Warning: This page contains spoilers for the February 21, 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 Current World Leaders) for Tuesday, February 21, 2023 (Season 39, Game 117):
In office from 2022, the president of this country has taken so many foreign trips a play on his name is “Ferdinand Magellan Jr.”
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Alison Purcell, a senior at the University of Texas at Austin from Bellaire, Texas
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Jack Izzo, a senior at Northwestern University from San Diego, California
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Avi Gupta, a senior at Stanford University from Portland, Oregon
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Today is quarterfinal #2 of the High School Reunion Tournament; Maya Wright won yesterday. She had been the strongest of yesterday’s three players in the initial tournament, which bodes well for Avi, who comes into this as the overall favorite to win the event. However, Avi didn’t receive the easiest draw—both Jack and Alison were strong at times in their respective tournaments. Absolutely anything can happen, and one bad break could mean a premature end to the event.
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(Content continues below)
Correct response: What is the Philippines?
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.)
Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., better known as Bongbong Marcos, assumed office as President of the Philippines on June 30, 2022. Since then, he has come under criticism domestically for his penchant for foreign travel—including one surreptitious trip last fall to the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix. Interestingly, due to the human rights abuses committed during his father’s tenure as President, and his family’s current failure to abide by a U.S. court order to pay restitution to victims, Marcos is only permitted in the United States due to diplomatic immunity and would be liable for arrest as soon as he left office.
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Game Recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: So, What Have You Been Up To?; They Make It; Adjectives; On TikTok; College Towns; The Rest Of The World In 2018 & ’19)
The opening segment of this game belonged to Jack; he capitalized on a couple of early Avi mistakes, and a $4,600 True Daily Double, to have $10,000 at the first break! However, Allison and Avi clawed at that deficit to make it a little bit smaller after 30 clues.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Jack 8 correct 1 incorrect
Alison 5 correct 1 incorrect
Avi 1 correct 2 incorrect
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Jack 11 correct 1 incorrect
Alison 9 correct 1 incorrect
Avi 9 correct 4 incorrect
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Home Coming; Trios; Pop Culture High School Reunions; The Elements; Shakespeare’s Women; From “E” To “Y”)
Avi got to the first Daily Double, and brought himself right back into contention by doubling up his $7,400. Unfortunately, a mistake in clue selection gave control to Alison, who found the last one. Unfortunately for Alison, she got the last Daily Double incorrect, meaning Jack held the lead going into Final. Scores going into Final were Jack at $19,200, Avi at $16,800, and Alison $10,600.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Jack 17 correct 1 incorrect
Avi 18 correct 5 incorrect
Alison 21 correct 3 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 16 (0 today).
The favorite survives a scare—Avi was the only correct player in Final today. He is the second semifinalist!
Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Tuesday, February 21, 2023 Jeopardy! by the numbers:
Scores going into Final:
Jack $19,200
Avi $16,800
Alison $10,600
Tonight’s results:
Alison $10,600 – $10,599 = $1 (What is Spain?)
Avi $16,800 + $4,500 = $21,300 (What are The Phillip Philippines? Thank you Mom) (Semi-Finalist)
Jack $19,200 – $14,401 = $4,799 (What is Ukraine?)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Jack $11,200
Alison $4,800
Avi $1,000
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) ADJECTIVES $1000 (clue #6)
Jack 4600 +4600 (Avi -2000 Alison 0)
2) THE ELEMENTS $800 (clue #15)
Avi 7400 +7400 (Jack 16000 Alison 10400)
3) TRIOS $1600 (clue #18, $10000 left on board)
Alison 10800 -5000 (Avi 14800 Jack 16000)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 154
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Avi
Jack 5 5 5 4 5*
Alison 4
DJ! Round:
Avi 3 5 3 4 5 2* 1†
Jack 5 5 1 3
Alison 4 4 5 3 4 4 4*
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Avi 3.29
Jack 4.22
Alison 4.00
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:
Avi $10,200 Coryat, 18 correct, 5 incorrect, 36.84% in first on buzzer (21/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Jack $15,600 Coryat, 17 correct, 1 incorrect, 21.05% in first on buzzer (12/57), 4/5 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
Alison $15,600 Coryat, 21 correct, 3 incorrect, 38.60% in first on buzzer (22/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $41,400
Lach Trash: $4,200 (on 3 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $8,400
Avi Gupta, career statistics:
114 correct, 10 incorrect
6/6 on rebound attempts (on 12 rebound opportunities)
38.11% in first on buzzer (109/286)
4/4 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $16,400)
5/5 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $14,960
Jack Izzo, career statistics:
55 correct, 8 incorrect
4/7 on rebound attempts (on 12 rebound opportunities)
29.24% in first on buzzer (50/171)
2/3 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $0)
1/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $14,400
Alison Purcell, career statistics:
34 correct, 5 incorrect
1/2 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
29.82% in first on buzzer (34/114)
0/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$5,000)
1/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $10,700
Today’s interviews:
Alison got tweeted at by the CDC after her appearance.
