Warning: This page contains spoilers for the November 3, 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 Novel Locales) for Thursday, November 3, 2022 (Season 39, Game 39):
This place from a 1933 novel lies in the Valley of Blue Moon, below a peak called Karakal
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
John Focht, a software team lead originally from El Paso, Texas
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rowan ward, a chart caller, writer & editor from Chicago, Illinois
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Courtney Shah, a community college instructor from Portland, Oregon
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Through three quarterfinals thus far in the 30th Tournament of Champions, the contestant occupying the leftmost lectern is 0-3. Unfortunately, my prediction model thinks it’s more likely than not that this becomes 0-4. rowan—who prefers having their name rendered in lowercase—laid waste to their Second Chance competition this week and is coming into this match as a slight favorite over John Focht, who showed the ability to put up solid performances in his initial run. Don’t count Courtney entirely out, though—she can pull out victories under every circumstance!
It’s a minor error, but Jeopardy’s player statistics over at its Tournament of Champions page still understated rowan’s average Coryat score by $200 (a mistake arising from an accidental initial crediting of a Daily Double miss to Sadie Goldberger during Game 1 of the Second Chance competition finals).
Looking at the J!6 categories (and obviously not having seen the game at this point), there’s a category titled A MUSICAL JOURNEY WITH QUESTLOVE that I assume will be based around Questlove’s new book “Music is History”.
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(Content continues below)
Correct response: What is Shangri-La?
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.)
Shangri-La is the famous fictional utopia in the Tibetan highlands, from James Hilton’s 1933 novel Lost Horizon. In the book, Shangri-La and the peaceful valley of Blue Moon is free of war in crime, and its inhabitants live for hundreds of years and age very slowly. Interestingly, Lost Horizon only became popular after the immense popularity of a later work of Hilton’s, Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
The name has since become synonymous with any remote paradise; it was also the original name of Camp David; Franklin Delano Roosevelt was inspired by Lost Horizon when naming the presidential retreat in 1942.
We have many new offerings at The Jeopardy! Fan Online Store! Proceeds from the sale of the “Doctor Oz’s Fast-Acting Snake Oil Elixir” T-shirt are being donated to The Trevor Project:
Game Recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: A Year Ending In 2; Real-Deal Rhyme Time; Newspapers & Magazines; Objects Of Verse; Adverbs; Film Fight Marquee)
Things started off a little slowly, but this game was a close three-way fight after both 15 and 30 clues, with all three players within $1,200 after the opening round and it still being anyone’s game.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
John 3 correct 1 incorrect
rowan 3 correct 2 incorrect
Courtney 4 correct 1 incorrect
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
rowan 10 correct 2 incorrect
John 6 correct 1 incorrect
Courtney 6 correct 1 incorrect
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Gotta Know Your Science; Starts With J; Biblical People; Get Down To Business; Name That Balkan Nation; A Musical Journey With Questlove)
10 clues into Double Jeopardy, John had an $1,800 lead over rowan. However, clues 13 and 14 proved to be the turning point in this game; Name That Balkan Nation was certainly in John’s wheelhouse and he proved it by finding the first Daily Double there, and picking up $8,000! He then found the second Daily Double immediately and added another 3. 15 clues into Double Jeopardy, John’s lead was $17,600—and he never looked back, having $32,000 going into Final, to rowan’s $10,800 and Courtney’s $5,200.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
John 23 correct 1 incorrect
rowan 17 correct 2 incorrect
Courtney 9 correct 1 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 8 (0 today).
Final Jeopardy! today was a Triple Stumper; it was academic, though—John bet $0 and moves on to the semifinals!
Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Thursday, November 3, 2022 Jeopardy! by the numbers:
Scores going into Final:
John $32,000
rowan $10,800
Courtney $5,200
Tonight’s results:
Courtney $5,200 – $4,200 = $1,000 ($5,000) (What is the Big Valley?)
rowan $10,800 – $399 = $10,401 ($5,000) (What is Brigadoon???)
