Warning: This page contains spoilers for the February 14, 2023, 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 Art & Science) for Tuesday, February 14, 2023 (Season 39, Game 112):
A craft that visited it was named for Giotto, based on the story that 680 years earlier, the painter depicted it as the Star of Bethlehem
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Blaine Smith, a writer & communications consultant from Portland, Oregon
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Laurin Bell, an executive assistant from Lakeland, Florida
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Kendra Westerhaus, a licensed psychologist from Pocatello, Idaho (1-day total: $29,601)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Idaho’s Kendra Westerhaus is your new Jeopardy! champion after her win last night! Laurin Bell and Blaine Smith are your challengers.
Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be working on a potentially updated prediction model for regular play games, as I definitely get the sense that Jeopardy! has changed enough such that the old model isn’t as predictive as it once was.
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 Halley’s Comet?
More information about Final Jeopardy:
(The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2023 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)
The space craft Giotto was sent by the European Space Agency to study Halley’s Comet in 1986, getting as near as 596 kilometers from the comet’s nucleus. It was named after Italian painter Giotto di Bondone, whose 1301 version of “Adoration of the Magi” depicted the comet as the Star of Bethlehem. NASA was supposed to send a partner probe, but budget cuts and the Challenger disaster caused those plans to fall through. Halley’s Comet is supposed to pass near Earth next in 2061.
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Game Recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: It Happened On Valentine’s Day; Portrait Of A Lady; State Trees; Come On Get Hoppy; Anagrammed College Subjects; TV Show Titles In Spanish)
Buoyed by the first Daily Double, Kendra had the best time of things in the opening round; her 11 correct saw her hold the lead at both commercial breaks.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Kendra 5 correct 0 incorrect
Laurin 4 correct 0 incorrect
Blaine 4 correct 1 incorrect
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Kendra 11 correct 0 incorrect
Laurin 10 correct 0 incorrect
Blaine 5 correct 1 incorrect
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: The Film Independent Spirit Awards; Ye Olde British Money; Phrase Connectors; The River; Born To Run; The Ghost Of Tom Joad)
Kendra got to both Daily Doubles in this round; she split them for a net -$1,000. This made for a very interesting endgame after Blaine got the last $1,600 clue and Kendra the last $2,000 clue—Kendra had exactly twice Blaine’s score! Scores going into Final were Kendra at $17,600, Blaine at $8,800, and Lauren at $5,000.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Kendra 23 correct 3 incorrect
Blaine 12 correct 4 incorrect
Laurin 13 correct 2 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 16 (0 today).
The wagering was ultimately rendered moot by the fact that Kendra was the only player correct in Final. She is now a 2-day champion, with winnings $47,201! She goes for win #3 tomorrow!
Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Tuesday, February 14, 2023 Jeopardy! by the numbers:
Scores going into Final:
Kendra $17,600
Blaine $8,800
Laurin $5,000
Tonight’s results:
Laurin $5,000 – $5,000 = $0 (What is Jupiter?)
Blaine $8,800 – $8,700 = $100 (What is Polaris?)
Kendra $17,600 + $0 = $17,600 (What is Haley’s Comet?) (2-day total: $47,201)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Kendra $7,000
Laurin $5,400
Blaine $2,400
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) STATE TREES $1000 (clue #11)
Kendra 1200 +1200 (Laurin 800 Blaine 2000)
2) THE RIVER $1600 (clue #21)
Kendra 13800 -3000 (Laurin 6200 Blaine 7600)
3) YE OLDE BRITISH MONEY $1600 (clue #24, $8000 left on board)
Kendra 12800 +2000 (Laurin 6200 Blaine 6400)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 94
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Kendra 1 1 5*
Laurin 4 5 3
Blaine 1 2 3 2 4
DJ! Round:
Kendra 1 2 3 4 2 4 5 3 4* 5† 3 4*
Laurin 1 2 3
Blaine 2 1 5 1 2 3 4 5 1
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Kendra 3.13
Blaine 2.57
Laurin 3.00
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 16 (0.14 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Kendra $20,000 Coryat, 23 correct, 3 incorrect, 36.84% in first on buzzer (21/57), 2/2 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Blaine $8,800 Coryat, 12 correct, 4 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Laurin $5,000 Coryat, 13 correct, 2 incorrect, 22.81% in first on buzzer (13/57), 1/2 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $33,800
Lach Trash: $11,000 (on 11 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $9,200
Kendra Westerhaus, career statistics:
41 correct, 5 incorrect
4/5 on rebound attempts (on 11 rebound opportunities)
29.82% in first on buzzer (34/114)
4/5 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $5,200)
1/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $17,900
Laurin Bell, career statistics:
13 correct, 3 incorrect
1/2 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
22.81% in first on buzzer (13/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $5,000
Blaine Smith, career statistics:
12 correct, 5 incorrect
0/0 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: $8,800
Kendra Westerhaus, to win:
3 games: 58.718%
4: 34.478%
5: 20.245%
6: 11.887%
7: 6.980%
Avg. streak: 3.422 games.
