Warning: This page contains spoilers for the December 26, 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 TV Finales) for Monday, December 26, 2022 (Season 39, Game 76):
In a reunion over 40 years in the making, Dolly Parton appeared as an angel named Agnes in the final episode of this comedy in 2022
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Bobby Freitas, a middle school teacher from Long Beach, California
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Sarah Schmeer, an executive assistant from Portland, Oregon
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Ray Lalonde, a scenic artist from Toronto, Ontario, Canada (7-day total: $192,700)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Since Jeopardy! began publishing box scores on January 12, 2022, the average Jeopardy! contestant makes 34.2 attempts per game on the signaling device. The average champion makes 38.3, while the average challenger makes 32.2. Cris Pannullo, in his 21-game win streak, averaged 45.7. Five-time champion Luigi de Guzman from earlier this season averaged 50.2 (which will certainly help Luigi’s Tournament of Champions chances next fall). Ray Lalonde, in his seven games so far, is averaging 46.4. If Ray is able to keep that going this week, we may see our second double-digit winner of Season 39. However, Ray has only found 10 Daily Doubles in 7 games thus far. (By way of comparison, Cris Pannullo had found 17 in his first seven games.) The fact that Ray’s opponents are finding these Daily Doubles may give Ray’s opponents more chances to beat him. Could that variance work in Sarah Schmeer’s or Bobby Freitas’s favor today?
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(Content continues below)
Correct response: What is Grace and Frankie?
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.)
The acclaimed Netflix comedy series Grace and Frankie, which saw its finale take place in 2022 at the end of its seventh season, starred Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, both of whom starred with Dolly Parton in the classic 1980 film 9 to 5. Parton’s cameo in the finale, thus, served as a reunion of sorts for that film’s starring cast. (I’ll avoid talking about plot points in this write-up because we’re still within a year of the finale).
I suspect that some older viewers are going to complain—as they always seem to when it comes to current entertainment—that the entertainment space has become much more fractured in the late 2010s such that it’s harder to keep up with. And that’s true, to a point—even Jeopardy! itself believes that this fracturing has made the show harder because it has led to an expansion of the “canon” of things to possibly ask about. But, Tomlin and Fonda have been nominated for five Emmy Awards between them for their respective roles on Grace and Frankie, and I would say that it’s an incredibly easy argument to make that a TV series receiving Emmy nominations in major categories would be 100% appropriate to be the subject of clues—even Final Jeopardy! clues—in any era of the show.
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Game Recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Word Puzzles; The 18Th Century; The Office; Vacation Isles; Apps & Websites; Remember The Alamo Bowl)
Ray got off to a very hot start, picking up 8 correct and the Daily Double before the interviews. After the break, both challengers pulled closer, but Ray still lhad a strong lead after 30 clues.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Ray 8 correct 0 incorrect
Sarah 4 correct 0 incorrect
Bobby 3 correct 0 incorrect
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Ray 11 correct 1 incorrect
Sarah 8 correct 2 incorrect
Bobby 8 correct 2 incorrect
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Sounds Like A University; Stage Musicals By Song Lyrics; Africa; Your Elemental Hit Parade; Write Place; Wrong Time)
Ray started the round well, picking up the first Daily Double to extend his lead to over $13,000. However, Sarah stormed back with the game’s final Daily Double, and she did just enough in the endgame to ensure that Ray didn’t have a runaway going into Final! Scores going into Final were Ray at $21,600, Sarah at $11,600, and Bobby at $3,400.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Ray 25 correct 3 incorrect
Sarah 14 correct 3 incorrect
Bobby 13 correct 5 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 12 (0 today).
Both Ray and Sarah were correct in Final, and that means Ray is now an 8-day champion, winnings over $200,000! He returns tomorrow for game #9!
Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Monday, December 26, 2022 Jeopardy! by the numbers:
Scores going into Final:
Ray $21,600
Sarah $11,600
Bobby $3,400
Tonight’s results:
Bobby $3,400 – $3,200 = $200 (What is …)
Sarah $11,600 + $11,500 = $23,100 (What is Grace + Frankie Frankie?)
