Warning: This page contains spoilers for the February 17, 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 National Parks) for Friday, February 17, 2023 (Season 39, Game 115):
It’s named for a river indigenous people called Mi tse a-da-zi, translated by French-speaking trappers as “Pierre Jaune”
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Will Travis, an accountant from Irving, Texas
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Laura Donegan, a physician from Towson, Maryland
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Stephen Webb, a data scientist from Longmont, Colorado (2-day total: $60,701)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Colorado data scientist Stephen Webb has played very well over his first two days, winning over $60,000! Will he win his third game? Will Travis and Laura Donegan are your challengers today; Laura is the third member of the Donegan clan in a little over 12 months to be on the show; her twin daughters were on the show in 2022; Kristin as part of the Jeopardy! National College Championship last February, and Ciara in regular play last March. Both daughters won once.
This is also the last episode until March hosted by Ken Jennings; following today, the next 14 episodes (all part of the upcoming High School Reunion Tournament) will be hosted by Mayim Bialik. Now’s a good time to remind everyone: regardless of your feelings about whoever is hosting, the constant and incessant whining by a loud but vocal minority of Jeopardy! fans every time Mayim is mentioned makes the entire fanbase look terrible. A good number of you need to stop.
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!
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(Content continues below)
Correct response: What is Yellowstone?
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.)
Yellowstone National Park was the U.S.’s first National Park, created in 1872 by President Ulysses. S. Grant. Known for its geothermal features, including the Old Faithful geyser, it was named after the Yellowstone River in the area; the Minnetaree natives of the area called the river “Mi tse a-da-zi”; literally translated to “Rock Yellow River” English. Canadian explorer David Thompson translated the French “Pierre Jaune” to “Yellow Stone”, which was the term that entered into the most common use.
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Game Recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: In The Nation’s Constitution; Around America; Cook, The Books; Stay Cool; The Champion’s League; Word & Wordplus)
Though a few incorrect responses all around kept the scores down, Stephen had the best time of it, getting 11 correct and holding the lead after 30 clues!
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Stephen 5 correct 1 incorrect
Will 4 correct 2 incorrect
Laura 3 correct 2 incorrect
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Stephen 11 correct 3 incorrect
Will 8 correct 2 incorrect
Laura 6 correct 2 incorrect
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Memoirs Of Government & Politics; Myth Congeniality; Science; Actors Playing Playwrights; Time To Go Big; Sometimes A “Little” Is Enough)
The Daily Doubles were the story of this round; Stephen doubled up with a bet of $6,400 on his, whereas Will lost $6,000 on his. This meant that despite Will getting more correct responses in the round than Stephen, Stephen had a commanding runaway going into Final! Scores going into the 61st clue were Stephen at $23,200, Will at $7,400, and Laura at $4,800.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Stephen 21 correct 3 incorrect
Will 20 correct 5 incorrect
Laura 11 correct 4 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 16 (0 today).
It was crucial that Stephen had a runaway—Will was the only player correct in Final. Stephen’s runaway makes him a 3-day champion; he’ll be back to defend on March 10!
Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Friday, February 17, 2023 Jeopardy! by the numbers:
Scores going into Final:
Stephen $23,200
Will $7,400
Laura $4,800
Tonight’s results:
Laura $4,800 – $4,799 = $1 (What is ?)
Will $7,400 + $2,201 = $9,601 (What is Yellowstone)
Stephen $23,200 – $3,270 = $19,930 (What is ???) (3-day total: $80,631)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Stephen $4,000
Will $3,000
Laura $2,000
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Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) AROUND AMERICA $1000 (clue #15)
Will 0 +1000 (Stephen 1400 Laura 600)
2) SCIENCE $1200 (clue #4)
Stephen 6400 +6400 (Laura 400 Will 4600)
3) MYTH CONGENIALITY $1200 (clue #12, $20400 left on board)
Will 10200 -6000 (Stephen 12800 Laura 1600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 141
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Stephen 1 3 5 4 2 4 3 4
Laura 1 3 5 2
Will 3 1 5*
DJ! Round:
Stephen 5 3* 2†
Laura 4 3
Will 1 1† 4 5 4 4 3*
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Stephen 3.27
Will 3.10
Laura 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:
Stephen $18,000 Coryat, 21 correct, 3 incorrect, 35.09% in first on buzzer (20/57), 3/3 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Will $13,400 Coryat, 20 correct, 5 incorrect, 33.33% in first on buzzer (19/57), 3/4 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Laura $4,800 Coryat, 11 correct, 4 incorrect, 22.81% in first on buzzer (13/57), 1/2 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $36,200
Lach Trash: $7,000 (on 7 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $10,800
Stephen Webb, career statistics:
67 correct, 7 incorrect
4/4 on rebound attempts (on 16 rebound opportunities)
36.84% in first on buzzer (63/171)
4/4 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $17,200)
2/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $19,067
Laura Donegan, career statistics:
11 correct, 5 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: $4,800
Will Travis, career statistics:
21 correct, 5 incorrect
3/4 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
33.33% in first on buzzer (19/57)
1/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$5,000)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $13,400
Stephen Webb, to win:
4 games: 75.772%
5: 57.414%
6: 43.504%
7: 32.964%
8: 24.977%
Avg. streak: 6.127 games.