Today’s interviews:
Blaine became a writer because of a psychic.
Laurin believed she was the only Laurin Bell until about 15 years ago.
Kendra sang at Carnegie Hall as part of a choir.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- I thought that having wagering strategy featured on CNN last year might get prospective contestants to realize the importance of the situation. Was I ever wrong.
- Today’s box score: February 14, 2023 Box Score.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Kendra $17,600 Blaine $8,800 Laurin $5,000)
Kendra: Bet $1—unless you hate the Final Jeopardy! category to the point where you’d rather pin your chances on a tiebreaker clue (essentially a buzzer race); bet $0 if you hate the category. But those are your two best choices, because as much as you’d think second place knows to go all-in, there’s no guarantee of that. (Actual bet: $0)
Laurin: Because Blaine pretty much has to go all-in, any bet except all $5,000 is fine today. (Actual bet: $5,000)
Blaine: You have exactly one good bet here: all $8,800. Anything else literally risks going viral on places as far-reaching as CNN. (Actual bet: $8,700)
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If it had had 1986 in the clue, I think I would’ve gotten it. Not familiar with Giotto, the painter or the space craft.
Yeah 🙁 I remember the ESA sending a probe, but not the name of it, and the painter was unfamiliar to me.
Current FJ streak: 1L
I’m no jeopardy expert but man were those Final Jeopardy wagers questionable. I’m not sure in what works those wagers make any sense but what do I know?
Kendra’s bet was the only one that was defensible. Laurin’s was suboptimal, and Blaine… I just don’t get it.
(Admin note: A comment in reply to this was deleted. Referring to a clearly defensible wager in a disparaging fashion is unacceptable.)
I’m a space and astronomy nerd, and I remember the 1986 apparition, and discussion of the depictions of the comet in the Bayeux Tapestry and the Adoration of the Magi that were occuring as the 1986 apparition was approaching, so this one was pretty much a layup for me.
I’ve studied astronomy back in grade school and I remember this apparition. This was a giveaway for me. Learning about Halley’s comet helped me a lot for today. I don’t get Blaine’s bet in the final and laurin’s bet I don’t know why she made that.
Reference to Giotto didn’t mean anything to me. But answer made sense to me (as reasonable guess in any event) based on Star of Bethlehem reference.
I must be the only one here familiar with Giotto but I didn’t connect him to the European Space Agency or Halley’s Comet. (But a Mark Twain clue? No problemo.)
Smart bet by Kendra in final.
I got this one right away. Mark Twain famously said, of himself and Halley’s Comet, “They came in together, they must go out together”—a prediction that actually came true!
I’d thought I remembered that Venus had been presumed to have been the Star of Bethlehem (though that never made sense to me since it is pretty much always in the sky and even early Babylonians had good astronomers and the Maji were assumed to be from that general area), but I knew there had been probes to Venus, so that’s what I guessed.
I also guessed Venus. Some have connected the Star of Bethlehem to an unusually close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter that occurred in the relevant time period.
That FJ clue gave me a headache given how it took me almost the entire 30 seconds to understand what it was even asking for. Whoops.
I’m also surprised by the FJ bets. Kendra had two choices and made a defensible one that was ultimately wrong because she ended up getting FJ correct. But Laurin betting it all when locked out and Blaine not realizing he had to go all in to force a tie… did the pressure get to them? Both of them should have reviewed your betting strategy guide, so I would think that has to be it.
I could almost make a defense of Blaine’s bet on the following bases.
Kendra was, at worst, going to bet $1, at best would bet $0
He wasn’t confident in his ability to beat her to the buzzer on a tiebreaker
He figured Laurin would bet all but $1
He wanted to secure second place because he’d written off winning.
That’s the only way I can justify going the way that he did. Perhaps hoping for a second-chance spot, as well. But he didn’t have a really good option. The best outcome he could get was a tiebreaker, not thinking of if he bet all and Kendra had bet to cover and he had been right and she had been wrong that he would have won outright. But he seemed to be assuming she’d be right, and he needed to secure second, would be my guess.
I also spent almost the entire time parsing the clue. Doubt I would’ve gotten it away, tho.
I didn’t have any trouble getting the point of the clue, I just didn’t know the “answer”. I think sometimes with the ones with many phrases, the brain will just get fixated on one or two portions and not get a chance to get the big picture [NOT a pun on the painting].
When I was a child, I had an astronomy book with a picture of Halley’s comet passing over an astonished man in a circa 1910 automobile. The comet appeared so vividly that I looked forward to the day in 1986 that I would get to see Halley’s Comet so clearly myself. My disappointment at the actual appearance (or non-appearance) of Halley’s Comet was akin to my disappointment at today’s final wagering. Now, I have to live to be 111 years old for another chance at seeing it in person.