Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category Around The USA) for Friday, May 24, 2019 (Season 35, Episode 185):
Astronomy buffs visit Idaho for the USA’s first dark sky reserve; oddly, part of it is this resort area with a bright name
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s contestants:
Susan Waller, a K through 12 school administrator from Chester, Pennsylvania
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Sam Kooistra, a criminal defense lawyer from Tucson, Arizona
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James Holzhauer, a professional sports gambler from Las Vegas, Nevada (26-day total: $1,991,135)
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Will James break the $2 million mark today?
If you’re curious to see how James’ stats so far shape up to those of Ken Jennings, you can find them at A James Holzhauer vs. Ken Jennings Statistical Comparison.
James has reached 900 correct responses on the show and has moved to #2 all-time on that list! See who else has at least 300 on our 300 Club page!
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(Content continues below)
Correct response: What is Sun Valley?
More information about Final Jeopardy:
The area around Ketchum, Idaho, near the Sawtooth National Recreation Area, is the Central Idaho Dark Sky Reserve; Sun Valley is a resort town adjacent to Ketchum. The idea of a dark sky reserve is so that people can view the night sky without light pollution.
Since Alex Trebek’s diagnosis of stage 4 pancreatic cancer, many community members have been raising money. The Jeopardy! Fan Online Store is as well! All proceeds from any “Keep The Faith And We’ll Win” shirt sold will be donated to the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network. To date, over $370 has been raised.)
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Tonight’s results are below!
Scores going into Final:
James $39,400
Susan $1,800
Sam -$2,000
Tonight’s results:
Sam -$2,000 (by rule, did not play Final Jeopardy)
Susan $1,800 – $0 = $1,800 (What ?)
James $39,400 + $35,000 = $74,400 (27-day total: $2,065,535) (What is Sun Valley? Las Vegas Strip)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
James $24,600
Sam $2,200
Susan -$600
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) THE BIG UNIT OF MEASURE $400 (22nd pick)
James 11600 +11600 (Sam 2000 Susan 0)
2) IN THE KING JAMES BIBLE $2000 (2nd pick)
Sam 2600 -2600 (James 24600 Susan -600)
3) LET’S GO TO THE OPERA $1600 (6th pick)
Sam -400 -2000 (James 24600 Susan -600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -100
Unplayed clues:
J! round: None!
DJ! Round: PLANES, TRAINS & AUTOMOBILES & A BOAT $400; QUEEN VICTORIA $400
Total $ Left On Board: $800
Game Stats:
James $28,200 Coryat, 37 correct, 2 incorrect, 61.82% in first on buzzer, 3/4 on rebound attempts
Susan $1,800 Coryat, 3 correct, 2 incorrect, 7.27% in first on buzzer, 0/1 on rebound attempts
Sam $2,600 Coryat, 10 correct, 5 incorrect, 23.64% in first on buzzer
Combined Coryat Score: $32,600
Lach Trash: $7,600 (on 6 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $11,000
James Holzhauer, stats to date:
977 correct, 31 incorrect
31/34 on rebound attempts (on 62 rebound opportunities)
58.12% in first on buzzer (884/1521)
59/63 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $545,654)
26/27 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $30,556
James Holzhauer, to win:
28 games: 98.057%
29: 96.152%
30: 94.284%
31: 92.452%
32: 90.656%
75: 38.995%
Avg. streak: 77.472 games.
(This is using the updated model.)
Tournament of Champions projections:
With a projected 75 regular-play games to go prior to the Tournament of Champions cutoff, after 500,000 simulations, our model shows:
James Holzhauer qualified 100.000% of the time.
Eric R. Backes qualified 93.930% of the time.
Anneke Garcia qualified 78.916% of the time.
Lindsey Shultz qualified 52.838% of the time.
Dave Leffler qualified 30.603% of the time.
Jonathan Dinerstein qualified 22.956% of the time.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- $74,400 is the 17th-highest one-day total of all time. James now holds 18 of the top 20 one-day totals.
- $24,600 is a record score after the Jeopardy! round; the previous record is $22,012, set during James’ 7th game.
- This was the 4th time that James had at least $20,000 after the Jeopardy! round.
- James has been correct on his last 21 Final Jeopardy! clues.
- The prediction model gives James a 88.894% chance of surpassing Ken Jennings’ winnings total of $2,520,700, and a 51.318% chance of James surpassing Brad Rutter’s all-time winnings total of $4,688,436. (At his current average, James would pass Ken on June 3 and Brad on July 26.)
- James’ average winning total on Fridays is $69,079.
- James’ weekly total, $374,527, is his lowest weekly total since his first full week (games 3 through 7) where he won $332,429.
