It’s the final day of the 2019 Tournament of Champions! Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category International Disputes) for Friday, November 15, 2019 (Season 36, Episode 50):
A dispute over Etorofu, Habomai, Kunashiri & Shikotan has kept these 2 countries from ever signing a WWII peace treaty
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s contestants:
Emma Boettcher, a user experience librarian from Chicago, Illinois (Yesterday’s score: $26,400)
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James Holzhauer, a professional sports gambler from Las Vegas, Nevada (Yesterday’s score: $49,326)
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Francois Barcomb, an 11th grade physics teacher from New Paltz, New York (Yesterday’s score: $1,800)
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Remember, today’s scores get added to yesterday’s to determine the champion! The winner gets $250,000, second gets $100,000, and third gets $50,000.
Semifinalist Steven Grade is organizing a charity play-along for the Tournament of Champions finals. In order to recognize Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month, support Alex in his fight, and remember Larry Martin, who died of pancreatic cancer in January, viewers are invited to donate $1 to the Lustgarten Foundation for every answer they get correct while playing along at home during the Finals. You can find more information at the Lustgarten website.
Here are my predictions for the finals!
Are you looking for the answers for the October 1 or October 7 College online test? Find them here!
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 are Japan and Russia?
More information about Final Jeopardy:
While the formal state of war between Japan and Russia (then the Soviet Union) ended in 1956 with the Soviet–Japanese Joint Declaration of 1956, it did not end the territorial dispute between the two countries over Etorofu, Habomai, Kunashiri & Shikotan, as there were apparent ambiguities in the Yalta Agreement, the Potsdam Declaration, and the Treaty of San Francisco. The Russians believed those four islands were part of the Kuril Islands (an island chain between Hokkaido and Kamchatka) and occupied them, while the Japanese believed they were part of their Northern Territories (and not the Kurils) and refused to agree to this. (During the 1956 negotiations, Japan was offered the opportunity to renounce claims to the two larger islands (Etorofu and Kunashir), but refused to do so under U.S. pressure.) The two countries have been unable to reach an agreement (and then sign a peace treaty) since.
I also anticipate that the earliest TV markets will be pre-empting today’s game for impeachment hearing coverage; check local listings.
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 $440 has been raised.)
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Tonight’s results are below!
Scores going into Final:
Emma $21,600
James $17,785
Francois $1,600
Tonight’s results:
Francois $1,600 + $1,600 = $3,200 + $1,800 = $5,000 ($50,000)
James $17,785 + $9,812 = $27,597 + $49,326 = $76,923 ($250,000)
Emma $21,600 + $17,000 = $38,600 + $26,400 = $65,000 ($100,000)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
James $8,800
Emma $6,600
Francois $1,200
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) THE NIFTY ’50s $1000 (8th pick)
James 2600 +2600 (Emma 2200 Francois 0)
2) FEMALE FIRSTS $800 (9th pick)
Emma 8600 +8600 (James 16000 Francois 1200)
3) “R”CHITECTURE $1600 (14th pick)
James 19200 -8615 (Emma 19600 Francois 1200)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 155
Unplayed clues:
J! round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total $ Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 88 (1.76 per episode average), 1 Daily Double
Game Stats:
James $24,800 Coryat, 30 correct, 3 incorrect, 54.39% in first on buzzer, 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
Emma $13,800 Coryat, 18 correct, 0 incorrect, 29.82% in first on buzzer, 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Francois $1,600 Coryat, 6 correct, 1 incorrect, 12.28% in first on buzzer, 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $40,200
Lach Trash: $7,600 (on 5 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $6,200
James Holzhauer, stats to date:
1,307 correct, 45 incorrect
38/41 on rebound attempts (on 76 rebound opportunities)
56.91% in first on buzzer (1190/2091)
78/84 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $676,988)
35/37 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $30,000
Emma Boettcher, stats to date:
183 correct, 9 incorrect
5/5 on rebound attempts (on 25 rebound opportunities)
35.46% in first on buzzer (161/454)
8/8 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $37,800)
6/8 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $17,775
Francois Barcomb, stats to date:
159 correct, 15 incorrect
10/11 on rebound attempts (on 32 rebound opportunities)
31.79% in first on buzzer (144/453)
6/10 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $15,500)
6/8 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $17,175
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Kudos to Emma for the fact that James was unable to make this tournament a runaway. (Emma’s maximum possible total was $69,600, whereas James had only accumulated $67,111 before Final Jeopardy.)
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It was an exciting climax to end the TOC. Emma abundantly proved that she belonged in this tournament. CONGRATS TO BOTH EMMA AND JAMES!!!
Hi all. Happy to see some suspense in this ToC final. I’m sure James will openly admit in hindsight that his bet on the last DD was too large. I suspect the added complexity of considering previous day total in coming up with the safe bet played a part in his decision. Combine that with his fondness for the bet he made and the fact it would have been 100% game over if were correct. So went for the “kill” without overkill because it was hard to figure correct number in the few seconds he had. He knew what the stakes were and decided to “gamble” a bit.
My 2 cents.
The question on Mt Apo is not accurate- “Mt Apo is the highest peak….. also means grandfather in Tagalog”. Grandfather in Tagalog means Lolo. Apo in Tagalog means grandchild. The accent in the pronunciation of Mt Apo and Apo (grandchild) are also different. In another dialect in the Philippines (Ilocano?) Apo is added to the name of the elder as a sign of respect. I think it is also pronounced the same way as Mt Apo.
