recaps

Today’s Final Jeopardy answer (in the category Names In Tech News) and statistics for the Wednesday, September 16, 2026 game between Daniel Nicastro, Jen Spinoglio, and 4-day champion Matthew Riggle.

Today's Final Jeopardy - Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Jeopardy-style tile saying, Game Recap

Join TJF Plus

Get free access to all of our articles. Register a free account for TJF Plus.

Current Champion

Matthew Riggle, career statistics:
97 correct, 14 incorrect
2/2 on rebound attempts (on 11 rebound opportunities)
43.86% in first on buzzer (100/228)
4/5 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $3,800)
2/4 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $19,450

To win:
5 games: 60.268%
6: 36.322%
7: 21.891%
8: 13.193%
9: 7.951%
Avg. streak: 5.517 games.
(Click Here for Methodology)

Upcoming Encore Presentations

September 19-20: S42 E173 (May 6, 2026)
September 26-27: S42 E174 (May 7, 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

Warning: This page contains spoilers for the September 16, 2026, 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 Names In Tech News) for Wednesday, September 16, 2026 (Season 43, Game 3):

This last name in A.I. news has the same origin as a Latin name meaning "lover of God" or "loved by God"

(correct response beneath the contestants)

Today's Jeopardy! contestants:

Daniel Nicastro, a delivery driver from Las Vegas, Nevada
Jen Spinoglio, a financial researcher from San Francisco, California
Matthew Riggle, a community college math instructor from Madison, Alabama

Matthew enters today's game as a 4-day champion with winnings of $95,602.

Andy's Pregame Thoughts:

On July 8, 2026, Caleb Groen became the 296th player during the post-1984 history of Jeopardy! to win 5 games in regular play. Today, Matthew Riggle looks to become the 297th. Hoping to stop him are San Francisco's Jen Spinoglio and Las Vegas's Daniel Nicastro. The fact that Matthew seems to have been able to find another gear in pressure situations—interestingly, just like Yogesh Raut seems to do in pressure situations in his games—makes him a very difficult player to defeat, despite the numbers not quite working as much in his favor as you'd think.

After Monday night's issues surrounding the airing of the show in Detroit, and the fact that only The Jeopardy! Fan managed to get an official statement from WDIV, despite vox populi/reaction articles appearing elsewhere, it leaves me wondering whether some of my so-called colleagues on this Jeopardy! beat are only in this for the clicks and the clickbait, or if they are actually here to do some semblance of journalism in this space. 

(Content continues below)

Add The Jeopardy! Fan to your preferred sources on Google by clicking the button 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!

You can now listen to Alex Trebek-hosted Jeopardy! episodes from TuneIn Radio without leaving The Jeopardy! Fan — listen now!

Correct response: What is Amodei?

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.)

In 2021, siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei founded Anthropic, one of today's major A.I. companies; Anthropic is the company behind the large language model Claude; prior to that, both siblings held positions at OpenAI.

I hate this clue today so much, but not from an "I hate Jeopardy! for writing it"; it's more of a "I hate the fact that the world has reached a point where tech and Congressional leaders alike have started to panic about the direction where A.I. is taking us. It's a perfectly cromulent current events clue in 2026. (But I do miss the show going for some sort of oddball clue about the calendar during Opening Week like they traditionally used to, after the wipeout that was Episode #2.)

In terms of the wording of this clue, though, I love that them specifying just the last name is also a hidden clue, because Anthropic was founded by siblings—thus, if you have enough knowledge and can answer the "Why did they ask for just a last name here?" question, it's one last clue to confirm that you have the correct response.

Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Today's results will be posted once the show airs!

Add The Jeopardy! Fan to your preferred sources on Google by clicking the button below!

The new TJ!F Plus section is active! In order to get the Daily Details of each episode coming soon, as well as the ability to comment on posts site-wide, make sure to register for your account!

Did you accidentally get logged out of your TJ!F Plus account? Log in here!

Become a Supporter now! Make a monthly contribution to the site on Patreon!

Contestant photo credit: jeopardy.com

When commenting, please note that all comments on The Jeopardy! Fan must be in compliance with the Site Comment Policy.

If you are going to quote any information from this page or this website, attribution is required.

Have you had a chance to listen to our podcast game show, Complete The List, yet? Check it out! It's also available on Apple Podcasts.
Powered by Labrador CMS