The 29th Tournament of Champions begins today! Buzzy Cohen, the champion of the 27th Tournament in 2017, will be hosting. Hope of the Valley Trebek Center for the Homeless will be the recipient of $250,000, matching the Tournament of Champions grand prize. Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category Ancient Greeks) for Monday, May 17, 2021 (Season 37, Game 166):
Plutarch quotes this man who sentenced many to death: “Small ones deserve that, and I have no higher for the greater crimes”
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s contestants:
Sarah Jett Rayburn, a writer & stay-at-home mom from Hutto, Texas
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Ryan Bilger, a graduate student from Macungie, Pennslyvania
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Jason Zuffranieri, a math teacher from Albuquerque, New Mexico
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts: Sarah has received a difficult draw here in 19-game winner Jason and a strong 4-game winner in Ryan. The prediction model gives Jason a 48% chance to win, with Ryan at 40% and Sarah at 13% (obviously, due to rounding, the percentages don’t add up to 100.) Jason’s biggest weakness during his run was getting Final Jeopardy! correct and a tougher Final may prove to be his undoing over the next two weeks. Both Jason and Ryan have a better-than-average chance of advancing to next week.
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(Content continues below)
Correct response: Who is Draco?
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.)
Draco was an early Athenian lawmaker, believed to be the first recorded legislator in Athenian history. He is best known today as giving his name to the adjective “draconian”, referring to harsh or unforgiving rules or punishments; in Draco’s code, many offences, large or small, were punishable by death.
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Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Tonight’s results are below!
Scores going into Final:
Ryan $32,400
Sarah $9,800
Jason $9,400
Tonight’s results:
Jason $9,400 + $9,400 = $18,800 (Who is Draco?)
Sarah $9,800 – $9,800 = $0 (Who is Crito?)
Ryan $32,400 + $5 = $32,405 (Who is Draco?) (Semi-Finalist)
Wild card standings:
Monday: Ryan Bilger, $32,405
1. Jason Zuffranieri, $18,800 (99.794% to advance)
2. Sarah Jett Rayburn, $0 (0.020% to advance)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Ryan $9,200
Sarah $5,000
Jason $4,200
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) AMERICAN HISTORY $600 (clue #15)
Ryan 3800 +3800 (Jason 3400 Sarah 2400)
2) TIME MAGAZINE PERSON OF THE YEAR $800 (clue #7)
Ryan 16000 +6000 (Jason 5400 Sarah 3400)
3) ESSAYS $1200 (clue #22, $4800 left on board)
Sarah 5800 +4000 (Jason 8200 Ryan 29200)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 206
Game Stats:
Ryan $24,000 Coryat, 28 correct, 2 incorrect, 47.37% in first on buzzer (27/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Jason $9,400 Coryat, 16 correct, 2 incorrect, 29.82% in first on buzzer (17/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Sarah $7,000 Coryat, 11 correct, 2 incorrect, 19.30% in first on buzzer (11/57), 0/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $40,400
Lach Trash: $5,600 (on 5 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $8,000
Jason Zuffranieri, career statistics:
593 correct, 45 incorrect
37/40 on rebound attempts (on 77 rebound opportunities)
46.64% in first on buzzer (535/1147)
34/42 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $101,305)
12/21 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $23,695
Ryan Bilger, career statistics:
149 correct, 11 incorrect
4/7 on rebound attempts (on 20 rebound opportunities)
41.07% in first on buzzer (138/336)
9/9 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $45,600)
5/6 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $19,933
Sarah Jett Rayburn, career statistics:
92 correct, 16 incorrect
11/12 on rebound attempts (on 31 rebound opportunities)
26.13% in first on buzzer (87/333)
2/3 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $5,700)
3/6 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $12,500
Andy’s Thoughts:
- You could tell this immediately out of the gate; the players played the game and Buzzy hosted the game with the requisite intensity for the Tournament of Champions. Buzzy was the perfect host selection for this event.
- I agree with both Sarah and Jason’s bets; being that an incorrect response likely eliminates them anyway, the best play would be to go all-in in this situation.
Contestant photo credit: jeopardy.com
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Yea! It’s Buzzy’s turn to host. Finally,someone exciting!
Did they say anything about Brayden in the opening?
Ryan looks totally shocked in that photo.
“Buzzy was the perfect host selection for this event.”
Good outcome doesn’t necessarily equate to good process, though. Glad to hear Buzzy did well, but unless he has past media/hosting experience I don’t know about, I still think the producers took an unnecessary risk.
Very nice buzzer numbers for Ryan against strong competition. Looking forward to watching it tonight.
I have to suspect they did some substantial testing and vetting before giving him this assignment—and I also have to suspect he did extremely well in those evaluations to get the gig. His performance today seems to confirm their confidence in his abilities.
I had forgotten about Draco, although I do know Draco Malfoy. Nice FJ clue.
Buzzy did well tonight. Ryan looks totally shocked that he actually became the first semi-finalist. This should definitely be exciting to watch, Jason did well too today since he is working on improving his weakness in final jeopardy.
You said it all, Andy – Buzzy was the PERFECT host !!!
Buzzy did an incredible job.
Buzzy did a great job
Wow! Jason almost eliminated right off the bat, and Ryan on fire! Buzzy was great. Feel bad for Sarah…I liked her alot in her initial run.
Sarah has a 0.020% chance to advance…so it is possible!
Jason likely will advance with a score of $18,800 as a wild card. Surprising to see the domination by Ryan on Jason today who was one of the favourites but we know the players are good and Ryan appeared to have a few categories that he was strong in. The next games will have different categories.
It was only one show, but a big, enthusiastic thumbs up for Buzzy.
It’s really odd to see Jason struggle, and even odder to see him wind up in third place!
Also, I don’t know why but my TV decided that today was the best time to cut out its internet. But I got it back and we’re all good lol
For the record, Jason was third going into FJ, but he converted on it, where Sara did not, so he is pretty much a walk to advance as a wild card, sitting at 18,400.
I forgot the host was a guest. That’s how good Buzzy was. I hadn’t done that yet.
I don’t enjoy the extraneous comments and excess show of personality from Ryan. It distracts from the show and goes against the sobriety of the game. Buzzy doing a great job.
WOW! Buzzy is on fire. So happy to see him back on the show. It’s like coming home! He did a great job of hosting. Look forward to seeing him every night for the next two weeks- so does my 90 year old mom who has a mad crush on him.
So cute about your mom! Buzzy is so likeable!
So great to see Buzzy again! He has a great command of the stage. And he has the cred to host- and probably knows all the answers!
Love this guy!! Buzzy was great at keeping things moving along. He clearly enjoys what he’s doing. Plus, he’s got the cred to back it up. Go Buzzy!
One of the answers today was ‘what is mount sinai’. By the Jewish calendar, today (6th of the month of Sivan) is 3,334 years since the giving of the law on Mount Sinai. Once again, the writers make a clue appropriate to the viewing date.