Granted the strategy for game 2 is altered by the goal of winning the two-day event, but there’s nothing stopping Emma from pointing out that she beat James in 2 of the 3 individual games they played head to head.
I’m a bit miffed that ESPN decided to post the spoiler result in a headline on their main page well before this episode had a chance to air on the West Coast.
Why is ESPN reporting on Jeopardy results for games recorded weeks ago? Well, it was an article by their sports gambling beat writer. So the fact that James was a sports gambler led to ESPN deciding to spoil the tournament final for who knows how many people?
Suspecting something like this might happen, I stayed away from ALL sources of information (radio, television, all websites, e-mail, et.c) all day long today. (Which wasn’t easy. How sad.)
I really, really wanted to watch the program without knowing the result ahead of time. I’ve been spoiled by knowing the results ahead of time before, and it’s no fun for me… I don’t enjoy it then at all.
Send ESPN a letter, letting them know they screwed up. (Not that I expect it will do any good.)
Vader,
Sorry to say but you’re in the wrong here. ESPN didn’t screw up.
Jeopardy!’s press release to news outlets clearly has at the top: EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE: 5 P.M. ET 11/15/19
I’m sure ESPN’s interest in James originally stemmed from his sports gambling interests and its coverage of the topic. He had an extensive interview during his run last spring with Scott Van Pelt, host of ESPN’s highest-rated show (and clips of James’ shows were seen on other shows, such as Highly Questionable). Good to see that intelligence and athletics are not mutually exclusive, or at least as often as some might think.
BTW, Andy, it was a great week — to watch a fantastic TOC and see Don Cherry get hoisted by his own petard!
oops — meant “not as often,” of course.
How am I “in the wrong”? For not wanting to be spoiled by a site that wouldn’t be reasonably associated with covering Jeopardy? For being frustrated with the general nature of Internet culture that leads to things like this happening? Unless the implication was to defend ESPN by throwing Jeopardy’s PR team under the bus. Even so, I can’t be “in the wrong” for saying ESPN screwed up, since I didn’t say ESPN screwed up — that was implied by someone who responded to me.
Still, just because Jeopardy puts out a press release (2 p.m. PT? Really?) doesn’t mean ESPN or any outlet doesn’t have editorial discretion about when to run with it. Sure, the news business is a competition and they have to get their hits. But they also don’t have to spoil the result in their headline to have the story up.
In addition, I’ve worked for news outlets and received the Jeopardy press release before. For the last TOC they sent me an email that said in the subject line that Buzzy Cohen had won the Friday morning of the game. I was not happy with them doing that then and I said so at the time (sending the press release was fine and understandable … it was the spoilery subject line I didn’t like).
Something more neutral announcing that the result is available at least gives me more choice in clicking it. This site spoils the results all the time but is easy enough to avoid wholesale before the game airs because it’s a known quantity.
If James wasn’t a sports gambler there’s no way ESPN would likely have covered it at all.
The sting of the James spoiler was dampened a bit by the fact he had a big lead after game 1 and was favored to win due to it. Back then Buzzy had bageled in game 1 so the idea of him bouncing back was a surprise.
And for what it’s worth, ESPN’s post of the result was at 1:59 PT, 1 minute before the reported embargo time. And that’s ESPN’s own clock posted on the story, so the outward appearances would suggest they violated the embargo, as ridiculously early as such embargo would have been to begin with.
I saw a timestamp of 7:59 PM ET on the ESPN article, not 1:59 PM PT.
Yesterday it said 1:59 pm PT on my broswer. Now it says 4:59 PM PT.
Regardless, a 7:59 pm ET posting, being 3 hours after the embargo time, would make the story seem based more on watching an east coast airing of the episode, rather than seeing the press release. That would pretty much render the press release a non-factor in their editorial decision-making.
FWIW it’s my understanding that ESPN has a history of altering timestamps for various reasons including backdating them to make it appear in search results as though ESPN broke a story that was in fact first reported by a different outlet. I wouldn’t place much reliance in any timestamp from ESPN.
Even worse than that are the media outlets predicting presidential winners before the West Coast polls are even closed. Time differences always take a back seat to a headline.
Rant over.
The media — always to blame and always at fault. If it weren’t for the media, where would Jeopardy! be? Pub quiz, anyone!
Now back to trivia for mere mortals. Intimidating. Seven years of college down the drain :“(
Watching the game was exciting! Read elsewhere that James’ and Emma’ Final scores were TOC records. If so, there were likely other TOC records; possibly Emma’s day 2 FJ wager and James’ number of correct answers over two days are TOC records.
It would be interesting to revisit Emma’s 4th regular game, the one she lost. From what I recall, there were a lot of fluke things that happened in that game, a perfect storm of unlikely events that all had to happen for her to lose. She showed in this tournament that she had the potential to be a 5+ or even 10+ game winner. I don’t remember the details about that game, but I have a distinct memory of it being a very odd game where Emna dominated for much of it, but lost due to bad luck and an unfortunate slip on FJ.
Congratulations, James! You played a great tournament and kept me scratching my head with your wagers and inspired by your brilliance. So happy for your success.
I’m confused as to why a professional gambler would bet $7322 more than he had to to secure a win. Makes no sense to me. In fact, it seems foolish and illogical.