Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category U.S. Authors) for Thursday, February 1, 2018 (Season 34, Episode 104):
In his 1958 essay “Essentials of Spontaneous Prose”, he compared a writing technique to a jazz musician’s style
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s contestants:
Justin Earnshaw, an English teacher from Cheyenne, Wyoming |
Sara Helmers, an attorney from Washington, DC |
Ryan Fenster, a banker from SeaTac, Washington (3-day total: $67,399) |
---Advertisement---
(Content continues below)
Correct response: Who is Jack Kerouac?
More information about Final Jeopardy:
Kerouac was one of the pioneers of the Beat Generation. In “Essentials of Spontaneous Prose”, he recommended “No periods separating sentence-structures already arbitrarily riddled by false colons and timid usually needless commas-but the vigorous space dash separating rhetorical breathing (as jazz musician drawing breath between outblown phrases)”.
When Alex came to my recent audition and did a Q&A with the auditioners, some of the events of this game (it had been taped just 8 days before) were certainly on his mind, and he certainly had many of us in the room laughing as he recounted it for us!
Valentine’s Day is coming soon! Get something for the favorite Jeopardy! fan in your life from The Jeopardy! Fan Online Store.
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Tonight’s results are below!
Scores going into Final:
Justin $12,200
Ryan $11,400
Sara $6,600
Tonight’s results:
Sara $6,600 – $6,500 = $100 (Who is Fitzgerald?)
Ryan $11,400 + $11,399 = $22,799 (4-day total: $90,198) (Who is Keruac)
Justin $12,200 – $11,000 = $1,200 (Who is Russell?)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Ryan $8,200
Sara $3,000
Justin $2,600
---Advertisement---
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) LITERARY TERMS $1000 (13th pick)
Ryan 3400 +2000 (Sara 1400 Justin 0)
2) TOTALLY METAL, DUDE $1600 (20th pick)
Sara 9400 -2000 (Ryan 12200 Justin 10200)
3) TV SHOWS IN OTHER WORDS $1600 (29th pick) ($2000 left on board)
Ryan 15400 -4000 (Justin 12200 Sara 6600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 12
Unplayed clues:
J! round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total $ Left On Board: $0
Game Stats:
Ryan $14,400 Coryat, 16 correct, 3 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer
Justin $12,200 Coryat, 15 correct, 2 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer
Sara $8,600 Coryat, 14 correct, 2 incorrect, 26.32% in first on buzzer
Combined Coryat Score: $35,200
Lach Trash: $12,600 (on 13 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $6,200
Ryan Fenster, stats to date:
88 correct, 25 incorrect
43.05% in first on buzzer (96/223)
5/6 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $10,000)
3/4 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $16,400
Ryan Fenster, to win:
5 games: 58.55%
6: 34.28%
7: 20.07%
8: 11.75%
9: 6.88%
Avg. streak: 5.413 games.
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 statistics from this page or this website, attribution is required.
Just found this site. Now I can freak my family out by knowing the answer to all final jeopardy questions
lol
😆
Happy February everyone! And especially so to Ryan the 4-timer. Thank goodness his slight misspelling of Jack Kerouac’s name was accepted.
Well, it can be sounded out the correct way.
I’m a little surprised by the size of his wager, since he would have lost on a triple stumper. A wager of $2K, or technically $1801, would have been enough to box out Sara. I guess he’s reached the point where he’s trying to maximize his winnings, though since he’s made it this far it would be nice to see him reach 5 wins.
I noticed he misspelled the answer but was allowed to win. Poor judgement Jeopardy. He should have lost
You’re unaware of the rules, Stephen.
As long as a misspelling can still be feasibly pronounced the same way, it is allowed.
The judges’ decision was 100% correct.
See #5 here: https://www.jeopardy.com/jbuzz/features/5-rules-every-contestant-should-know
Alex’s comments about the Football category were fun. Five triple-stumpers in a row (but not for me!).
CBS Sports liked it also and posted a video of it on Twitter
It was one of those situations that immediately went mainstream viral.
What did Alex have to say about this game?
Well, his main thesis was “The toughest trivia question is one that you don’t know the answer to.”
A relative of mine asked me how often a category gets five “stand and stares” like what happened today. I figure you’d be the perfect guy to know how often this occurs.
Well, my records show that CIVIL WAR LITERATURE on December 9, 2016 had 5 stand-and-stares, and the timer saved us from the same in a Hitchcock category earlier this season, so I’d probably put 5 at about a once-a-season event these days.
I’m more surprised that this happened with Civil War Literature than with the football category. Did Tim already have the game locked before they started in on that?
Yes, he had a lock game throughout that category.
Has there ever been an entire category whiffed (five straight triple stumpers) before? I’ve only watched Jeopardy! regularly for the last dozen or so years, but can’t remember it happening before tonight. I assume the category was included because of this weekend’s Super Bowl, but was surprised to see that no one knew anything at all.
Two questions, Andy — maybe Jeopardy! should try a hockey catceogry before the Stanley Cup playoffs start, or would that be asking for trouble? And do you know what has become of Sports Jeopardy!? I see the reruns after the NHL games on Wednesday night, but the website looks abandoned and the show hasn’t aired any new episodes on line or otherwise in well over a year.
Check out my response to Christopher for your answer to the first question. I think it was more prominent this time because it was sports and because Alex hammed it up a bit.
Regarding hockey: They’ve done hockey before, I’m sure they could do it again if they wanted.
Sports Jeopardy: It went on hiatus in the fall of 2016 and hasn’t returned. Whether it ever will? I’d put that as doubtful at this point.
It’s always astounding to people who do follow sports when they encounter those who couldn’t give a whit about them. There are a lot more than some think. Alex encountered three today, and his reaction was a humorous illustration of what goes on on this site all the time with the “I can’t believe they didn’t know that” comments. Topical knowledge really is a specific thing, isn’t it?
I was hoping Alex would make a motion like he was throwing a football as he walked over to the contestants at the end as the credits ran…
Did anyone else do some research on Alex’s comment about what Truman Capote said regarding Kerouac’s writing: “That’s not writing, that’s typing…” Pretty interesting–I didn’t get right off what Capote was trying to say but when I found out Kerouac never went back and changed anything he had written, it became clearer…