Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category National Anthems) for Thursday, May 30, 2019 (Season 35, Episode 189):
Its anthem was adopted in 1947 to replace one by Joseph Haydn that had been tainted by association with Nazis
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s contestants:
Rob Wolf, a family physician from Newark, Delaware |
Megan Browndorf, a librarian from Washington, D.C. |
James Holzhauer, a professional sports gambler from Las Vegas, Nevada (30-day total: $2,323,971) |
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!
Did you attempt any of the online tests last month? You can find last week’s questions and answers here!
The Jeopardy! Book of Answers is out now! Here’s my review.
Are you going on the show and looking for information about how to bet in Final Jeopardy? Check out my new Betting Strategy 101 page!
(Content continues below)
Correct response: What is Austria?
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:
David Kendall’s nationalanthems.info is an excellent source about national anthems around the world. Austria’s current anthem, “Land der Berge, Land am Strome”, adopted February 25, 1947, is purported to have had its tune been written by Mozart, but most scholars believe now that it is written by Johann Holzer.
The previous anthem was “Sei gesegnet ohne Ende”, to the tune of Haydn’s “Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser”, the same tune as used by the Third Reich.
Note also that with the wording of the Final Jeopardy clue, the clue says the original anthem was by Haydn, not the current anthem. (When Clue of the Day was posted on the Jeopardy! website, a few concerned readers contacted me here at thejeopardyfan.com. The clue, as I see it, is correct.)
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 $41,612
Megan $12,200
Rob $8,400
Tonight’s results:
Rob $8,400 – $8,399 = $1 (What is Belgium?)
Megan $12,200 – $4,601 = $7,599 (What is Ger)
James $41,612 + $17,000 = $58,612 (31-day total: $2,382,583)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
James $14,800
Rob $3,200
Megan $1,400
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) WORLD FACTS $800 (5th pick)
James 4000 +4000 (Megan 0 Rob 0)
2) WHAT’S THE BIG IDEA? $1600 (4th pick)
James 16800 +9812 (Rob 3200 Megan 1400)
3) FILL IN THEIR DATES $800 (18th pick)
James 31412 +5000 (Megan 9400 Rob 7600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 174
Unplayed clues:
J! round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total $ Left On Board: $0
Game Stats:
James $26,000 Coryat, 32 correct, 1 incorrect, 52.63% in first on buzzer
Megan $12,200 Coryat, 12 correct, 1 incorrect, 21.05% in first on buzzer, 1/1 on rebound attempts
Rob $8,400 Coryat, 12 correct, 1 incorrect, 21.05% in first on buzzer, 1/1 on rebound attempts
Combined Coryat Score: $46,600
Lach Trash: $5,400 (on 4 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $2,000
James Holzhauer, stats to date:
1,122 correct, 33 incorrect
31/34 on rebound attempts (on 65 rebound opportunities)
58.20% in first on buzzer (1018/1749)
68/72 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $629,783)
30/31 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $30,710
James Holzhauer, to win:
32 games: 96.826%
33: 93.759%
34: 93.520%
35: 91.521%
36: 89.586%
75: 37.971%
Avg. streak: 75.463 games.
(This is using the updated model and now takes into account performance on specific days of the week).
Tournament of Champions projections:
With a projected 71 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 93.7572% of the time.
Anneke Garcia qualified 78.317% of the time.
Lindsey Shultz qualified 51.498% of the time.
Dave Leffler qualified 28.631% of the time.
Jonathan Dinerstein qualified 20.676% of the time.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- James is $138,117 from Ken Jennings’ all-time regular-season total of $2,520,700.
- $58,612 is the 26th-highest regular play total of all time. James currently holds 22 of the top 26 single-game regular-play totals of all time.
- James has been correct on his last 25 Final Jeopardy! clues.
- The prediction model now gives James a 97.886% chance to win on Thursdays, up from 97.334%.
- The prediction model currently gives James a 93.403% chance of surpassing Ken Jennings’ total of $2,520,700, and a 50.054% chance of surpassing Brad Rutter’s all-time winnings total of $4,688,436. (At his current average win total, James would pass Ken on June 3 and Brad on July 26.)
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.
Have you had a chance to listen to our new podcast game show, Complete The List, yet? Check it out! It’s also available on Apple Podcasts.
There is surprisingly a grammatical error in the FJ! question: “tainted by associated with Nazis.” It should be either “by its association” or “by being associated.”
Maurine: Apologies. Sometimes I put in little things to see who else on the Internet is copying my work verbatim.
Cool – like map makers who will put in a fictional town to see if they are being copied – I like that.
“With a projected 72 regular-play games to go prior to the Tournament of Champions cutoff:
James Holzhauer qualified 100.000% of the time.”