John $32,000 – $0 = $32,000 (What is Xanadu?) (Semi-Finalist)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
rowan $3,600
John $3,000
Courtney $2,400
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Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) NEWSPAPERS & MAGAZINES $800 (clue #6)
rowan 800 +1000 (Courtney -1000 John 0)
2) NAME THAT BALKAN NATION $2000 (clue #13)
John 13000 +8000 (Courtney 3200 rowan 8400)
3) GET DOWN TO BUSINESS $1200 (clue #14, $15200 left on board)
John 21000 +3000 (Courtney 3200 rowan 8400)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 176
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 8 (0.21 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
John $24,200 Coryat, 23 correct, 1 incorrect, 35.09% in first on buzzer (20/57), 1/2 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
rowan $10,600 Coryat, 17 correct, 2 incorrect, 31.58% in first on buzzer (18/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
Courtney $5,200 Coryat, 9 correct, 1 incorrect, 17.54% in first on buzzer (10/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $40,000
Lach Trash: $11,000 (on 11 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $3,000
Courtney Shah, career statistics:
148 correct, 18 incorrect
9/15 on rebound attempts (on 33 rebound opportunities)
26.86% in first on buzzer (137/510)
2/5 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$1,200)
6/9 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $10,933
rowan ward, career statistics:
135 correct, 18 incorrect
6/7 on rebound attempts (on 15 rebound opportunities)
46.32% in first on buzzer (132/285)
7/9 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $17,800)
2/5 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $18,600
John Focht, career statistics:
140 correct, 13 incorrect
6/8 on rebound attempts (on 16 rebound opportunities)
37.72% in first on buzzer (129/342)
9/10 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $31,300)
3/6 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $19,133
Remaining Players’ Tournament of Champions Chances (after 100,000 Simulations)
Amy Schneider: 17.646%
Matt Amodio: 27.963%
Mattea Roach: 10.431%
Maureen O’Neil: 0.660%
Andrew He: 14.397%
Tyler Rhode: 3.971%
John Focht: 10.265%
Eric Ahasic: 6.558%
Jaskaran Singh: 1.618%
Jackie Kelly: 2.834%
Zach Newkirk: 0.992%
Jessica Stephens: 0.409%
Sam Buttrey: 2.256%
Today’s interviews:
John has turned his team of data analysts to analyzing J! box score data (j-ometry.com).
rowan thought Second Chance was some of the most fun they had ever had.
Courtney had her phone light up daily during her run.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- This performance from John isn’t completely surprising—his first match in his regular run was just as dominant.
- Today’s box score: November 3, 2022 Box Score.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: John $32,000 rowan $10,800 Courtney $5,200)
Courtney: Bet whatever you like. (Actual bet: $4,200)
rowan: Since the prize for second and third are the same, you might as well try to go all-in and hope for a miracle (namely, an unlikely Clavin.) (Actual bet: $399)
John: There’s nothing to be gained by making a bet here. Bet $0. (Actual bet: $0)
Contestant photo credit: jeopardy.com
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knew this one, and also Andy’s comment about the original name of Camp David which Eisenhower renamed for his grandson. I could only imagine public sentiment now a days if a president would rename something for a relative.
Here’s another Shangri-La “morsel”.
After the 1942 Dolittle Raid on Tokyo, FDR was asked where the raid had been launched from.
His answer?
“Shangri-La”
Not an instant get, as I had to fish a bit in my memory for the title of the book and connect that to the place name. Lost Horizon is another book I remember reading in JHS.
Lost Horizon came to me so quickly as being the novel that it surprised me into forgetting that the desired response was the name of the place [Shangri-La], though I think having already been given TWO place names (Valley of Blue Moon and Karakal) contributed to my subconsciously looking for a specificity for the only portion of the clue with no specificity having been given — the novel itself rather than a place in that novel.
However, I feel like I came closer than any of the three contestants since they all clearly realized a place name was required and if they had thought the novel was Lost Horizon, I bet they would have remembered the name of its place.
Came to me due to the 1969 hit by the Lettermen. Anyone else remember that?
I should have mentioned also that it was previously a 1957 hit by Four Coins. My sister sang this with a pop group at the Maryland School for The Blind when she was in high school there.
I remember both of those now that you’ve mentioned them. They haven’t played them on the radio for a long while 😁
I don’t remember that, but I remember the Shangri-las “Leader of the Pack”
Vroom… vrooom!