Ray $21,600 + $5,000 = $26,600 (What is Grace + Frankie?) (8-day total: $219,300)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Ray $7,000
Sarah $4,400
Bobby $3,400
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) THE 18th CENTURY $800 (clue #9)
Ray 1800 +1800 (Sarah 1600 Bobby 1600)
2) AFRICA $1200 (clue #9)
Ray 13800 +3000 (Sarah 3600 Bobby 200)
3) WRONG TIME $1600 (clue #17, $12000 left on board)
Sarah 6800 +4000 (Ray 16400 Bobby 2200)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 181
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Ray 3 5 1 4*
Sarah 3 2
Bobby 4 4 3
DJ! Round:
Ray 4 5 3 4 5 2 3* 4† 5† 3
Sarah 1 3 4*
Bobby 3 2 4 5
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Ray 3.64
Sarah 2.60
Bobby 3.57
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 $18,800 Coryat, 25 correct, 3 incorrect, 40.35% in first on buzzer (23/57), 2/3 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Sarah $9,200 Coryat, 14 correct, 3 incorrect, 24.56% in first on buzzer (14/57), 0/2 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Bobby $3,400 Coryat, 13 correct, 5 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 1/2 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $31,400
Lach Trash: $9,400 (on 8 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $13,200
Ray Lalonde, career statistics:
205 correct, 26 incorrect
15/17 on rebound attempts (on 27 rebound opportunities)
42.54% in first on buzzer (194/456)
12/12 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $36,300)
6/8 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $20,000
Sarah Schmeer, career statistics:
15 correct, 3 incorrect
0/2 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
24.56% in first on buzzer (14/57)
1/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $4,000)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $9,200
Bobby Freitas, career statistics:
13 correct, 6 incorrect
1/2 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $3,400
Ray Lalonde, to win:
9 games: 80.855%
10: 65.375%
11: 52.858%
12: 42.738%
13: 34.556%
Avg. streak: 12.223 games.
Today’s interviews:
Bobby taught English in South Korea.
Sarah owned a 5-foot-tall stuffed giraffe as a prized possession.
Ray finds his job a lot of fun.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Ray moves into 20th all time in terms of regular play winnings. Larissa Kelly sits 19th at $222,597.
- Today’s box score: December 26, 2022 Box Score.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Ray $21,600 Sarah $11,600 Bobby $3,400)
Ray: Standard cover bet over Sarah is $1,601. (Actual bet: $5,000)
Sarah: Bet at least $8,401 to surpass Ray in case he makes cover bet and is incorrect. (Actual bet: $11,500)
Bobby: If Sarah makes her minimum bet and is incorrect, she falls to $3,199. Limit your bet to $199. (Actual bet: $3,200)
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I knew the “Frankie” half…my dad used to joke and say, “if you know half the answer, they should give you half of the money.”
“Frankie” came to me first, too, but I knew the whole title was ‘Grace and Frankie’.
I have zero issue with J! clues covering streaming content.
Netflix/etc reaches a far larger audience than opera, but they still have opera categories.
A fun FJ clue today, although “9 to 5” is actually from 1980. Hence the phrase “over 40 years in the making.”
Thank you!
Ugh, the losing continues :p I’ve never even heard of that show before.
Current FJ streak: 3L
Just curious . . . do you not use Netflix (since they always “advertise” their new releases and “most currently popular” even if you then don’t choose to watch them)?
And do you NEVER watch late-night interview shows? Because Lily and Jane hit all of them when the last season came out.
Do you not read the details of news articles? Because I know it made headlines when Jane Fonda was diagnosed with cancer earlier this year and then again when it was announced to be in remission — despite her fame from her earlier life, most news sources mentioned her most recent work, ‘Grace and Frankie’.
No criticism, to each their own (interests and habits), but just noting that one does not have to watch a “TV series” to have heard of it.
No Netflix nor late-night television. I don’t recall any recent news about Jane Fonda, although it’s possible I may have glossed over it 🤷
While I have the impression that many “champion material” prospective contestants would have absorbed the Jane Fonda news (and recent background info given with it) without even thinking about it at the time.
I like when they do things like that – like when Katey Sagal appeared on Big Bang Theory as Kayley Cuoco’s mother after having played her mother year’s earlier on 8 Simple Rules.
I’ll never forget Suzanne Pleshette, from “The Bob Newhart Show”, in bed with Bob Newhart at the end of the series “Newhart”.
This was the show that I watched in my younger years and I still remember it very well. A fun final jeopardy clue, Andy. Happy to see Ray winning again, And sarah is looking good for the next second chance tournament
What do you mean by “watched in my younger years”? “Still remember” implies quite some time ago, but ‘Grace and Frankie’ has only been in existence as of 2015 and had new episodes THIS YEAR!
However, I suppose you may have meant you saw the movie ‘9 to 5’ (maybe as I did, in a movie theater), but a “show you watched” generally means “TV series”.
Love today’s q! 🙂
“However, Ray has only found 10 Daily Doubles in 7 games thus far. The fact that Ray’s opponents are finding these Daily Doubles may give Ray’s opponents more chances to beat him.”
Ray has also yet to miss a Daily Double and is averaging more than $4,500 a game on them, and he’s also only missed 2 Final Jeopardies. I think the fact that he’s 18-for-20 on the betting clues thus far is able to offset his not necessarily hitting as many doubles as Cris.
Also, was my comment just approved insanely quickly or do my comments not have to wait to be approved by a moderator anymore?
