Warning: This page contains spoilers for the March 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 Countries of the World) for Tuesday, March 14, 2023 (Season 39, Game 132):
Part of the largest contiguous land empire during the 1200s & 1300s, today it’s the world’s second-largest landlocked country
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Jessica Ashooh, a policy director from San Francisco, California
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Long Nguyen, a retired engineer from Las Vegas, Nevada
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Stephen Webb, a data scientist from Longmont, Colorado (5-day total: $139,281)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Stephen Webb survived a big scare last night to win his important 5th game! Today he faces Long Nguyen and Jessica Ashooh. As some people on Reddit like to point out, Long is definitely known in the trivia community—he’s one of the stronger individual players in the Online Quiz League. Stephen might find himself in another battle today!
Meanwhile, I made the “mistake” of reading Facebook comments for one of those tabloid articles about Jeopardy! this morning—it was for one of the many articles that piggyback off the “vox Twittuli”-style articles put out by The Sun that complains about Mayim Bialik’s hosting. And I found the comments surprisingly enlightening. Those comments were almost universal in their praise—of Mayim Bialik. This serves as a reminder of a couple of things: that Mayim Bialik is a popular host of Jeopardy! and that maybe—just maybe—The Sun is acting improperly by its constant putdowns of Mayim.
Also, for some reason that I’m not quite sure of, the Jeopardy! website is showing Stephen’s total as much lower than it actually is. I’m not sure why they’ve simply left out some winnings somewhere, but I hope it gets fixed soon.
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 Mongolia?
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.)
Mongolia—one of the world’s great empires under the leadership of Genghis Khan (who, according to Bill & Ted, ravaged both China and Oshman’s Sporting Goods), is now the world’s second-largest landlocked country, behind Kazakhstan.
Today’s Final is probably going to play generally easier—but, again, that is perfectly acceptable to me. I think that easy Finals are important in the grand scheme of things, as it keeps the wagering aggressive and players betting to win. If Final Jeopardy! is always hard, intelligent players would adjust their strategy accordingly and play more conservatively, and the game as a whole would be hurt by it.
We have many new offerings at The Jeopardy! Fan Online Store! Proceeds from the sale of the “Doctor Oz’s Fast-Acting Snake Oil Elixir” T-shirt are being donated to The Trevor Project:
Game Recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: 11-Letter Words; The Title Tv Character’s Buddies; In The Cookie Jar; Here’s Your Report Card; “B” In Geography; A Pleasure To Have In Class)
In a perfect first round, Stephen had the best time of it, picking up 14 correct and having nearly $10,000 at the second commercial. Long, however, pulled himself into second with a True Daily Double.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Stephen 8 correct 0 incorrect
Long 4 correct 0 incorrect
Jessica 3 correct 0 incorrect
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Stephen 14 correct 0 incorrect
Long 10 correct 0 incorrect
Jessica 6 correct 0 incorrect
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Literary London; Lord Of The Dings; Diseases; Scrambled U.S. History; Banking & Finance; Contronyms)
Finding herself in a distant third, Jessica found the Daily Double immediately—and unfortunately got the clue wrong to get back to $0. Long was cruising in the Scrambled U.S. History category, and then found the Daily Double himself. He went all-in for over $12,000—but this was the only clue in the category to stump Long, so back down to $0 he went. Stephen entered Final with a runaway at $18,000, to Jessica’s $6,000 and Long’s $400.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Stephen 25 correct 2 incorrect
Jessica 11 correct 1 incorrect
Long 17 correct 2 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 16 (0 today).
Both challengers got a measure of redemption—they were the two players correct in Final today. Stephen’s runaway, though, makes him a 6-day champion!
Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Tuesday, March 14, 2023 Jeopardy! by the numbers:
Scores going into Final:
Stephen $18,000
Jessica $6,000
Long $400
Tonight’s results:
Long $400 + $400 = $800 (What is Mongolia?)
Jessica $6,000 + $5,000 = $11,000 (What is Mongolia?)
