Warning: This page contains spoilers for the December 16, 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 Countries of the World) for Friday, December 16, 2022 (Season 39, Game 70):
It’s home to 58 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, more than any other country; the sites include a volcano & a lagoon
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Elizabeth Pontefract, a strategy consultant from Seattle, Washington
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Neal Gettling, a financial analyst from Chicago, Illinois
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Ray Lalonde, a scenic artist from Toronto, Ontario, Canada (1-day total: $32,600)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
A Canadian—Ray Lalonde of Toronto—is our current champion after dethroning Sean McShane in yesterday’s game! His challengers are Neal Gettling and Elizabeth Pontefract—I certainly hope that they both noticed that Ray didn’t make the standard cover bet in Final Jeopardy! yesterday and make their own adjustments to their strategy accordingly!
Also, yesterday was a massive victory for historians of both Jeopardy! and game shows—episodes 389 through 393, the five previously-believed-lost episodes of Barbara Lowe, have been archived in J! Archive, thanks to the National Archives of Game Show History. I personally would like to thank my friend Elise Thrasher, who served as an early intermediary between myself at J! Archive and the researchers at NAGSH, for her role in ensuring that we were able to get these games—and so many other early-season games that will be going into the Archive in the coming months—into J! Archive. She doesn’t get nearly enough credit in the game show community for helping preserve so many game shows, and her work here was crucial in the early stages of this process.
PSA: The best way to keep COVID-19 at bay (and keep Jeopardy! producing new episodes) is for everybody to get their vaccinations as soon as they can, including any boosters as recommended. When wearing a mask, please ensure that your mask covers both your nose and your mouth.
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 Italy?
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.)
Italy’s numerous UNESCO World Heritage Sites include Mount Etna, the world’s most active stratovolcano, as well as Venice and its lagoon. Throwing back to “Those Darn Etruscans”, many Etruscan sites are now UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the Etruscan Necropolises of Cerveteri and Tarquinia.
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Game Recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Time For Reading; Alaskan Geography; Music Icons; Mummies; “Tip”; The Scales)
Elizabeth got off to a hot start today, picking up 7 correct in the first half of the round and another 4 in the second half. Meanwhile, Neal attempted pull himself back into contention with a True Daily Double, but fell back to $0.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Elizabeth 7 correct 0 incorrect
Ray 5 correct 2 incorrect
Neal 3 correct 2 incorrect
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Elizabeth 11 correct 0 incorrect
Ray 10 correct 3 incorrect
Neal 6 correct 3 incorrect
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Christmas & Hanukkah; Ornaments Of Yore; That’S A Big Animal; 10-Letter Verbs; Invasions; Tv & Movie Places)
Ray was on fire in Double Jeopardy, picking up the first 7 clues of the round and in the round overall. Meanwhile, Neal’s chances of winning were not facilitated by the third Daily Double—he fell back to $0 again. Ray got the final clue of Double to cement his runaway, with scores going into Final seeing Ray at $23,600, Elizabeth at $8,800, and Neal at $400.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Ray 27 correct 6 incorrect
Elizabeth 16 correct 2 incorrect
Neal 10 correct 6 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 12 (0 today).
Ray was the only player correct in Final today—he’s now a 2-day champion and returns Monday!
Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Friday, December 16, 2022 Jeopardy! by the numbers:
Scores going into Final:
Ray $23,600
Elizabeth $8,800
Neal $400
Tonight’s results:
Neal $400 – $207 = $193 (What is Indonesia?)
Elizabeth $8,800 – $8,700 = $100 (What is Turkey?)
Ray $23,600 + $4,400 = $28,000 (What is Italy?) (2-day total: $60,600)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Elizabeth $6,000
Ray $4,800
Neal $0
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) ALASKAN GEOGRAPHY $600 (clue #28)
Neal 2000 -2000 (Ray 3800 Elizabeth 6000)
2) THAT’S A BIG ANIMAL $2000 (clue #13)
Ray 13600 +4000 (Neal 1200 Elizabeth 6000)
3) 10-LETTER VERBS $1600 (clue #18, $14000 left on board)
Neal 2400 -2400 (Ray 17600 Elizabeth 5200)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -171
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Ray 1 2 3 4 5 2 4 5 1 2 4
Neal 1 2 4 4 4 3*
Elizabeth 1 2 3 1 3 5 1 2 3 5 3
DJ! Round:
Ray 3 4 5 2 1 2 3 4 5* 1 2 3
Neal 1 5 3 3 4*
Elizabeth 4
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Ray 2.96
Neal 3.09
Elizabeth 2.75
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 12 (0.17 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Ray $21,600 Coryat, 27 correct, 6 incorrect, 52.63% in first on buzzer (30/57), 1/2 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Neal $4,800 Coryat, 10 correct, 6 incorrect, 19.30% in first on buzzer (11/57), 1/3 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
Elizabeth $8,800 Coryat, 16 correct, 2 incorrect, 24.56% in first on buzzer (14/57), 4/4 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $35,200
Lach Trash: $6,000 (on 5 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $12,800
Ray Lalonde, career statistics:
53 correct, 7 incorrect
2/3 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
45.61% in first on buzzer (52/114)
3/3 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $9,600)
2/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $20,400
Neal Gettling, career statistics:
10 correct, 7 incorrect
1/3 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
19.30% in first on buzzer (11/57)
0/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$4,400)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $4,800
Elizabeth Pontefract, career statistics:
16 correct, 3 incorrect
4/4 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
24.56% in first on buzzer (14/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $8,800
Ray Lalonde, to win:
3 games: 75.868%
4: 57.560%
5: 43.670%
6: 33.131%
7: 25.136%
Avg. streak: 5.144 games.