Is this right? I admit I may be wrong, but I thought the rule was that on the cutoff date, the reigning champion is ineligible for that year’s TOC–they instead are eligible for the following year’s TOC. Meaning that if JH continues his streak through the cutoff, he’s ineligible for 2019. At this point, that has to be considered a realistic possibility. And therefore, his odds of being eligible for the 2019 should be less than “100.000% of the time”. Right?
The model only cares whether or not James qualifies for any ToC, not just this next one. Thus, it’s 100%.
If you’re curious as to the chances of James winning through the cutoff, you can see the chances of Jonathan Dinerstein qualifying.
Question for you Andy. Rob was given credit for an answer that seemed wrong to me. Paraphrasing, this sport was added to the Olympics in _ year, the beach version was added later in _ year, and he answered “beach volleyball”. Do you know why this was deemed correct?
Just want to add that I found it really funny that James didn’t even bother with the interview question today.
I couldn’t watch and we don’t tape (Luddites, unfortunately.) Please tell what happened with the interview question.
Hi, Elizabeth! Sure, the contestant at the middle podium told a funny story and when Alex got to James he said something like “Just skip me, I can’t top that”. Didn’t think they really would but Alex just walked away!
It must be harder to think about 31 (so far) interesting things to say about yourself (Ken had to do it 74 times!) than to actually play the game.
And can we all agree that some of the “bios” are unbelievably lame. That was a really strange scene this past Tuesday night with the woman on the right. And not only do repeat players have to think of new tidbits about themselves, they also know every snippet will be repeated and commented on endlessly.
Oh, I think they get lots of help from show staff. None of that stuff is extemporaneous.
Usually it’s vaguely interesting fluff, but James’ worry about being locked out of sports books in Vegas is positively poignant. That’s his profession and, whatever you think of it as a profession, it’s disheartening to have national celebrity and an extremely small # of bookmakers effectively blackball you. He’s made a couple remarks about doors closing and needing a new line of work; that may be real.
This show was taped right after Alex announcement on his health.
I’m sure that played into James wanting to pass on the interview.
I caught that too. Because it should be volleyball or indoor volleyball. There must be some J! rule that allowed it.
Exactly.
Andy usually knows if there are obscure rules about things like this.
He must be busy saying prayers in Jurassic Park. (Apologies to non sports fans who don’t understand.)
I haven’t seen it yet myself, but the way you phrase it here, the judges’ ruling is consistent with how they’ve always called similar responses to similarly phrased clues.
The thing is though, the year the sport was added was included in the clue, and it also specifically stated that beach volleyball was added in a later year. If it didn’t note the year I wouldn’t be nitpicking.
If an adjective is in the clue, the show allows contestants to repeat that in their response.
It wasn’t an adjective. It was the names of two distinct sports.
Ken getting $138,117 or more tomorrow is certainly not out the question. Though someone mentioned his lower scores of late, it’s just for 3 games! Just 3 games ago on Monday he exceeded $130,000 for a second time!
Ken??
“James getting 138,117 or more tomorrow…” but I’m sure my typo didn’t confuse many if any!
You’d be surprised. People who don’t watch J! regularly are just now tuning in and I’ve heard more than one person confuse Ken and James, believe it or not!
Elizabeth, my apologies, hadn’t read your post yet, but Ken came up because of posts of James soon surpassing his Jeopardy! regular games $ record.
Speaking more of James’s mini 3 game “slump” of $ below his overall average, nevertheless his Coryat those 3 games has still been good and his $ total for them actually exceeds Ken’s 3 best games total (75,000, 55,099 and 52,000) by about $6,000!
We’ve all gotten so used to his enormous daily winnings, that now we think $50,000, $60,000, and even $70,000 are a “mini-slump”. Pre-James, those types of scores would for sure have been in the top ten, if not the top five.
An interesting observation: on the 29 May 2019 episode, James took $69,033. That’s the 23rd highest daily take ever (James holding 21 of those 23 records), but it’s the 1st time his winnings weren’t >$71K or <$59K. His winnings cluster, 7 between $49k-59K, then a big jump to $72K and up. Until Wednesday, that is, when he squeaked past Austin Rogers but couldn’t shoot for the $70K mark without risk, had to settle for a measly $69K.
J think he’s played safer but mainly just protecting his lead. Opponents were in close range than usual and there’s more value in winning the game and being back for the next than there is in betting bigger. Hi 100k wins were in cases where he could “afford” to bet bigger on DD#3. This has not been the case of late. James has the “game theory” part of Jeopardy! Down to a T. It will take a “perfect storm” of events for him to lose.