Jack is involved with the student radio station at Northwestern.
Avi donated some of his winnings to a pancreatic cancer research fund.
Remaining Players’ Chances of Winning Tournament:
Maya Wright: 12.840%
Avi Gupta: 18.726%
Stephanie Pierson: 1.138%
Autumn Shelton: 3.757%
Sreekar Madabushi: 4.390%
Justin Bolsen: 4.205%
Shriya Yarlagadda: 3.769%
Teagan O’Sullivan: 3.646%
Jackson Jones: 7.124%
Ryan Presler: 3.445%
Isabella Pagano: 1.233%
Rohan Kapileshwari: 2.908%
Claire Sattler: 5.076%
Rhea Sinha: 1.989%
Lucas Miner: 3.446%
Anish Maddipoti: 1.237%
Audrey Satchivi: 3.669%
Tim Cho: 5.765%
Dan Oxman: 0.278%
Eesha Sohail: 3.002%
Hannah Nekritz: 2.757%
Caleb Richmond: 2.871%
Maggie Brown: 2.729%
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Jack $19,200 Avi $16,800 Alison $10,600)
Avi: Standard cover bet over Alison is $4,401. (Actual bet: $4,500)
Jack: Standard cover bet over Avi is $14,401. (Actual bet: $14,401)
Alison: Bet between $1,801 (thereby passing Avi if he is incorrect) and $5,799 (winning the Double Stumper with Jack). (Actual bet: $10,599)
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Ugh… I remembered Marcos from the Philippines, but not his first name, which would have made him the obvious solution. I ended up guessing Macron 🙁
Current FJ streak: 1L
Which was ofc, a misreading of the clue, which wanted the country, not the president🤦 Oh well, it still only counts as one wrong #silverlining 😅
I always read the clue at least a second time, so I was clear that the response needed to be the country, but in this case one would almost HAVE TO think of the president’s name first, so it would be very easy to forget and put that instead of the country (especially if you are running out of time). [When running out of time, one can write the country faster than the president’s name, but I mean time to remember that it requires the country rather than the president you had been trying to think of.]
Marcos that name sounded very familiar from the Philippines. Can’t confuse him with Macron from France. Happy to see our favorite Avi winning today!
If for no other reason, it could have sounded familiar to you because of Imelda Marcos’ shoes!
Curious on the taping day, although the clue did specify “in office from 2022.” Couldn’t have been Lula then who was elected president of Brazil in October but didn’t take office until 2023, but he popped in my head b/c Magellan made me think of a Portuguese-speaking country. I don’t know the gender of the current leader of Portugal (“his” in the clue), but President is not a common title in Europe, which led me back to Magellan and the Philippines.
Good call on the (original) Magellan-Philippines connection. I did not pick up on that.
What did the CDC tweet to Alison Purcell?
I thought it was interesting that they had a clue about Lisa Marie Presley’s memorial service, which took place just a week prior to this tape day
Not having followed Fillipino politics to have seem that a third Marcos had become President of the Phillipines, I missed this Final Jeopardy.
The clue about the Rice Krispie characters, I think he replied Crackle but Snap is first. Was it wanting the first one or maybe I didn’t hear the clue correctly? 😊
The clue did ask for the first one. Alphabetically.
I don’t have a problem with it, but I wonder if the judges are gonna start dinging Avi in Final for writing a shoutout in every single one of his responses thus far. Though thus far, all of his responses there been correct, so maybe that gives him luck?
(Just to be clear, the last sentence is a joke and not to be taken seriously. I know Avi is ridiculously smart.)
Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is a standard, three-round tournament? Which means you DON’T have to win to get into the next round (just be one of the four highest totals of the “also-rans”?) Which means that, at a certain level, “standard” betting strategies don’t apply? As things stand now, had either Alison or Jack bet NOTHING, they would be “the leaders in the clubhouse” among the also-rans (this is esp. puzzling for Jack, as $19k would almost certainly be a high “also ran” score). Plus, they’ve all played a multi-round tournament, so they should know that? Am I missing something?
The current Executive Producer greatly dislikes wild cards; all tournaments since the start of 2022 have not had any and have been strictly “win to advance”.
Thank you for the clarification! I guess I’ll just have to watch to figure out how they fill out nine spots for the semis.
27 contestants play in 9 quarterfinal games
the 9 winners play in 3 semifinal games
the 3 semifinal winners advance to the finals
Yup! Should have read Andy’s helpful synopsis first. (I forget to check the “right column” sometimes).