Good morning, happy Friday, and I hope that everyone has had a great week. Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category Newspaper Talk) for Friday, March 18, 2022 (Season 38, Game 135):
Meaning an important part of a story, this distinctive spelling helped distinguish the word from a substance used in typesetting
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s contestants:
Michael Qin, an attorney from Atlanta, Georgia
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Debra Burgess, an adjunct assistant professor of history from Cincinnati, Ohio
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Finn Corrigan, a student from Vista, California (1-day total: $19,601)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts: Finn Corrigan, who was one of the alternates for the recent Jeopardy! National College Championship tournament on ABC primetime, was the champion in yesterday’s game, picking up $19,601 on St. Patrick’s Day. Today, he takes on Cincinnati’s Debra Burgess and Atlanta’s Michael Qin.
Unrelatedly to today’s game, but still something that I’d like to mention: I’ve been really enjoying the daily box scores being put out by Jeopardy. I still think that there can be something predictive in the box scores—we just don’t have enough data yet for the trends to really play out. I know that the likelihood of this happening is slim, but retrospective data (even if it just goes back to Day 1 of Michael Davies’ time as Executive Producer) would certainly be helpful in looking for (or at) trends.
I would also like to remind viewers that if you watch Jeopardy! on CBS, that CBS will very likely be airing today’s episode at a different time in your local area due to March Madness. Some affiliates have chosen to air the episode earlier, some overnight, or some on a local sub-channel. Please check your local listings.
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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 is lede?
More information about Final Jeopardy: (The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2022 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)
Merriam-Webster has an excellent article regarding this distinctive and unique spelling.
While even this article does bring up the fact that it has been spelled “lead”, the homograph of the elemental substance used in typesetting, I would be very surprised if the show’s judges accepted that spelling tonight. (I would also like to note that I’m writing this paragraph before having seen the episode.) This is a very clear exception to the (Final) “Jeopardy! is not a spelling test” rule, as this is a very clear case of the clue (or category) requiring correct spelling, as an incorrect spelling would not satisfy the “distinctive spelling” part of the clue—which, quite frankly, is the entire point of posing this to the contestants in the first place.
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Game Recap:
Jeopardy! Round categories: Arthropodcast, Global Organizations, Analyzing the Seuss Character, The 5 W’s in Other Languages, Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy
Four Triple Stumpers and five incorrect responses were scattered amongst our three players over the opening 15 clues, but Michael picked up a True Daily Double to put a little bit of space between himself and the players in the leftmost two lecterns before the two interviews.
Coming out of the break, the interviews seemed to settle down our players—there was only one incorrect response and one Triple Stumper after the break, and the scores went upwards. Michael held a slim $400 lead over Finn after Single Jeopardy.
Double Jeopardy! Round categories: Tools of the Trade, U.S. Geography, Biblical Passages, Women of Country Music, South American History, Middle E
Michael found the first Daily Double early, but dropped half his score to give Finn the lead. Finn then found the second Daily Double and extended his lead. Michael recovered well, and nearly re-took the lead, but an inability to come up with “loupe” on the final clue of Double Jeopardy! meant that Finn still held a small lead over Debra going into Final. Finn had $10,800 to Debra’s $10,000 and Michael’s $8,600.
Final Jeopardy! today was a triple-get, and Finn bet enough to become a 2-day champion! He’ll come back Monday.
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Friday, March 18, 2022 Jeopardy! by the numbers:
Scores going into Final:
Finn $10,800
Debra $10,000
Michael $8,600
Tonight’s results:
Michael $8,600 + $2,201 = $10,801 (What is the lede?)
Debra $10,000 + $4,500 = $14,500 (What is lede?)
Finn $10,800 + $9,201 = $20,001 (What is lede) (2-day total: $39,602)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Michael $4,400
Finn $4,000
Debra $2,800
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) ANALYZING THE SEUSS CHARACTER $800 (clue #15)
Michael 1000 +1000 (Finn -200 Debra 600)
2) U.S. GEOGRAPHY $1200 (clue #5)
Michael 6000 -3000 (Finn 5200 Debra 3200)
3) SOUTH AMERICAN HISTORY $1200 (clue #8, $27600 left on board)
Finn 6400 +2000 (Debra 3200 Michael 4600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 81
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 48 (0.36 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Finn $10,000 Coryat, 15 correct, 4 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 1/2 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Debra $10,000 Coryat, 15 correct, 3 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 1/2 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Michael $11,400 Coryat, 19 correct, 4 incorrect, 33.33% in first on buzzer (19/57), 0/2 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $31,400
Lach Trash: $10,800 (on 10 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $11,800
Finn Corrigan, career statistics:
36 correct, 10 incorrect
2/3 on rebound attempts (on 8 rebound opportunities)
33.63% in first on buzzer (38/113)
1/3 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$1,600)
2/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $12,200
Debra Burgess, career statistics:
16 correct, 3 incorrect
1/2 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $10,000
Michael Qin, career statistics:
20 correct, 4 incorrect
0/2 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
33.33% in first on buzzer (19/57)
1/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$2,000)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $11,400
Finn Corrigan, to win:
3 games: 33.050%
4: 10.923%
5: 3.610%
6: 1.193%
7: 0.394%
Avg. streak: 2.494 games.
