Warning: This page contains spoilers for the December 21, 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 Children’s Lit) for Wednesday, December 21, 2022 (Season 39, Game 73):
The title object of this book “never looked more beautiful…each strand held dozens of bright drops of early morning dew”
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Michael Vaz, a tutor from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
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Mary Dishigrikyan, a school psychologist from North Hollywood, California
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Ray Lalonde, a scenic artist from Toronto, Ontario, Canada (4-day total: $95,300)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Ray Lalonde goes for the all-important win number five tonight on Jeopardy!—his challengers tonight are North Hollywood’s Mary Dishigrikyan and Mississauga’s Michael Vaz. Two Canadians on the same episode of Jeopardy! is not unprecedented—in 2018, B.C.’s Ali Hasan was defeated by Ontario’s Jordan Nussbaum, while Mattea Roach won their 10th game last April against North Vancouver’s Caitlin Hayes.
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(Content continues below)
Correct response: What is Charlotte’s Web?
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.)
Charlotte’s Web is a famous 1952 work of children’s literature by E.B. White. In it, the title barn spider begins spinning webs extolling the virtues of pig Wilbur to prevent Wilbur from being slaughtered by their farmer. Charlotte’s messages included “Some Pig”, and “Humble”. The work was nominated for the Newbery Medal, but lost to Ann Nolan Clark’s “Secret of the Andes”.
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Game Recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Geography That Made History; Quotable Shakespeare Plays; Machines; Sounds Like A Bug; Nba Teams; Superlatives)
Today’s game started out very quickly as the Battle of Ontario, with both Ray and Michael playing very well. Michael was buoyed by an early True Daily Double and held the lead at both commercial breaks!
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Michael 8 correct 0 incorrect
Ray 6 correct 1 incorrect
Mary 0 correct 1 incorrect
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Michael 12 correct 1 incorrect
Ray 13 correct 3 incorrect
Mary 1 correct 1 incorrect
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Pacific Islands; Putting On Heirs; Food & Drink; The Classic Song In Question; I’S In The Back; Of Your Head)
The Battle of Ontario continued to be very closely fought! Michael and Ray played a Daily Double, but Ray got to his second and was able to size his bet to take a slim lead going into clue #61! Scores going into the final clue were Ray at $19,200, Michael at $18,400, and Mary at $3,000.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Ray 28 correct 4 incorrect
Michael 21 correct 3 incorrect
Mary 3 correct 1 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 12 (0 today).
Both Canadians got Final Jeopardy! correct—Ray did make a cover bet and is now a 5-time champion! He attempts to become only the second Canadian ever to win 6 tomorrow!
Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Wednesday, December 21, 2022 Jeopardy! by the numbers:
Scores going into Final:
Ray $19,200
Michael $18,400
Mary $3,000
Tonight’s results:
Mary $3,000 – $2,000 = $1,000 (What is Sleeping Beauty?)
Michael $18,400 + $801 = $19,201 (What is Charlotte’s Web?)
Ray $19,200 + $17,700 = $36,900 (What is Charlotte’s Web?) (5-day total: $132,200)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Michael $7,600
Ray $5,000
Mary -$200
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) GEOGRAPHY THAT MADE HISTORY $800 (clue #7)
Michael 1600 +1600 (Ray 2000 Mary -400)
2) PUTTING ON HEIRS $1600 (clue #15)
Michael 10000 +4000 (Ray 12200 Mary 3000)
3) PACIFIC ISLANDS $1600 (clue #25, $4000 left on board)
Ray 15800 +3000 (Mary 3000 Michael 17200)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 159
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Ray 3 4 5 1 3
Mary
Michael 2 4*
DJ! Round:
Ray 3 4 5 1 3 4 5 3 4 5 4 2† 1† 4*
Mary 1 2 2
Michael 3 4* 5† 3 3 5 2 2
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Ray 3.37
Michael 3.30
Mary 1.67
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 12 (0.16 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Ray $17,800 Coryat, 28 correct, 4 incorrect, 49.12% in first on buzzer (28/57), 3/3 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Michael $15,200 Coryat, 21 correct, 3 incorrect, 35.09% in first on buzzer (20/57), 1/2 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Mary $3,000 Coryat, 3 correct, 1 incorrect, 5.26% in first on buzzer (3/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $36,000
Lach Trash: $11,000 (on 8 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $7,000
Ray Lalonde, career statistics:
133 correct, 19 incorrect
9/10 on rebound attempts (on 16 rebound opportunities)
45.26% in first on buzzer (129/285)
8/8 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $25,100)
3/5 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $20,440
Mary Dishigrikyan, career statistics:
3 correct, 2 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
5.26% in first on buzzer (3/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $3,000
Michael Vaz, career statistics:
22 correct, 3 incorrect
1/2 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
35.09% in first on buzzer (20/57)
2/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $5,600)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $15,200
Ray Lalonde, to win:
6 games: 79.456%
7: 63.133%
8: 50.163%
9: 39.858%
10: 31.669%
Avg. streak: 8.868 games.
