Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category Animated Characters) for Tuesday, May 28, 2019 (Season 35, Episode 187):
This cartoon character was based on a character in the educational comic “The Intertidal Zone”
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s contestants:
Sara Feeney, a stay-at-home mom from Livonia, Michigan |
Jim-Bob Williams, a therapeutic humorist from St. Albans, West Virginia |
James Holzhauer, a professional sports gambler from Las Vegas, Nevada (28-day total: $2,195,557) |
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 1,000 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: Who is SpongeBob SquarePants?
Did you know that you can now find game-by-game stats of everyone, including James, who has won 10 or more games on Jeopardy!, here on the site?
More information about Final Jeopardy:
Aye, aye, Captain! SpongeBob SquarePants was originally a character named Bob the Sponge in creator Stephen Hillenburg’s comic book The Intertidal Zone. Developed in 1989, he had evolved into SpongeBoy in 1994 and SpongeBob Squarepants by the 1999 television series that bore his name.
In an interesting coincidence, the only other time SpongeBob SquarePants was the correct response to Final Jeopardy was Ken Jennings’ 7th game, where he set a record with a Coryat score of $39,200 that, as of May 27, 2019, still stands.
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 $41,381
Sara $11,600
Jim-Bob $8,400
Tonight’s results:
Jim-Bob $8,400 – $8,390 = $10 (Who is Aquaman?)
Sara $11,600 + $5,201 = $16,801
James $41,381 + $18,000 = $59,381 (29-day total: $2,254,938)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
James $12,000
Jim-Bob $5,200
Sara $1,000
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) THE EASTERN SEABOARD $800 (3rd pick)
Jim-Bob 1000 +1000 (James 1000 Sara 0)
2) “B” SPOKE SHAKESPEARE $1600 (2nd pick)
Sara 3000 +3000 (James 12000 Jim-Bob 5200)
3) 1950s PEOPLE $2000 (7th pick)
James 16400 +11381 (Sara 8000 Jim-Bob 5200)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 269
Unplayed clues:
J! round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total $ Left On Board: $0
Game Stats:
James $32,000 Coryat, 34 correct, 0 incorrect, 57.89% in first on buzzer
Sara $10,200 Coryat, 11 correct, 0 incorrect, 17.54% in first on buzzer
Jim-Bob $8,200 Coryat, 13 correct, 0 incorrect, 21.05% in first on buzzer
Combined Coryat Score: $50,400
Lach Trash: $3,600 (on 2 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $0
James Holzhauer, stats to date:
1,053 correct, 31 incorrect
31/34 on rebound attempts (on 62 rebound opportunities)
58.35% in first on buzzer (954/1635)
63/67 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $596,257)
28/29 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $30,848
James Holzhauer, to win:
30 games: 98.056%
31: 96.151%
32: 94.282%
33: 92.450%
34: 90.653%
75: 40.542%
Avg. streak: 79.453 games.
(This is using the updated model.)
Tournament of Champions projections:
With a projected 73 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 94.001% of the time.
Anneke Garcia qualified 79.163% of the time.
Lindsey Shultz qualified 53.390% of the time.
Dave Leffler qualified 31.415% of the time.
Jonathan Dinerstein qualified 23.857% of the time.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- $59,381 is the 24th-highest regular play total of all time. James currently holds 20 of the top 25 single-game regular-play totals of all time.
- James’ previous low total on a Tuesday was $86,905, set last Tuesday (May 21).
- James has been correct on his last 23 Final Jeopardy! clues.
- The prediction model gives James a 94.281% chance of surpassing Ken Jennings’ winnings total of $2,520,700, and a 54.413% 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 25.)
- James’ average winning total on Tuesdays is now $96,487.
- This is the fourth time in the last 10 regular-play games that there were $0 in incorrect responses given by the contestants. Prior to April 30, there were only 2 confirmed regular-play games in the entirety of J! Archive in which no contestants gave an incorrect response.
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James Holzhauer
Ken Jennings
John Presloid
Buzzy Cohen
Larissa Kelly
I believe James is up to 38 correct responses on “must-answer” (DD and FJ) clues in row, which is a record by a wide margin. The last time he missed on a must-answer question was in Jeopardy round on April 29th.
I don’t have all the archive data in a queryable form, but the longest such streak by any of the 10+ game winners was David Madden with 18 correct from FJ in his 4th game to missing FJ in his 9th.
If that Madden streak was the previous record, it would now be 3rd-longest, as Holzhauer also had a streak of 19 that ended just before this one (giving him 57 correct out of his last 58).
I can’t wait for the projected 73 regular-play Animated Characters to go prior to the Tournament of Champions cutoff!
(I assume this was a search/replace error for the final jeopardy category.)
Thank you for the correction. (It was. I feel like the show is a troll sometimes, even though it’s certainly not true.)
“This is the fourth time in the last 10 regular-play games that there were $0 in incorrect responses given by the contestants. Prior to April 30, there were only 2 confirmed regular-play games in the entirety of J! Archive in which no contestants gave an incorrect response.”
Do you think that this is a “James” thing, or is perhaps that the producers are by now selecting better-qualified contestants to make the games more competitive? (Not that this strategy has been successful…)
Any of these contestants would have been selected to tape prior to James’ run beginning.
It’s mostly James’ skill, though.
Surprised no one else mentioned my favorite contestant…for her strength and charity.
Cindy Stowell
James
Cliff Claven
🤣😄🤣😄🤣the original Jeopardy jokester, Cliff Claven
Great answer and a Cheer for Cliff.
Alan Lin
James Holzhauer
Rachel Lindgren
Kirstin Cutts
Ken Jennings
James Holzhauer
Buzzy Cohen.
Austin Rogers.
Arthur Chu (What’s wrong with jumping from category to category? Keeps the contestants on their toes and makes things much more exciting than going down the line, left to right, category to category. Also more exciting: Starting with the $1,000 or $2,000 clues. Know anyone else like that?)
Honorable Mention to the computer (Watson?). With a bit more personality, he could have scored higher.
The most aggressive players ever:
James Holzhauer
Alex Jacobs
Arthur Chu
Matt Jackson
Brad Rutter
“This is the fourth time in the last 10 regular-play games that there were $0 in incorrect responses given by the contestants.” Any idea what could be causing this?
Probably because James is questioning the majority of the answers. It would be interesting to look at those games to see how many he questioned/answered.
Also, if James can’t do all those shout-outs, then why is he still making those “remembrance” wagers (i.e. $8,615, $9,812, $11,914, $11,381)?
Because he’s a gambler and he’s superstitious.