Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category European Landmarks) for Wednesday, March 3, 2021 (Season 37, Game 113):
Of the principal architects working on it from the mid-1500s to the 1980s, like Pierre Lescot & Hector Lefuel, none were foreigners
(correct response beneath the contestants)
The Jeopardy! community is mourning the loss of Brayden Smith, who passed away on February 5. The Brayden Smith Memorial Fund has been established, dedicated to furthering the educational aspirations of Southern Nevada students.
Today’s contestants:
Tim Everhart, an attorney originally from Brockton, Massachusetts
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Melis Sahin-Collins, a data analyst from Redondo Beach, California
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Jon Spurney, a musician & screenwriter originally from New York, New York (2-day total: $60,002)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts: It’s very clear that on this show, the hand that rocks the signalling device is the hand that rules the game of Jeopardy!. Jon managed to rock the signalling device yesterday, getting in first 30 times. Melis and Tim are going to have their work cut out for them if Jon gets anywhere close to that on today’s show. If Jon wins in a runaway, though, then the writers will have dodged a bullet when it comes to today’s Final Jeopardy!; see my “more information” write-up as to why.
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(Content continues below)
Correct response: What is the Louvre?
More information about Final Jeopardy: (The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2021 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)
The Louvre is the world’s largest art museum and a major Paris landmark.
And now, my very major issue with this clue: I.M. Pei designed the now-famous pyramid in the Louvre’s courtyard in the 1980s; France’s President at the time, François Mitterand, came under massive criticism among the French for hiring Pei unilaterally to design it, as Pei is not French. Obviously, by some readings and interpretations of this clue (including mine), “to the 1980s” includes the 1980s, and thus, the clue is flawed as it currently reads. If the intent of the clue was to exclude I.M. Pei’s pyramid, the clue needed to read “mid-1500s prior to the 1980s”; if the word “prior” does not fit on the Chyron, then other words in the clue need to be abbreviated or the clue needs to be thrown out. It is very clear that Jeopardy!’s clue quality has decreased significantly when the show’s writers are unable to collaborate as well because of COVID guidelines. The excuse is starting to wearing thin, though; the writers have had a year now to figure it out.
Having written this write-up prior to seeing the game, I certainly hope that there was nothing riding on this Final Jeopardy.
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Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Tonight’s results are below!
Scores going into Final:
Jon $14,200
Tim $14,200
Melis $2,000
Tonight’s results:
Melis $2,000 – $0 = $2,000 (What is Arc de Triomphe?) (1-day total: $2,000)
Tim $14,200 – $14,200 = $0 (What is the Sacre Couer?)
Jon $14,200 – $14,200 = $0 (What is Notre Dame?)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Melis $4,400
Jon $3,800
Tim $2,600
Opening break taken after: 16 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) TITLES & HONORIFICS $600 (clue #4)
Tim 600 -1000 (Jon 600 Melis 0)
2) MEGALITHS $1200 (clue #10)
Tim 10200 +4000 (Jon 3800 Melis 4400)
3) SCIENCE $1600 (clue #21, $6800 left on board)
Melis 5600 -4000 (Jon 9400 Tim 14600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -132
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 154 (1.36 per episode average), 2 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Melis $6,000 Coryat, 9 correct, 3 incorrect, 17.54% in first on buzzer (10/57), 0/1 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Tim $12,400 Coryat, 15 correct, 3 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Jon $14,200 Coryat, 23 correct, 3 incorrect, 42.11% in first on buzzer (24/57), 2/2 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $32,600
Lach Trash: $13,200 (on 11 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $8,200
Jon Spurney, career statistics:
71 correct, 10 incorrect
4/4 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
42.11% in first on buzzer (72/171)
2/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $4,400)
2/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $18,667
Melis Sahin-Collins, career statistics:
9 correct, 4 incorrect
0/1 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
17.54% in first on buzzer (10/57)
0/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$4,000)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $6,000
Tim Everhart, career statistics:
15 correct, 4 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57)
1/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $3,000)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $12,400
Melis Sahin-Collins, to win:
2 games: 18.003%
3: 3.241%
4: 0.584%
5: 0.105%
6: 0.019%
Avg. streak: 1.220 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Mike Richards said after this Final that I.M. Pei was the first foreign architect to work on the Louvre; this cements in my eyes that this Final Jeopardy! clue was worded improperly and misleadingly and that both Jon and Tim should be returned to the show. Once again—”to the 1980s” can be read to mean “includes the 1980s”. Note this should not detract from the fact that Melis won this game fairly—sometimes, you catch a fortuitous break.
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What if you interpret “to” as “until”? Unusual use of “to” but plausible? Having said that, I don’t disagree with Andy that the clue could/should have been worded better. Avoiding ambiguity should be a high priority.
Yes, there have been some clumsily written Final clues recently – and I would include yesterday’s in there as well.
I wonder if the COVID restrictions are behind it. I’m guessing in the before times the writers would get together in the same room to hash out wording issues.
Another separate issue is that it seems that Mike Richards hasn’t been emphasizing the this in FJ clues (or the word it in today’s clue) like Alex usually did. Maybe it doesn’t impact the contestants, but it helped me understand the clue better while watching at home.
Andy, your comment is exactly why I discounted the Louve as the answer as I knew Pei created the pyramid in the ’80s. Very irritating. I would not be happy if I were a contestant today.
I agree – The FJ! was poorly worded, but I doubt they’ll do anything about it.
In my humble opinion, with the scores as they were for FJ!, Jon, preferably, but even Tim, should have gone for broke and bet $0.
In my humble opinion :-), when you’ve been playing well, never leave your opportunity to win up to your opponent getting final jeopardy wrong when you still control your destiny.