Wow… I didn’t expect to see that one mentioned here😅
Yep, that was another favorite of mine from that era. “Leader of The Pack” was a number one hit for the Shangri-Las in 1964. There was a lot of great music in the ’60’s (and the ’50’s).
Also familiar with both the Four Coins and Lettermen versions.
The Kinks also had a 1969 song called ‘Shangri-la’ although it was quite different in affect, and I doubt it was much of a hit.
I never wouldn’t gotten this final. I didn’t realize the term was of such relatively recent provenance.
The song was also played as one of the theme songs on The Jackie Gleason Show.
The moment I saw the answer I knew it was Shangri-la and about camp david that andy mentioned. The memory of book is flooding back to me. Furthermore, I am happy John advances to the semi finals. Good game today by the players. The dolittle raid on tokyo helped as well
$40,000 for being a second chance winner isn’t bad at all.
Has anyone seen the Lost Horizon movie remake that was a dreadful musical starring Peter Finch and Liv Ullman?
Yes. Pluto TV runs that movie often.
Another musical reference, Mark Knopfler’s album Shangri-La which contains the song Our Shangri-La made this an instant get for me.
No offense intended to Andy’s prediction model, but 0 for 3 is just too small a sample to predict that 0 for 4 is more than likely. With John’s win today, two of the four moving on were just 4-game winners in regular play. In fact, the back end of the pool so far is having a field day. The four winners so far are two 4-game winners and two 5-game winners. This ToC shows that anything can happen in Jeopardy! I, for one, think that’s great.
Robert:
The prediction of “0 for 4” had nothing to do with the fact that the first three lost and everything to do with “the model favored rowan or John, independently of how the first three games went”.
Andy,
Yep, those are two very different things. Are the 100,000 simulations the basis for (or a part of) the prediction model? That’s a substantial sample size so a good basis for predictions. I was happy to see that the latest simulations now give John a greater than 10% chance of winning as opposed to less than 3% before today’s game.
Thanks for all the hard work you put into this site and for making the Jeopardy! experience even better. You are much appreciated.
I inexplicably, now that I know its origin, guessed Xanadu, too. I was also thinking Oz. Jeopardy! last night was preempted by our local station for a Gonzaga Bulldog exhibition game that they won by 31 points, or something like that. Revolution!
As a group, the 4-game winners are having a good showing so far, with only Christine not being in her game. Jackie is the last of the 4-game winners to compete, and she has the highest winnings of all of them. The surprising part for me is so far none of the 5+ game winners have done well. I wonder if all these “upsets” are setting the table for an Amy/Matt/Mattea final?
I could see either of Andrew or John giving a serious challenge to the automatic semifinalists. Eric and Sam as well if they advance.
Andrew was actually leading Amy in her first appearence going into final jeopardy. Also was a five day champ. That is why I thought he was a player who would be better than many would expect. I was mad when Jonathan and Andrew were paired in the same quarter-final.
Not sure why the simulator came out at the start with Rowan (4.929%) to win the tournament while Jessica (.447%) to win it. Rowan had 50% of Matt’s total in their regular game while Jessica thrashed Matt in her game which also had Jonathan (another superchamp) and she was only $200 behind him or would have won as they both got the final right. Jessica had her spot locked up going into the final of the Second Chance Tournament but made a terrible bet that put her in jeopardy of losing. Rowan had not clinched their spot going into final as they would have lost to Jack if he got the final right. Rowan did have a higher coryat score than Jessica going into the tournament. It seems unrealistic to have had Rowan being considered more than 11 times likely to win the tournament than Jessica.
Jim:
You’re looking way too much into relative statistics.
I would disagree as I looked at comparisons of their performances in previous games and thought that Jessica was rated too low in comparison.
Please remember that rowan uses they/them pronouns!
Admin note: Thank you, Riley, for pointing that out.
(Jim’s comment has been edited accordingly.)
Somewhat disapointed that rowan won’t be mving on to the next round. They had a good chance until John uncovered, and, correctly responded to both Daily Doubles in Double Jeopardy.
As for today’s Final Jeopardy, the description of where the correct response was located, did nothing for me, so I had nothing. Courtney and rowan seemed to have a lot more of a clue than I did, but were wrong.