Andy, I think it is really funny what you said about older viewers complaining about current entertainment questions because it is so fractured now (and/or proliferated). I don’t disagree [with your statement, not with the complainers], it is just that I feel like Bobby missed the FJ question BECAUSE he was just totally the wrong demographic — too young for ‘9 to 5’ or Lily Tomlin or Jane Fonda or ‘Grace and Frankie’!
As for the idea of whether Jeopardy! should “go there” with modern entertainment categories and clues, there is the point of trying not to repeat past clues, since (for the most part) history hasn’t changed [there is more of it, occurring since Jeopardy began in 1964 (only 4 months after the JFK assassination), but there is always going to be FAR MORE from BEFORE then]; ‘Great Literature’ hasn’t changed much, just a bit more of it, plus some popular fiction; and most of the science Jeopardy! could expect lay people to know hasn’t changed THAT MUCH. However, I think viewers like to think all the contestants are not “ivory tower, don’t live in the real world” types and so would expect them to know some entertainment-related information that doesn’t all date back to when they were teens. But I do agree with your implication that Jeopardy! should stick with those which were blockbusters and/or attained major awards, not just merely exist(ed).
Obviously one would not expect contestants to have “wasted” MUCH time watching lots of network TV, streaming channels, and cable, but there is lots of exposure for any one really good movie or show — advertising, previews and reviews, talk show appearances, click-bait headlines (even if you don’t click on them) and awards shows. And, of course, there are compilations online and in print if a contestant chooses to “cram” on a subject they are not familiar with (i.e., current entertainment).
People know things and don’t know things. I was ripped once for a comment I made about a clue because I said I didn’t know how people would know the info. The clue referred to a part of the country I had never been exposed to and I assumed that applied to others. My bad. To assume someone or something is well known because they or it has had “lots of exposure” is a questionable assumption, especially in entertainment or the arts, in an age where a lot of that exposure may be on social media or other media directed to specific social groups. There is no one reason why one may not know the answer to the clue, but we do know there’s no one alive who knows everything.
I’m not sure that we are talking about the same idea or not. My point was not that “everyone should have had this exposure”, but that lots of people will, rather than just specific people. I also think Jeopardy! should be (and probably is) trying to come up with some facts that not everybody does know, but are not ones that “almost no one knows”. Otherwise, the champions are going to look like they know everything just because the clues didn’t have a wide enough range.
On the other hand, I remember an instance a long time ago where in one contestant’s interview the person said they were a huge fan of something and then one of the categories (maybe even the FJ category, but I don’t think so) turned out to be exactly that! I think random chance should allow for stuff like that to happen, but it is less likely if Jeopardy! clues never stray into “little known” territory.
I don’t think older viewers would have much to complain about with today’s FJ. In fact, I think it plays to the older demographic with three icons from an older generation. The show “Grace and Frankie” probably appeals to the older generation more so than younger generations. Likewise, the film “9 to 5” is more likely to have been viewed in its original run by the over 60 crowd than younger folks. Overall, I think today’s FJ is more likely to be responded to correctly by older rather than younger viewers.
Basically my point earlier about Bobby having been the wrong demographic to be likely to be able to get it right.
Yes, we agreed. I find that we are frequently on the same wave length.
I don’t understand the “controversy” of using a program from a streaming as a clue in Final Jeopardy. I knew nothing of “Frankie and Grace,” don’t recal reading about Dolly Pardon’s cameo in it’s finale. I currently subscribe to Netflix but can’t sat I’m totally familar with all of it’s programming, but just because it’s something I’m not totally aware of, doesn’t make it an “unfair” Final Jeopardy.
Andy: has “Think,” the Jeopardy theme/unofficial timing for Final Jeopardy, ever been used as even part of a Jeopardy clue? This came to mind watching the fist Jeopady of the Trebek era on YouTube.
I think my difficulty with including current popular TV/streaming programs is this – the total viewers on those identified as “successful” or “popular” are a fraction of the viewership of Emmy-nominated programs from 15-25 years earlier. Examples – the final season of “Seinfeld” aired in 1997-98 and averaged more than 35 million viewers, with the finale hitting 76 million. The US version of “The Office” premiered in Spring 2005 and regularly drew just under 9 million viewers. The final season of “Grace and Frankie” had 16 episodes of 30 minutes each, or roughly 480 minutes. Netflix called it a success when Nielsen announced it had 701 million minutes downloaded.
The fracturing of viewership means fewer eyeballs hitting the popular and critical successes.
Fracturing or no fracturing, asking Jeopardy! to stop asking about current TV shows is unrealistic.
Yes, it does mean that the subject has gotten harder over the last 20 years, but TV trivia is a core part of the American quizzing canon, and it is unrealistic to stop asking about it.