How much will Jon and Tim get? $1,500 each? Their podiums said Jon would hart $2,000 and Tim $1,000, but that doesn’t make sense to me.
The podiums are correct — Jon had more after the Jeopardy! round, which is the next tiebreaker after “money going into Final Jeopardy”.
Thanks Andy! Love your website.
Questioned the clue wording and whether it meant to include the 1980s
The Louvre was the only thing I could come up with that made sense. Better working would have been until 1980 to do give a definite break for when Pei was hired.
If you think about time of construction none of the players guesses made any sense
Notre Dame constructed much earlier Arch de Triumph during Napoleon
and Sacre Coeur last half of 19th century. Thought about all of those but decided the clue must be poorly worded.
Agree. I discounted the Louvre because of Pei! So I guessed Notre Dame.
Also, architect Visconti, who worked with Lefuel, was, according to Wikipedia,”an Italian-born French architect” (parent obtained French citizenship).
There is NO clue “ambiguity.” The wording absolutely INCLUDES The decade of the 1980s.
UNambiguous would be “1500”s to the 1970s.”
I always interpreted “to” as “including”. Maybe if they used “prior to” in a pre-COVID world, things would be different.
On another note, I would’ve bet $0 to secure the lead.
Melis got lucky. It is difficult to win from 3rd place. She made the right bet. She had to hope that both her opponents would miss (and they did).
I think Jeopardy! should pay the winner a minimum of $3000 to assure the winner gets more than the second place finisher.
It wouldve been interesting to see a tiebreaker. The contestants tend to think they will get the FJ clue right.
I’m glad Mekis didn’t bet it all. It wouldve been a 0-0-0 tie with three new contestants tomorrow.
I love that Melis was rewarded for a strategic bet in FJ. Too often really bright people just bet it all when a more strategic bet would give them the best chance of winning.
Please remind me the name of the award winning movie that was mentioned in tonight’s Jeopardy
The Hurt Locker.
I was happy for Melis but pretty sad for Jon and Tim given how much was at stake on this incorrectly written clue. (Especially Jon, I’ve really enjoyed watching him the last three days!) Is there a precedent for contestants being returned to the show for errors like this?
Yes. Here is a very inexhaustive list.
Oh, very neat! Thank you for both compiling and sharing. Hope Jon and Tim can make it back.
I can’t fault Jon’s all-in wager at all. From one of his earlier games, he said he’d traveled to about 45 different countries, so I would think European Landmarks would be a strength for him. He also was the only contestant to get FJ right in his two prior games. In the Jeopardy! Reddit thread, someone posted that 41 of the 62 contestants in a tie for the lead going into FJ since November 2001 have gone all-in with their FJ wager…he had to have suspected that was Tim’s likely bet. Rotten way to lose…I was pulling for Jon, but as someone else pointed out, good strategy by Melis.
I totally agree! It was obvious that the clue indicated the landmark was in France. Note that all three contestants also got that right. So then it was a process of illumination. The Louvre was NOT an option due to Pei. The clue’s wording also definitely implied that construction began and stopped with the dates mentioned in the clue. It should have read something like “Until the 1980s, all the lead architects working on this landmark, like so and so, were not foreigners.” Or any other wording that would not be deceptive. If the writers couldn’t figure out how to wrote a well worded clue they should have scrapped it and gone with another answer. The contestants and audience at home shouldn’t be suffer for their bad clue writing abilities. It’s final jeopardy not final fake-out. The game is supposed be challenging not a game of the house using trickery against the players.
I don’t think Alex would have approved.
I was more disoriented by the word “chyron” . . .
Did he say they were tied at 13,200? Also, I wouldn’t have known the final Jeopardy answer, but I thought I understood the clue until he mentioned the foreign architect in the 80’s, then I was doubting if I had understood the clue.
Did anyone recall what the question was that asked about an active volcano? Mt St Helens and Mt Ranier are active volcanoes, but what in the question eliminated Mt St Helens as the correct answer?
The “also known as Tahoma” part of the clue.
Another factor that eliminated Mt St Helens was the height of the volcano. Mt Rainer is the only mountain in Washington (or Oregon) that is higher than 14,000.
I wonder if Jon and Tim got a do-over, if they would put them on at the same time (with the current champion), in a sort of “Thunderdome” (“Three enter; only one gets out!”). I don’t know what rules govern this, but it’s interesting to consider!
I got it wrong (French scholar), as did my wife (grad of SUNY-Fredonia, whose campus was partially designed by I.M. Pei), who is an artist. We both thought Notre Dame; whereas the Louvre didn’t come to my mind, at all, that was her second choice.
IMHO this is a bad FJ. The Louvre, while a great museum, is not a landmark. Quick, what does it look like? Its just a building with other offices in it on a street in Paris. Except for Pei’s pyramid in a courtyard, there is nothing distinctive about it. Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Sacre Cour, Notre Dame, Opera House, Obelisk in Place de la Concorde, THOSE are landmarks…
I agree with this. There are concerns about the wording the question but it’s tough to consider the Louvre as a whole as a European landmark. The glass pyramid maybe, but not the museum as a whole. I think of a landmark as visually striking or unique. The Louvre looks like many other large museums and government buildings throughout Paris. Museums rarely come to mind as a landmark unless it has a very unique design.
I diagree. Regardless of what you think of the architecture of the facility, it’s history and contents alone make it a true landmark. I totally agree with the concerns raised about the years, but not regarding it being a landmark.
Concerning the years–for them, or anyone, to claim that “the mid-1500s to the 1980s” doesn’t include the 1980s, is like someone saying that Amazon’s “A to Z” guarantee doesn’t cover purchases of aprons or zithers, as it excludes A and Z and only covers B through Y, inclusive.