Good morning! Today is Friday, and the 5th and final day of LeVar Burton’s hosting stint. Through 4, $179,400 has been donated to Reading is Fundamental. Next week is hosted by David Faber for the Robin Hood Foundation. Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category Comedy & Sports) for Friday, July 30, 2021 (Season 37, Game 220):
These are the 2 of a reporter’s 5 W’s that are not on the baseball team in Abbott & Costello’s “Who’s On First?”
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s contestants:
Andrew Kleinschmidt, a Ph.D student from La Jolla, California
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Rachel McMullen, an assistant to the dean from Denton, Texas
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Matt Amodio, a Ph.D student from New Haven, Connecticut (7-day total: $268,800)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts: If you missed yesterday’s game, you missed Matt putting up one of the all-time great performances, including the 2nd-best Coryat score of all time. Matt has clearly figured out LeVar’s clue-reading cadence; I have not seen this much domination of the signalling device since Ken Jennings (I don’t even think that James Holzhauer was this good.) As long as Matt doesn’t tire, he should become the first-ever person to play under three different hosts.
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(Content continues below)
Correct response: What are When and Where?
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.)
Of course, a reporter’s five W’s are Who, What, When, Where, and Why. In “Who’s On First”, Who is the first baseman, What is the second baseman, and Why plays left field. The other 5 named positions: the third baseman I Don’t Know, the center fielder Because, pitcher Tomorrow, catcher Today, and shortstop I Don’t Give A Darn (or, I Don’t Care).
Baseball Almanac contains the full text of the sketch.
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Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Tonight’s results are below!
Scores going into Final:
Matt $27,400
Andrew $9,000
Rachel $1,800
Tonight’s results:
Rachel $1,800 – $1,700 = $100 (What are Where and Why?)
Andrew $9,000 – $5,000 = $4,000 (What are Who and What?)
Matt $27,400 – $5,000 = $22,400 (What are Where, Why?) (8-day total: $291,200)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Matt $9,000
Rachel $2,600
Andrew $600
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) LEGAL $600 (clue #19)
Andrew 1800 -1800 (Matt 6000 Rachel 2200)
2) WHAT’S IN THE ENVELOPE? $1600 (clue #8)
Matt 16200 +2000 (Rachel 1000 Andrew 3400)
3) 3 CONSECUTIVE VOWELS $1200 (clue #20, $5600 left on board)
Matt 29000 -4000 (Rachel 1000 Andrew 6600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -101
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 209 (0.95 per episode average), 2 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Matt $31,000 Coryat, 33 correct, 2 incorrect, 54.39% in first on buzzer (31/57), 2/2 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Andrew $10,800 Coryat, 15 correct, 3 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Rachel $1,800 Coryat, 6 correct, 1 incorrect, 10.53% in first on buzzer (6/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $43,600
Lach Trash: $5,600 (on 4 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $4,800
Matt Amodio, career statistics:
244 correct, 33 incorrect
10/12 on rebound attempts (on 28 rebound opportunities)
53.71% in first on buzzer (239/445)
15/18 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $47,200)
6/8 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $24,200
Rachel McMullen, career statistics:
6 correct, 2 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
10.53% in first on buzzer (6/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $1,800
Andrew Kleinschmidt, career statistics:
15 correct, 4 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57)
0/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$1,800)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $10,800
Matt Amodio, to win:
9 games: 86.132%
10: 74.187%
11: 63.899%
12: 55.037%
13: 47.405%
Avg. streak: 14.211 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- $204,800 will be donated to Reading is Fundamental; $2,660,626 has been donated on behalf of all hosts.
Contestant photo credit: jeopardy.com
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Yeah Matt needs to eat a snickers because he’s not going anywhere for a while.
Is this some sort of inside joke I’m too stupid to get?
Snickers commercials from the 90s
Well, I see another Ph.D student competing today…very interesting…
I waited until Burton’s last day to make this comment. He’s done an adequate job but I can’t invision myself looking forward to seeing him every day or hearing his voice. He’s just not the right fit for permanent host.
IMO, no one has done a better job than Michael Richards, producer. He is the total package, pleasing appearance, pleasant voice, the right personality. He was entertaining, confident and in control, like he’s always been the host.
No one else has measured up to him yet and I wouldn’t want any of them as permanent host.
Of course, that’s just one person’s opinion and he might not even want the job.
Mike Richards has been sued for harassment multiple times. He would be a TERRIBLE representative of the show.
Mike Richard’s is a good host. Since he is executive producer, it looks self serving if he is chosen to be Alex’s replacement.
I think LeVar should be given another one or two weeks to try. Black game show hosts have worked for Fanily Feud and Let’s Nake A Deal. I think one could work for Jeopardy.
I’m not qualified to say who has been a good host or not but I will simply hope the decision process and selection would be pleasing to Alex.
I think Buzzy or Dr. Gupta would be the best fits for permanent host.
If you disagree, then so be it, but please don’t write an essay the size of the Emanciptation Proclamation saying why I’m wrong.
If you found the hidden joke I put in there, good for you.