Today’s interviews:
Will is not Texas’ most famous Will Travis.
Laura met her husband while bungee jumping.
Stephen stumbled upon a school dance party in the middle of Nicaragua.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- You can’t really blame Will’s bet sizing on DD3 for his loss today; even missing with a bet of $2,000 would have left Steven in a runaway position.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Stephen $23,200 Will $7,400 Laura $4,800)
Stephen: Limit your bet to $8,399. (Actual bet: $3,270)
Laura: Bet at least $401 and get second place if you get Final and Will doesn’t. (Actual bet: $4,799)
Will: Standard cover bet over Laura is $2,201. (Actual bet: $2,201)
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My 7 years of French paid off!! A simple and easy translation.
My two semesters of Basic were enough to get Yellow Stone😌
In “Jaune” also the origin of the diesease name “Jaundice?”
More or less, yes. (It’s from ‘jaunisse’, which literally means ‘yellowness’.)
Yay! I got as far as ”river” and immediately thought of the Yellowstone River. Glad to end the week with a correct answer.
I did, too, and I identified it as being within the right (though very large) area that had French trappers, but since it was a FJ very recently, I thought that wouldn’t be it. [Also slightly because Mi tse a-da-zi looks like the beginning and ending would sound kind of like Mississippi.] I couldn’t think of any National Parks on or near the Mississippi [there may be one or more, but I am unaware of any], so I had no response. Hopefully, had I actually been on the show I would have just gone ahead and put Yellowstone rather than writing something like “Love you, Mom”!
Super easy Final Jeopardy today. I predict 3 correct answers.
…with hopes that all three of them know French.
Oddly two left it blank. One would think with a category of National Parks a contestant would at least scribble something down.
Yes, that surprised me. You’d think they might at least guess Yellowstone, the USA’s first national park.
I’m thinking perhaps they, like I did, thought it wouldn’t be Yellowstone so soon after that was the Final Jeopardy fairly recently. But I agree with putting some National Park instead of leaving it blank. Besides Yellowstone, Grand Canyon is a well-known National Park with a river as a major aspect.
I’m thinking that they did not know French and with a “familiar” category like National Parks, they ran out of time thinking of what it could possibly be — related (incorrectly) to various parts of the clue:
1) Mi tse a-da-zi looks like the beginning and ending would sound kind of like Mississippi (or maybe Missouri, which trappers were well-known to use)
2) to someone who doesn’t know French, Pierre means Peter
3) Canada has National Parks, too, and French trappers (and the French naming rivers) are a bit more associated with Canada
Good luck with Ken pronouncing this phrase. (:
I got this one too given that janue means jaundice the color of yellow which translates to yellowstone. I guess learning french helped me here greatly. Congrats to our 3 time winner Stephen! Although my family and I have been thinking about visiting Yellowstone it is a good time to start booking that trip hopefully one of these days
Both hosts do a great job. We all miss Alex but should continue to honor him as responsible fans.
Amen
This couldn’t have been easier as the answer was right there in the clue. “Pierre” means “rock,” “jaune” means “yellow”: “rock yellow” equals “yellow stone.”
Odd to me that the next 14 episodes instead of the next 15 episodes will be the High School Reunion Tournament. Most of these types of tournaments have covered 15 episodes (3 weeks). The format must be a little bit different this time around. Who hosts on March 10, Ken or Mayim?
Easy if you know French.
the “standard” Jeopardy tournament format covered 2 weeks (10 episodes):
15 contestants play in 5 quarterfinal games the first week
then the 5 winners and 4 wildcards (i.e. the 4 highest scoring non-winners) played in 3 semifinal games to start the second week, concluding with the 3 semifinal winners competing in a “two-day total point affair” for the final.
but they’ve started to shake things up with tournament formats the past season or so
Yes, of course, the “standard” format in the past was 2 weeks, my mistake. Still, it is curious that the upcoming tournament is 14 days rather than 10 or 15 to round out the week. I’m also still left to wonder who hosts beginning on March 10, Ken or Mayim. Just seems odd to have that one regular episode that week. Interested to see how it works out.
While it was not explicitly pointed out in the article above, “last episode until March” and “[Mayim hosts] the next 14 episodes” would certainly imply that Ken hosts March 10.
My comment is more about the mystery of how our memories work. I too took French but was so bad in it that my high school French teacher said he’d give me a “C” if I promised to never take French again. Well I did in collage and got a “D” even with that background, when I saw the word “Jaune” the word yellow instantly appeared in my brain. This was from almost sixty years ago. All of us here can appreciate how our brains can so quickly recall such obscure and ancient parts of our memories
Didn’t even read the clue, as soon as saw Jaune -> Yellowstone
When I seen the first part of this Final Jeopardy clue (and, hearing Ken pronounce it,)
my mind went also to the Mississippi, but since I couldn’t think of a national park with Mississippi in it’s name, and having vey little knowledge of French, I was blank.
In regards to Mayim, from her lead ins into commercial breaks during Celebrity Jeopardy it APPEARS that she isn’t as comfortable yet in hosting, as Ken. I note that some of the most vocal of her critics seem to come from outlets owned by one corporation, which televison arm failed to obtain Jeopardy and Wheel for it’s stations.