The funny part was he sort of mumbled on dd3, “this one seems hard” when it was obvious he was watching out for the 12.4k the lady had. Even before the bet, I’m thinking, you aren’t gonna throw 10k+, are you? And he didn’t, smartly.
Let’s add excellent strategist to James’ list of talents which are now becoming so evident in his play. Alex Jacob addressed this to some degree in his J! Insider interview.
I can’t believe I’m the only one who thinks James has broken Jeopardy and that the longer his streak continues the worse it will be for the ratings. And you have to admit, his toothy grin is certainly disturbing.
Yes and no. Think about this. If he finishes the season and comes back in the fall everyone who comes up against him will know his strategy and have the summer not only to bone up on additional info, but also to do buzzer practice. So many of the winners on J! are high school and college quiz bowl competitors. I used to read the questions and help our quiz bowl team practice. These students go through tens of thousands of questions when they prepare for quiz bowl and also have excellent buzzer skills – so we would see what difference (if any) a summer of additional practice might make for another gifted challenger. OTOH, J! might buy him out, especially if Alex is not able to return and another individual begins the new season in the fall.
LOVE his grin – it’s his signature and now there are memes all over the place focusing on it!
The first thing (person) I thought of when he first started was the character “Boomhauer” from King Of The Hill…
Not going to happen. It might peak, but they are getting extreme ratings right now. Most people like excellence. The guy has answered 30/31 final J questions. Think about that. Those aren’t easy. He is amazing at answering questions, quite a bit better than Ken. And it’s good TV watching that excellence.
Not only ratings, but an enormous amount of free press coverage. Studios used to pay PR firms hefty fees to stage publicity stunt so to generate this much coverage. Of course, James reaps additional financial benefits out of the publicity because it establishes him as a “brand” which can be leveraged into additional income, as Ken did through publishing and appearances on Who Wants To Be a Millionaire and Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader. ( BTW, Ken quit those after the penultimate questions, though knowing the winning answer, playing it safe. I think John is more confidant and would go the distance.)
May 30, 2019 – The response to the clue about the sport that was an olympic game in 1964 should have been What is volleyball? not What is beach volleyball?
Andy, please give your opinion why “beach volleyball” was ruled correct, when based on the phrasing of the clue, the answer should clearly have been “volleyball”.
Right, but contestants have traditionally been given latitude to repeat key words in the clue in their response, even if the new response doesn’t quite make perfect sense.
“James has broken Jeopardy” – poppycock.
Did Babe Ruth break baseball?
Did Shakespeare break plays?
Did Tom Brady break football?
Did Einstein break physics?
Did Michael Jordan break basketball?
Tom Brady might be a poor example for what you’re trying to say here. ;o)
Let’s ask James!
Hey, James, has Tom Brady been a consistently excellent quarterback through 17 seasons, now? (Ignoring 2000 & 2008, when he hardly played.)
The original remark wasn’t about whether James has played well though; it was about whether he’d “broken” the game while doing so.
Andy:
Is there a reason why some posts might not be appearing tonight? I tried to post twice and neither went through.
Thanks
At this rate, James might might pass Ken on my birthday! That would be a bit of trivia I would not be likely to forget.
Suggestion: How about a tournament which includes all those contestants who lost to James? Give them a chance to recover from the teasing they might be enduring from friends, coworkers, and possibly even family. I’d like to see how they would fare. Anybody agree?
That wouldn’t interest me. They had their chance and they were unfortunate enough to go up against James. Nothing against any of them, but I have no interest in seeing them again.
Agreed. A lot of people have suggested this and the ONLY way it would be remotely interesting would be to limit those who lost to those who really had high scores (like Nate.) Maybe a one-week “Loser’s Tournament” of the best of them for kicks during one summer in the midst of re-runs.
Yeah, I think Adam Levin and the other guy who came close (was that Nate?) deserve another chance.
Actually I don’t think they’ve had much teasing. From interviews I’ve heard most of them – the good sports, anyway – are feeling like if they had the lose, the fact that they lost to the best gives them cover and that it was almost a badge of honor to play against James. There have only been a couple of bad sports, but they have been REALLY bad sports like the woman who crossed her arms and pouted and almost refused to even shake hands with Alex until the last second.
That would be a long tournament. 64 of them so far and a high likelihood of that # climbing into triple digits. Even forming teams, it’s too many players. You’d need to give them a season, not a tournament.
Actually, it might be related to a glitch I’ve had with thejeopardyfan.com over the last 2-3 weeks; I can’t reach the website unless I google the terms “the jeopardy fan” — if I type the address, it says the page does not exist! James may have broken this j/k! I’ll give it one more go.
Are you doing thejeopardyfan.com or http://www.thejeopardyfan.com? (You should do it without the www.)