Couldn’t make it to $300,000 today, because of the way things worked out in FJ!, but at least, “Reading is Fundamental” did make it to $200,000, and I’m happy about that.
I like Mayim. She has a pleasant, positive personality, is intelligent for sure and a good conversationalist. IMHO, if they were inclined to pick a woman, she’s easily the best choice among the women guest hosts, though among the men there’s a few I’d consider.
Couldn’t quite make it to $300,000 today, because of the way things worked out in FJ!, but at least, “Reading is Fundamental” did make it to $200,000, and I’m very happy about that.
Matt continues to shine: his combined Coryat from yesterday and today of $70k ties with James for the 5th best all time, behind only James’ three times over > $70k and Ken once for best two day Coryat!
Well even if this final didn’t work out in matt’s favor, 200000 dollars is defintely good for Reading is Fundamental. Though matt didn’t reach 300K, he might definitely try it next week. Good play by all the contestants. Over all, I think Levar might be a good permanent host but we shall see what happens in september. I think Matt could be around for a while longer.
‘who’ and ‘what’ were the obvious not correct (who was on first, what on second). That left ‘where’, ‘why’ and ‘when’ – if one didn’t remember ‘why’ was the right fielder, I guess one would have a 1/3 chance of guessing the correct 2.
Matt is one hell of a player and is shaping up to be one of the greats. I don’t know what all the fuss is about with his response style, which has always been within the rules of the show as far as I’m concerned. Reading is Fundamental is lucky to have had LeVar and Matt help them, in terms of visibility and money received, this week.
On the other front, I think that Ken, Buzzy or Mayim are the frontrunners for the hosting job at this point among all those who wish to be considered for the role permanently. Even though I haven’t heard what they’ve said, I doubt Faber and Buck are willing to give up their day jobs (or night, in JB’s case) for this.
I think Buzzy would be a good choice as he’s young, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable and he obviously knows the game well. Honestly I think Sanjay has been the best host so far, but there is no way he’s giving up his day job for this.
My answer to all the Twitter people who are complaining that Matt doesn’t say “make it a true daily double” or says “what’s” instead of “what is”, is that when they become an eight time champion making $291K, then they can say “let’s make it a true daily double”. Until then, let’s think of something actually important to complain about.
I find Matt refreshing. To me, what’s annoying is hearing a contestant waste time by repeating every word of a six- or seven- or eight-word category every time they ask for a clue. I also prefer hearing just the amount, rather than “let’s make it a true daily double.”
As far as the form of his responses is concerned, it’s rare (and coincidental) that someone formulates a question that’s actually responsive to the clue. If so, in response to a clue like “he won an EGOT for Cats and Evita,” the contestant would have to say, “what did Andrew Lloyd Webber do?”
That never happens, for obvious reasons, so who cares how Matt forms his responses.
I love watching him play and hope he has a long, long run.
Another awesome performance by Matt, even if the final score was subpar.
Agree that Richards was the best, then Ken,then Buzzy/Stephanopoulos/Gupta/
Roberts tied for 3rd.
I’m wondering why so few people praise Savannah Guthrie for the job she did hosting. She did a very good job along with a number of other guest hosts.
For those of you who don’t know next week’s guest host, David Faber, he anchors CNBC’s Squawks On The Street weekdays from 9-11am
What happened several times this week when a contestant’s time ran out. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the host say “Time” instead of a buzzer. You would think the time buzzer is automated. Were they having technical problems or was someone supposed to manually press a button who keep missing it?
On LeVar’s first show, Matt gave the correct answer, but it was after time was up. LeVar ruled it incorrect. Another contestant gave a different answer, which was incorrect. The judges determined that since LeVar ruled the answer incorrect, but didn’t say that it was because of time, it mislead the contestant. So they gave her back the lost money.
I believe that LeVar saying “time” on subsequent shows was overcompensating for that mistake.
One consideration for the permanent host might be whether they are looking for somebody to carry the show for decades, like Alex did, or just a placeholder. Alex was 44 when he began on Jeopardy, but he was still very sharp at 80, which isn’t the case with everybody. LeVar is 64, as is Katie Couric. Richards and Jennings are in their 40s, Cohen mid 30s.
Actually I like the idea of having different hosts. There is no need for one permanent guest host. Why not have a rotation? This will give the show some variety.
Also, I hope they do away with the explanation of every single Final Jeopardy! correct response. This fan page can do this. It sounds very unnatural when hosts take more than 5 seconds giving a short story about why a response a correct.
You know how this rotation did for the ratings, right?
You know ratings are affected by external factors and can’t be compared at face value, right?
The point is that so many people have guest host fatigue. They crave stability. Sony needs to announce the new host ASAP. Probably before the Joe Buck week. At least Faber looks promising, while Buck has a negative reputation.
As for ratings, they started sliding after Ken, picked back up with Rodgers, then continued sliding.
Don’t project your feelings onto others, though. Sony will announce the new host when it is good and ready to.
Again, ratings are affected by external factors, especially breaking news pre-emptions. It is unfair to state “they started sliding”.