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Anyone else bite on the Hailey negbait?
The different spelling should have been a tip-off…
2 correct. James and 1 lucky guess. Have a nice weekend everybody!!
Not quite correct with the prediction, there, Sean. 😉
“$52,108 is the 28th-highest winning score of all-time. Prior to the start of James’ run in April, it would have placed 9th.” Wasn’t that comment coming from yesterday?
And look at how other contestants finding the DDs can “ruin” James’ score. Had James found those DDs and got them right, he would probably run his score into the $100k league.
Thank you for the correction comment!
(And, yes. You are correct on your second paragraph as well.)
How dare they….poor thing, let’s take up a collection. 😢
that should be strategy now…. take the DDs out of the equation in the game. only then can someone have a chance of winning.
I’m pretty sure finding the DDs is everyone’s “strategy”.
Tried leaving a comment earlier, but it didn’t take…anyway, I heard James has trivia game show appearances dating back to 2012…curious why it’s taken 7+ years to get on Jeopardy, because if his test scores correlate with his game performance, he should have been on much sooner.
Cary: Higher test scores do not correlate to an expedited appearance. The show takes demographics, location, and audition performance into account when casting (so that the show is not filled with a bunch of people of the same general age and location).
Jeopardy does not always select the most intelligent contestants – it looks for “interesting” contestants who are also smart. Apparently James did not come across as “interesting” enough. Jeopardy also does not reimburse any expenses for those who make it to the show which is pretty cheap as far as I’m concerned. They have to pay their own travel (which likely also includes at least one other person), hotel, meals, etc. It probably costs at least $2,000 for most people to have the “privilege” of being on the show. That is also the reason that affects the final wagers of some contestants. I heard one contestant in an interview say that she had to at least come in second so she could pay for the expenses of being on the show. She was smart and a trivia buff, but did not work in a high income position. Knowing that Jeopardy does not pay for the expenses of the contestants who make money for THEIR show has made me lose a lot of respect for the show even though I still watch it regularly.
That bet in Final is concerning. Runaway could have ended in a tie.
I’m not sure I follow. 4400 > 3600=1800*2, yes? (Sam, who was at 2200 after Jeopardy round, was negative by Final Jeopardy.)
Besides, being James’s lowest full week since his first full week in April, it is the first week he’s failed to top $100k at least once. Yesterday also clearly marked his largest deficit, when down $12,800 ($19,400 to $6,600) early in DJ! he had his powerful comeback to seize and keep the lead and game!
i feel like the pace that he is playing , fatigue has to be a factor now.
Or maybe he’s just getting bored of it all now and wants to get back to his regular life.
Playing for 2 days every two weeks and making the money he’s making? I think not…
Though James’s second lowest week, he maximized his chances limited largely because of hitting fewer DDs and some excellent competition as well He kept alive his amazing streak of beating the pre-James record of 77,000 at least twice every full week!
James lead into DJ! is the record for largest ever as well.
James said Las Vegas Strip in Final Jeopardy which isn’t the correct answer . Why was he given credit for $35,000 ? The fact is with this game it just so happens even if they took awa his $35,000 in final Jeopardy he would still end up winning with $4,400 . He’d have to wait until Monday for $2 Million. Why is Jeopardy! giving James credit for wrong answers?
Tony:
That’s what he crossed out. By rule, anything crossed out is disregarded by the judges. His response was Sun Valley.
I’m sure he did that as a joke. If you’ve ever flown in to LV airport, you know that out of the blackness arises the brilliant lights of the strip. He has a crazy sense of humor like that! And now that they won’t let him do shout-outs…
Exactly! The Las Vegas strip is the antithesis of a dark sky reserve; it was a monumentally tongue-in-cheek jest, and in case anyone missed the glaringly obvious, he said he “didn’t think it was in Idaho”. Las Vegas is his city; he knows where it’s located better than most of us, and we all know where it’s located. In fact, he knew the correct answer so surely and immediately he had time to amuse himself with a joke written and crossed off afterward. If anything, he should get an extra $35K for slyly tweaking the cavilling producers.
I’m assuming his Las Vegas strip reply was intending to be comical. 🤣🤣🌞🌞
I am too.
That’s the clearest joke ever. The Las Vegas Strip, besides being the main attraction of James’ residence, is exactly the opposite of a “dark sky reserve.”
W/the Las Vegas crossout, I think James has figured out a way to avoid the new and stupid “no shoutout” rule. Another “yay” for James.
wow …..i cannot believe I am saying this …Kens 15 year record has been beaten or i mean it WILL be beaten very soon. haven’t seen this high of total since 2004-2005 Ken ( i might be wrong on the years)