Today’s interviews:
Michael drove to high school in a golf cart.
Debra is a huge fan of limericks and wrote a two-stanza limerick for Ken.
Finn majors in history and minors in geography at UCLA and wants to become a park ranger.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- The most recent instance of a champion’s first two wins having the same score going into Final Jeopardy: Annie Marggraf, with $15,600 on March 8-9, 2017.
- While Debra’s Final Jeopardy! bet did safely cover Michael’s suggested maximum below by $100, it could still be seen as unnecessarily risky, considering a lot of trailers do throw caution to the wind and bet everything. (To say nothing of the fact that Michael’s smaller bit defeated the intended purpose of Debra’s slightly smaller bet herself.)
- Link to the box score: March 18, 2022 Box Score
Final Jeopardy! betting suggestions:
Finn: Today’s standard cover bet is $9,201.
Debra: You can safely cover Michael without losing to Finn on a Double Stumper; thus, you should do so. Bet $7,201.
Michael: Under no circumstances should you fall below $2,800. Just to be safe, cap your bet at $5,799. Also, a $4,401 minimum is probably a good idea (twice the difference between you and Finn.)
Contestant photo credit: jeopardy.com
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tsk I don’t think I’ve ever seen that spelling before, so I’d have to assume it’s an incorrect answer for me 🙁
Current FJ streak – 3L
As a long-time newspaper and magazine journalist, that big type at the top of a story is the hed. Maybe that will be a future FJ clue/answer!
while that might meet the “distinctive spelling” part of the clue, it doesn’t meet the “substance used in typesetting” part
I don’t think JayDee meant he thought it was an alternate response for this day’s clue/answer. I think he meant that it would itself make a good FJ clue/answer because apparently it is a newspaper term that is not spelled as it sounds (and presumably is pronounced as “head” which someone might assume was the top or beginning). However, “lede” is in the dictionary and “hed” is not, so I doubt Jeopardy! would use it.
The category for this FJ should have been PEDANTRY. I’m only half kidding. 😉
Actually, PEDANTRY could be a fun Jeopardy category with some clever writing.
Congrats to Finn, and happy weekend, everyone!
I feel like A LOT of Jeopardy! clues could have fallen into that category but they need clues that couldn’t only be known by absolute experts in the specific field and not so easy that Jeopardy! becomes solely a contest of buzzer skill. Pedantic clues fit that spectrum.
Congrats to finn on a well played game today but still seeing this fj with a different spelling should be easy for avid newspaper readers.
I got it because that spelling is indeed distinctive. When I saw the phrase “bury the lede” the first time, I had to find out what that strange word actually means, and I’ve remembered it.
“Distinctive spelling” plus important part of a story took me directly to lede before the clue about the material lead
Congrats to all three contestants. Very competitive game today. Those are always the best.
I thought it was a little unfair toward Finn when Ken stated that he had hit a Daily Double in his major. That put pressure on him in the eyes of the audience to bet big and has resulted in him catching criticism in some quarters because he didn’t. As it turns out, his undergraduate major does not specify that region of the world, and Finn confirmed elsewhere online that he has not yet taken any coursework on Latin America.
While I may have heard ‘Lede’ afaik I have never seen it in print. And a little research shows that while accepted ‘Lede’ has plenty of detractors, add me to that list. That being said I must now reference The Who’s album “Live at Leeds” which has been cited by some as the best live rock album of all time.
I would have expected any three actual Jeopardy! contestants to get this one right (and these did), but for ordinary viewers, I’d expect a lot to be thrown off by the phrase “Meaning an important part of a story” as that does not necessarily imply the introductory section (per Merriam-Webster), so they might think it was some more obscure term (than lede) being referenced. [Lead is certainly the most well known substance used in typesetting but the clue/answer just says “a substance”, not “the substance” or “the most common substance”, much less “the most common metal”.]