Warning: This page contains spoilers for the November 18, 2022, game of Jeopardy! — please do not scroll down if you wish to avoid being spoiled. Please note that the game airs as early as noon Eastern in some U.S. television markets.
Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category English Cities) for Friday, November 18, 2022 (Season 39, Game 50):
William the Conqueror’s son built a fortress on a key Northern river in 1080, giving this city its name
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Sam Buttrey, an associate professor of operations research at the Naval Postgraduate School from Pacific Grove, California (0 wins)
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Andrew He, a software developer from San Francisco, California (2 wins)
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Amy Schneider, a writer from Oakland, California (2 wins)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Today is the day for Game 5 of the final of the 30th Tournament of Champions. For the second game in a row, the tournament could end today. However, there are now two players on the cusp of victory: Amy Schneider and Andrew He both have two wins apiece. Today is now a must-win game for Sam Buttrey; the tournament ends today if Sam is not the victor. (If Sam is the victor today, the tournament extends to Monday.)
One thing that has happened over the past couple of games is that Sam and Amy have done a much better job of keeping the Daily Doubles away from Andrew, and that has certainly increased their chances of winning individual games.
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(Content continues below)
Correct response: What is Newcastle? (Newcastle upon Tyne)
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.)
In 1080, William the Conqueror sent Robert Curthose, his eldest son, to the area near the Tyne River to build fortifications against the Scots. A “new castle” was built, leading to the town being named Newcastle. For centuries, it served as the northern fortification of England. The British offshoot of Jersey Shore, Geordie Shore, has been set in the Newcastle area for its entire run.
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Game Recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: U.S. Cities; Furniture; 5-Syllable Words; Tv Dramas By Episode Titles; The “Anti” Category; The Neanderthals)
It was a slow start for all three of our players; Sam gave 3 incorrect responses in the first six clues and Amy missed the Daily Double. Things turned around, though, by the end of 30, with Amy holding a lead of triple Andrew’s score!
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Amy 4 correct 1 incorrect
Andrew 3 correct 0 incorrect
Sam 3 correct 3 incorrect
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Amy 11 correct 1 incorrect
Andrew 7 correct 0 incorrect
Sam 7 correct 3 incorrect
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Historic Castles; Band Ad; Paint Samples; American Women; 20Th Century Fiction; Before, During & After)
Andrew got to both Daily Doubles on successive clues! Unfortunately, he went all-in on both of them, and missed the second, falling back down to $0. Meanwhile, Amy played well enough to hold a lead going into Final! Scores going into Final were Amy at $15,800, Sam at $11,200, and Andrew at $6,800.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Amy 22 correct 1 incorrect
Sam 14 correct 3 incorrect
Andrew 15 correct 2 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 12 (0 today).
Amy and Sam got this Final correct—but for the second day in a row, Amy didn’t make a cover bet. This one came back to bite her, as Sam doubled up, and this means Sam now has a win, and the tournament continues until Monday!
Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Friday, November 18, 2022 Jeopardy! by the numbers:
Scores going into Final:
Amy $15,800
Sam $11,200
Andrew $6,800
Tonight’s results:
Andrew $6,800 – $6,700 = $100 (What is Avon?) (2 wins)
Sam $11,200 + $11,200 = $22,400 (What is Newcastle Upon Tyne?) (1 win)
Amy $15,800 + $1,800 = $17,600 (What is Newcastle?) (2 wins)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Amy $6,600
Andrew $2,200
Sam $1,600
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) FURNITURE $600 (clue #4)
Amy 1000 -1000 (Andrew 200 Sam -1000)
2) 20th CENTURY FICTION $1600 (clue #9)
Andrew 5000 +5000 (Amy 8600 Sam 6000)
3) PAINT SAMPLES $1200 (clue #10, $22400 left on board)
Andrew 10000 -10000 (Amy 8600 Sam 6000)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -100
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Amy 1 2 3*
Andrew 5
Sam
DJ! Round:
Amy 2 2 2
Andrew 5 4* 3*
Sam 3 4 5 4
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Sam 4.00
Amy 2.00
Andrew 4.25
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 12 (0.24 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Sam $11,200 Coryat, 14 correct, 3 incorrect, 29.82% in first on buzzer (17/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
Amy $16,800 Coryat, 22 correct, 1 incorrect, 36.84% in first on buzzer (21/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Andrew $13,400 Coryat, 15 correct, 2 incorrect, 26.32% in first on buzzer (15/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $41,400
Lach Trash: $7,200 (on 7 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $5,400
Amy Schneider, career statistics:
1485 correct, 98 incorrect
70/86 on rebound attempts (on 186 rebound opportunities)
50.15% in first on buzzer (1367/2726)
70/82 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $217,200)
31/48 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $25,167
Andrew He, career statistics:
280 correct, 40 incorrect
15/17 on rebound attempts (on 44 rebound opportunities)
35.76% in first on buzzer (265/741)
19/25 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $84,400)
4/13 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $16,754
Sam Buttrey, career statistics:
244 correct, 27 incorrect
12/14 on rebound attempts (on 38 rebound opportunities)
37.96% in first on buzzer (238/627)
6/8 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $10,600)
6/11 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $16,891
Remaining Players’ Tournament of Champions Chances (after 100,000 Simulations)
Amy 47.833%
Andrew 46.068%
Sam 6.099%
Chances of 6 games: 75.006%
Chances of 7 games: 24.994%
Today’s interviews:
Sam was visiting Venice in the middle of the big 2019 flood.
