Today’s Final Jeopardy – Wednesday, May 26, 2021


It’s Wednesday, my friends! Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category Classical Composers) for Wednesday, May 26, 2021 (Season 37, Game 173):

Monsieur Crescendo & Signor Vaccarmini (“Mr. Racket”) were derisive nicknames for this composer whose last opera dates from 1829

(correct response beneath the contestants)


Today’s contestants:

Nibir Sarma, a junior at the University of Minnesota from Eden Prairie, Minnesota
Nibir Sarma on Jeopardy!
Jason Zuffranieri, a math teacher from Albuquerque, New Mexico
Jason Zuffranieri on Jeopardy!
Jennifer Quail, a wine tasting consultant from Dowagiac, Michigan
Jennifer Quail on Jeopardy!

Andy’s Pregame Thoughts: Who will join Sam and Veronica in the finals? The prediction model thinks Jennifer has the best chance; if she does win, it will be the first final with two women since 1993. Jason and Nibir are both more than capable of pulling off a victory if things break the right way for them, though. Jason will need to bounce back after a very rough quarterfinal; that being said, Austin Rogers had a similar quarterfinal performance in 2017 and Austin won his semifinal.


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Correct response: Who is Gioachino Rossini?


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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.)

Even though he lived until 1868, Rossini stopped composing operas after the premiere of 1829’s William Tell. Speculation continues nearly two centuries later as to why; there may be a number of reasons, including ill health, changing political times (Rossini had to sue to regain his French pension following the July Revolution in 1830 and the overthrow of Charles X), and a possible burnout—Rossini told Wagner in 1860 that he’d been exhausted and then he, less than thrilled about changing singers and singing, “judged that I had something better to do, which was to keep silent.” Rossini returned to music in the 1850s in Paris, hosting Saturday evening musical gatherings.


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Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Tonight’s results are below!

Scores going into Final:
Jennifer $15,000
Jason $13,400
Nibir $2,800


Tonight’s results:
Nibir $2,800 – $2,799 = $1 (Who is Verdi?)
Jason $13,400 + $7,000 = $20,400 (Who is Rossini?)
Jennifer $15,000 + $14,999 = $29,999 (Who is Rossinni?) (Finalist)


Jennifer Quail, today's Jeopardy! winner (for the May 26, 2021 game.)


Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Jason $4,800
Jennifer $4,200
Nibir $3,400



Opening break taken after: 15 clues


Daily Double locations:
1) YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE $400 (clue #7)
Jennifer -200 +1000 (Jason 1800 Nibir 200)
2) U.K. PLACES $1200 (clue #7)
Nibir 3000 -3000 (Jennifer 5400 Jason 11600)
3) THE ANCIENTS SPEAK $1600 (clue #21, $4800 left on board)
Jason 16800 -5000 (Jennifer 14200 Nibir 2000)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -30


Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 188 (1.09 per episode average), 2 Daily Doubles


Game Stats:
Jennifer $14,400 Coryat, 19 correct, 2 incorrect, 29.82% in first on buzzer (17/57), 3/3 on rebound attempts (on 8 rebound opportunities)
Jason $18,400 Coryat, 23 correct, 4 incorrect, 36.84% in first on buzzer (21/57), 4/5 on rebound attempts (on 8 rebound opportunities)
Nibir $5,800 Coryat, 11 correct, 7 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $38,600
Lach Trash: $3,200 (on 5 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $12,200

Jennifer Quail, career statistics:
298 correct, 30 incorrect
19/23 on rebound attempts (on 49 rebound opportunities)
44.91% in first on buzzer (278/619)
16/16 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $32,100)
10/11 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $20,564

Jason Zuffranieri, career statistics:
617 correct, 49 incorrect
41/45 on rebound attempts (on 85 rebound opportunities)
46.18% in first on buzzer (556/1204)
34/43 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $96,305)
13/22 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $23,455

Nibir Sarma, career statistics:
124 correct, 28 incorrect
4/4 on rebound attempts (on 18 rebound opportunities)
38.76% in first on buzzer (131/338)
7/11 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $21,895)
2/6 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $14,933

Andy’s Thoughts

  • Thanks to Jay Johnson for his assistance with today’s game, after Houston was partly pre-empted.

Contestant photo credit: jeopardy.com

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2 Comments on "Today’s Final Jeopardy – Wednesday, May 26, 2021"

  1. center ice | May 26, 2021 at 9:08 pm |

    Looking forward to a great final — seems evenly matched and “anybody’s ball game.”

    One nagging thought — it seems a little unfair that either a 19-match or an 8-match winner would definitely be eliminated before the final. With Jason and Jennifer in the same semi, one was going to be out. It seems as if such superb regular-season play didn’t matter as much as whatever criteria was used to come up with the three semifinal groupings. It would have been great as a fan to have seen a potential final of two 8-game winners and a 19-match winner!

    To use a sports analogy, it’s as if the No. 1 seed in the NBA’s Eastern Conference was matched up with the second or third seed instead of the eighth (lowest) seed. Perhaps not a perfect comparison, but it just seems that regular-season play should be taken into account more than it seems to have been this time around on Jeopardy!.

  2. This is such a great TOC after a tough few months without Alex. Each of the champions has been excellent and the games have all been so fun to watch. But, to me, Buzzy is the big winner. He is such a natural in every way – spot on pronunciation despite some incredibly difficult words, fast with his responses to the questions/answers, and very personable as he chats with the contestants and reads the clues. I’m one of many people rooting for him to be named permanent host.

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