Today’s interviews:
Michael competed at the World Board Game Championships.
Mary tends to have her teeth chatter when she’s nervous.
Ray is a lover of theatre; his uncle was part of a Gilbert & Sullivan society.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- I don’t think I can lay blame on Michael’s DD2 bet size for today’s outcome; I do feel that Ray would have adjusted his bet size accordingly on DD3 to take the lead, regardless of what Michael bet.
- While there are very likely going to be more worthy candidates than competition slots, I think Michael is very likely to get Second Chance consideration after today’s performance.
- Today’s box score: December 21, 2022 Box Score.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Ray $19,200 Michael $18,400 Mary $3,000)
Ray: Standard cover bet over Michael is $17,601. (Actual bet: $17,700)
Mary: If Ray makes the cover bet over Michael and is incorrect, he falls to $1,599. Limit your bet to $1,399 for the best chance of winning. (Actual bet: $2,000)
Michael: Bet between $1,601 (to defend against Ray’s small range) and $12,399 (therefore keeping Mary locked out.)(Actual bet: $801)
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Oh… an instant get! I’m hoping that bodes well for the chance of a Triple Get on the show!
me, too….the easiest ones are the ones you know…but yeah, I think it was ‘strands’ that was the give away for me.
Yes 😀 The quoted bit was not instantly recognizable to me, but the fact that the “strands” were part of something in the title clued me in.
Same here for the quote not being instantly recognizable to me, but it still made me sure it was Charlotte’s Web.
Doesn’t “The title object of this book” from the clue make a ‘Sleeping Beauty’ response be an objectification of women? 😉
“Strands” also gave it to me right away.
“Strands” for the win. 🙂
One of my favorite books as a child—this brought back memories—an instant get for me too.
Congratulations on Ray being 5 day+ champion. We will see him for sure in the next TOC in November 2023.
“morning dew” is a great clue
Morning dew is a great clue which led me to Charlotte’s web. My favorite childhood book and movie from the old days. This was an instant get for me as well. Congrats to the canandian contestants getting this one.
Well, at least the Chicago audience got to see the Jeopardy round before ABC broke in.
Jeopardy should allow their affiliates to air the new episode twice (for no extra charge): once at the “regular” time and once in the wee hours of the morning.
Thus if the regular timeslot is preempted, people can set their recording devices to get the overnight rerun.
Granted, I don’t know if any stations would consider that worthwhile, but I’d like it.
since Micheal’s home city is a Toronto suburb (it’s home to the Raptors G League team) one can also say that this game’s Final Jeopardy was the battle of Metro Toronto. Another miss for me. Even after reading the clue, had nothing. Today’s game was prempted in the Chicago area from the start of Double Jeopardy by ABC News’ coverage of President Biden, and, the President of Ukraine’s joint news conference.
I’d be grateful if anyone is willing to offer a opinion on the $1000 Sounds Like a Bug clue. “Web crawler” acceptable?
I think it should be acceptable. According to Wikipedia “spider” is just another name for web crawler. Unlike the other four in that category, it doesn’t literally contain the name of a bug, but the category didn’t explicitly say it should, just that it SOUNDS LIKE a bug, which to me “web crawler” does.
Thanks!
I would say “no”; in my opinion, “crawler” is not the name of a bug.
After seeing the differing opinions I crawled around the web a bit and found this:
https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-1-4020-6359-6_10073
I’m at least convinced it would be harsh for the judges not to accept it, even if they’re using the more restrictive interpretation of the category.
Interestingly “bot” is a term for the larva of the botfly, so it fits the category. As a computer term, it’s too general for the clue, so the ruling on Michael’s response was correct.