Andrew is looking forward to hitting up Koreatown with Margaret Shelton.
Amy is getting to show off her Ozma tattoo.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- This format has certainly turned the wagering strategies on their head; Amy keeps betting not to lose to Andrew, and in doing so is losing to Sam.
- That being said, Amy’s betting to ensure Andrew doesn’t win today basically gave her a chance to end the tournament today, but also giving her another chance to win Monday (or Tuesday) if it doesn’t work.
- Moreover, this gambit may end up pushing Sam—or even Andrew—into a sub-optimal strategy later that could work against them if either Game 6 or Game 7 has an incredibly difficult Final Jeopardy.
- Today’s box score: November 18, 2022 Box Score.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Amy $15,800 Sam $11,200 Andrew $6,800)
Amy: Standard cover bet over Sam is $6,601—I suggest covering, because Sam’s in Stratton’s Dilemma and he has occasion to go all in. (Actual bet: $1,800)
Andrew: Go all in, because the only way you can win is if you’re right and Amy isn’t. (Actual bet: $6,700)
Sam: You’re in Stratton’s Dilemma—you can’t both cover Andrew and win a Double Stumper with Amy. Because Andrew needs to go all in, you need to cover. Therefore, you should probably consider going all in yourself, even moreso because Amy has shown a propensity not to cover. (Actual bet: $11,200)
Contestant photo credit: jeopardy.com
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There’s the Jeopardy luck factor I was was talking about. It was luck that only Amy and Sam had the correct response; luck that Amy decided not to cover Sam going all in; and luck that I got two of the Triple Stumpers but not the Final. And so it goes . . .
And was the Final an intentional or coincidental extension of the Historic Castles category?
The high difficultly level of previous FJs in the finals might also have affected Amy’s choice of wager.
Sounds likely, especially since she had not got one right yet! [I mean not prior to having to make a FJ bet for this game. She was 0 for 4 in ToC prior to getting this one correct.]
Amy accomplished her primary goal of not letting Andrew win outright, if he had answered FJ! correctly. She’s proved herself to be more astute with her bets than many people give her credit for.
I’m so happy to see Sam win tonight. Bring it!
Sam is just a joy to watch, simply delightful. Glad to see him get a win today, hope he pulls out another on Monday!
Why didn’t Amy cover Sam??
As was explained in the post above, she felt it more important to prevent a situation where Andrew wins the tournament outright. After all, Sam winning last night doesn’t end the tournament.
Amy’s bet was the correct one: her first priority is that Andrew not win the championship. Better to gamble that Sam doesn’t answer correctly and she wins it all with her small bet than allowing Andrew to win with an incorrect bet/wrong answer.
Amy’s first priority is to win the championship not that Andrew fails to win it. Amy did get at least 1 FJ correct prior to Game 5.
And Amy felt her best overall chance at winning the championship came with the bet that she made. Just because it’s not the bet you would have made doesn’t make her strategy incorrect. Even the hardest of hardline wagering strategists on JBoard are even saying her strategy has some validity to it.
“Some validity”? That’s a huge understatement! Now I understand her strategy, it was clearly the best option she had at the time. She ensured that no one, other than her, could possibly have won the tournament at the end of that game.
Even though I knew Sam was going to win (thank you JeoopardyFan) I was surely elated watching him do it! Glad no one in the house was sleeping, lol. Enthralling to say the least.