Today’s interviews:
Elizabeth is a huge RuPaul’s drag race fan and has given drag personas to her dogs.
Neal works in the front office of the Chicago Cubs.
Ray got to work on a junior high school production his daughter was in.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Today’s box score: December 16, 2022 Box Score.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Ray $23,600 Elizabeth $8,800 Neal $400)
Ray: Limit your bet to $5,999 and enjoy your victory! (Actual bet: $4,400)
Neal: Bet whatever you like! (Actual bet: $207)
Elizabeth: Limit your bet to $7,999 and enjoy second place! (Actual bet: $8,700)
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I only guessed this correctly because of the mention of volcano made me think of Vesuvius.
I got it by a lucky guess, just trying to think of a place likely to have a lot of such sites, vaguely recalling Etna being declared a World Heritage site several years ago.
Easy Peasy.
I got this by a lucky guess because of Mount Etna being a world heritage site. Very easy
Maybe why Elizabeth said Turkey was because Mount Ararat (of Noah’s Ark fame) is a volcano — however, it is not a World Heritage Site. Turkey does have a lot of those, but only a third as many as Italy.
My guess was Japan, but it turns out it has a little less than half enough World Heritage Sites to qualify, though one of those is the volcano Mt. Fuji. My mistake was not considering European countries because of “lagoon”. [It is funny that it has been very few months since I watched a PBS documentary about measures being undertaken to stave off extreme flooding in Venice caused by climate change. Part of the doc was showing about how surrounding small islands used to help somehow, but the huge cruise ships over recent decades have caused wakes that eroded them (or something like that) — anyway, the idea is that they talked a lot about the Venice area and I have no recollection of them saying the word lagoon in any context, though perhaps I just didn’t hear it clearly enough to notice.]
Indonesia has far fewer (than Italy or Japan) World Heritage Sites, though they do include a national park containing the famous Krakatoa volcano.
BTW, the Philippines have even fewer World Heritage Sites, but their list of future proposed sites does include a volcano national park!
I don’t recall an FJ (that was not something many people would “just know” or immediately assume with confidence like ‘Die Hard’) that must to some degree be “figured out” or “narrowed down”, which had so many promising candidates to be the correct response.
My grandfather was from Siracusa in Sicily so I was familiar with Italy having many World Heritage Sites. That made this an instant get for me.
On a side note, based on her wager, I guess Elizabeth didn’t care about finishing second. There was really nothing to be gained by wagering $8,700 even if responding correctly.
Elizabeth might have been hoping Ray pulled a Clavin after seeing his Final Jeopardy bet in yesterday’s game.
Yeah, I think that was actually a pretty smart wager by Elizabeth in this case.
giving up a sure $1000 on the minuscule chance that the runaway leader might do something that no actual contestant has ever done is considered a “smart wager”?
“No actual contestant has ever done” is an incorrect statement. Many contestants have accidentally wagered too much in a lock scenario.
Continue to think there may be something to the idea that the DDs are getting harder. Certainly seems like there’s more word puzzle/origin clues than earlier in the season.
I was also thinking that maybe a better way so to summarize the clue selection data would be with a “Daily Double efficiency score”, rather than average row selection. The idea would be to assign a point value to each row based on the probability that a given DD appears there — roughly 0.0, .17, .25, .34 and .24 for the rows in order this season — and use that instead of the row number. This takes into account the fact that DDs are actually more likely to appear in rows 4 and 3 than in row 5, and also you can assign 0 points for selecting a clue in a column where a DD has also appeared.
Neal mentioned that in the Cubs World Series championship parafe he, and other “unknown” front office people were in the first trolley and, how people were disappointed that it wasn’t players. I guess I would have been to, although as a financial analyst he helps the team acquire and retain players by helping to see what the team,s finances look like.
Ray is one of those players who don’t create a lot of fans, or, haters. Except for his seeming constant fidgeting during the game, there are no signature guestures, or, strategy moves to create then Just quiet solid play.
As for this game’s Final jeopardy I had absolutely no clue.
I’m confused about the point of “Clue Selection by Row”
The point is to track whether players are hunting for Daily Doubles or not.