say about this in general in my Weekly Thoughts column this weekend, but I do want to point out that Executive Producer Michael Davies did say back in August regarding the schedule that the plan was to run competitions and tournaments with Season 39 returning players upon the return of the show’s writers. As best as I can tell, those games with Season 39 returnees are likely going to start somewhere around December 19. Also, according to show writer Mark Gaberman on social media, the writers will be returning to the office on Monday.

Correct response: What is the New World Symphony (by Antonin Dvořák)?

More information about Final Jeopardy:

(The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2023 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)

As the show’s contestant coordinators said innumerable times in auditions in the 2000s and 2010s, “The best way to prepare for Jeopardy! is to watch Jeopardy!,” and it comes up again here. All of the parts of this clue—that it debuted at Carnegie Hall in 1893, that it was written by someone living in New York, and that it was partly inspired by “The Song of Hiawatha”—have come up on the show in the past. Antonin Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, best known as the New World Symphony or “From The New World”, has been a favorite topic of the show’s writers dating all the way back to the very first season of the show. This is an incredibly straightforward Final Jeopardy clue, in my eyes, and I believe that it is designed to reward a player willing to take a risk in Day 1 of a Final. Jeopardy! is a better and more exciting game overall when players are willing to take risks and make big bets, and I am completely in favor of rewarding risk-takers.

Moreover, I would like to reiterate my rebuttal to anyone who complains that the show will sometimes write easy Final Jeopardy clues: if Final Jeopardy was never “easy”, contestants would soon realize this, they would play more conservatively in Final Jeopardy as a result, and the game would be less exciting and more boring overall. “Easier” Final Jeopardy clues are absolutely necessary in order to keep contestants playing in a way that keeps the shows exciting for viewers at home.

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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:

Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Thursday, September 28, 2023 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:

Jeopardy! Round:

(Categories: Beastly Literary Characters; Marvel Villains; Natural Biology; Seoul Food; People Who Knead People; New Words In The 1600s)

Jilana got off to a rocket start, picking up 8 of the first 15 clues! Both Michalle and Barb had good second halves of the round to pull slightly closer as the game reached the halfway mark.

Statistics at the first break (15 clues):

Jilana 8 correct 0 incorrect
Michalle 3 correct 1 incorrect
Barb 3 correct 3 incorrect

Today’s interviews:

Barb thinks school librarians are the “Swiss Army knife of educators”.
Jilana grew up watching Jeopardy! (or, as what she would call it as a toddler, Buppidy!)
Michalle has been studying American Sign Lanugage.

Statistics after the Jeopardy round:

Jilana 10 correct 0 incorrect
Barb 8 correct 3 incorrect
Michalle 8 correct 2 incorrect

Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:

Jilana $6,400
Barb $3,400
Michalle $3,400

Double Jeopardy! Round:

(Categories: We’ve Got To Stop Meeting Like This; Games People Play; Invest; Around The Horn; Fashion History; From The Greek)

It was a very close game when Barb got to the first Daily Double. Unfortunately, an incorrect response on a True Daily Double dropped her to $0. She struggled to get back on track after this, but a judge’s reversal on a late $2,000 incorrect response meant Barb got to play Final. Otherwise, Jilana had a good-sized lead going into Final!

Statistics after Double Jeopardy:

Jilana 22 correct 2 incorrect
Michalle 13 correct 2 incorrect
Barb 17 correct 7 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 0 (0 today).

Scores going into Final:

Jilana $19,200
Michalle $11,400
Barb $3,200

Final Jeopardy was a triple get; Barb went all in, and Michalle and Jilana both bet $10,000! Jilana has the lead going into tomorrow, but it’s not over yet!

Tonight’s results:

Barb $3,200 + $3,200 = $6,400 (What is the New World Symphony?)
Michalle $11,400 + $10,000 = $21,400 (What is the New World Symphony)
Jilana $19,200 + $10,000 = $29,200 (What is the New World Symphony?)

Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:

Daily Double locations:

1) BEASTLY LITERARY CHARACTERS $1000 (clue #5)
Jilana 1200 +1200 (Michalle 800 Barb -400)
2) AROUND THE HORN $1200 (clue #4)
Barb 5400 -5400 (Michalle 5000 Jilana 5200)
3) WE’VE GOT TO STOP MEETING LIKE THIS $1600 (clue #19, $10400 left on board)
Barb 400 -2000 (Michalle 7400 Jilana 17600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -100

Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:

J! Round:
Michalle 1 2
Jilana 4 3 5*
Barb

DJ! Round:
Michalle 4 1 1 2
Jilana 5 4 3 3 4 5 3 5 3 5 2
Barb 3* 3 4 4*

Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:

Jilana 3.86
Michalle 1.83
Barb 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:

Jilana $19,000 Coryat, 22 correct, 2 incorrect, 33.33% in first on buzzer (19/57), 4/4 on rebound attempts (on 8 rebound opportunities)
Michalle $11,400 Coryat, 13 correct, 2 incorrect, 22.81% in first on buzzer (13/57), 2/2 on rebound attempts (on 8 rebound opportunities)
Barb $10,600 Coryat, 17 correct, 7 incorrect, 36.84% in first on buzzer (21/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $41,000
Lach Trash: $5,400 (on 7 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $7,600

Player Statistics:

Michalle Gould, career statistics:

49 correct, 6 incorrect
4/5 on rebound attempts (on 13 rebound opportunities)
26.47% in first on buzzer (45/170)
1/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $0)
2/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $14,200

Jilana Cotter, career statistics:

59 correct, 5 incorrect
6/6 on rebound attempts (on 14 rebound opportunities)
30.99% in first on buzzer (53/171)
2/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $3,800)
3/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $16,200

Barb Fecteau, career statistics:

54 correct, 17 incorrect
3/6 on rebound attempts (on 12 rebound opportunities)
34.12% in first on buzzer (58/170)
1/4 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$6,600)
3/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $11,133

Andy’s Thoughts:

• Because the scores tomorrow can be doubled in Final Jeopardy, Jilana has an “effective lead” of $3,900 over Michalle and $11,400 over Barb.

• A reminder that the judges have the ability to isolate contestant audio and would have been satisfied of the acceptability of Jilana’s pronunciation of Amundsen. (And, quite frankly, I am too, on further reflection.)

• Today’s box score: September 28, 2023 Box Score.

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