Stephen $18,000 – $2,000 = $16,000 (What is Mongolia Kazakstan) (6-day total: $155,281)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Stephen $9,600
Long $6,000
Jessica $3,400
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) HERE’S YOUR REPORT CARD $600 (clue #14)
Long 1600 +1600 (Stephen 6600 Jessica 2400)
2) LITERARY LONDON $1200 (clue #1)
Jessica 3400 -3400 (Stephen 9600 Long 6000)
3) SCRAMBLED U.S. HISTORY $1200 (clue #20, $8400 left on board)
Long 12400 -12400 (Stephen 17600 Jessica 2800)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -100
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Stephen 5 4 5 4 5 5 4 5 4
Long 3 3*
Jessica 2 4 3
DJ! Round:
Stephen 4 3 4† 2 5 1† 5† 3 2
Long 4 4 5 4 5 3*
Jessica 3* 2† 5 3 2
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Stephen 3.89
Jessica 3.00
Long 3.88
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 16 (0.12 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Stephen $18,000 Coryat, 25 correct, 2 incorrect, 47.37% in first on buzzer (27/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 0 rebound opportunities)
Jessica $9,400 Coryat, 11 correct, 1 incorrect, 19.30% in first on buzzer (11/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Long $11,800 Coryat, 17 correct, 2 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 0/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $39,200
Lach Trash: $7,200 (on 5 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $7,600
Stephen Webb, career statistics:
145 correct, 17 incorrect
9/9 on rebound attempts (on 25 rebound opportunities)
41.52% in first on buzzer (142/342)
5/5 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $20,200)
3/6 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $18,833
Long Nguyen, career statistics:
18 correct, 2 incorrect
0/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57)
1/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$10,800)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $11,800
Jessica Ashooh, career statistics:
12 correct, 1 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
19.30% in first on buzzer (11/57)
0/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$3,400)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $9,400
Stephen Webb, to win:
7 games: 71.244%
8: 50.756%
9: 36.161%
10: 25.762%
11: 18.354%
Avg. streak: 8.477 games.
Today’s interviews:
Jessica has a 3-legged cat and a 1-legged boyfriend.
Long would win at bar trivia—until James Holzhauer showed up to play.
Stephen wants to spend his winnings on a trip to Portugal.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Even though it did not work out for him, Long’s decision to go for a True Daily Double was 100% correct for the situation. It was a strong category for him, he was losing to a 5-time champion, and it was absolutely the correct play. More people need to play that way.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Stephen $18,000 Jessica $6,000 Long $400)
Stephen: Limit your bet to $5,999. (Actual bet: $2,000)
Long: Bet whatever you like. (Actual bet: $400)
Jessica: Limit your bet to $5,199. (Actual bet: $5,000)
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Saved from an extended losing streak by a familiar clue! The time frame was the big hint for me as it suggested the period of Mongolian expansionism.
Got this one! I looked up Mongolia a while back for a “Culture” Group I volunteer to do at our Community Center. What impressed me is that the Mongolians today regard Genghis Khan not as a tyrannical emperor, but as a great national hero. The largest equestrian statue in the world, made of stainless steel, is a memorial to him. And scientists studying the genetics of the Y chromosome have found that approximately 16 million men living today can trace their ancestry back to him—his influence in many spheres lives on!
It genuinely physically hurt to see Long fall back to $0 after his True Daily Double. But I also have a lot of respect for him for having the guts to go for the TDD in the first place. Even though it’s 100% the correct play, I don’t think most contestants would do that.
By the way, is $12,400 the record for highest loss on one Daily Double in a contestant’s first game?
To be quite honest, this is starting to border on “Smith bats .375 in night games in April against left-handed pitching the second time through the batting order” energy.
Sorry about that!
Amen to that. Did give me a good chuckle though.
Before JamesH, I don’t think anyone makes that a truly daily double. He changed the way the game is played.
And I think we have Elias Sports Bureau to thank for so many of those esoteric statistics.
The Elias Sports Bureau comment gave me another good chuckle. Thanks for that MarkO.
Bill James and SABR, too.
Players seem to be betting more aggressively on the daily doubles, it seems. They must be reading this website.
Nice to know that for at least some facts, I am no worse than Stephen as I also said Kazakhstan. JK, apparently he was torn between the two, whereas I actually thought Kazakhstan was probably too small to be correct and I tend to think of Mongolia as a region instead of a country (though I believe if in sort of a true/false kind of question, I would pick “country”).
If someone was going to be on Jeopardy! I hope they’ve reviewed all land-locked countries as that aspect seems to come up a lot.
Kazakhstan I always relate to the Soviet Cosmonaut program.
Mongolia was the country that helped me here which reminded me about their life in that country before then. And of course Genghis khan and the whole silk road thing came along. Happy to see the opponents getting their redemption today.
I am not happy about Stephen having been ruled incorrect in the $2000 box under the ‘Lord of the Dings’ category. The clue read “Every time a bell rings”, this happens. They had ended the part that was a quote by putting a quotation mark after the word ‘rings’ so as I see it, WHAT HAPPENS IS that an angel gets his wings OR an angel gets her wings OR an angel gets its wings or even an angel gets their wings. If they required an exact quote, they should have written “Every time a bell rings, [this happens]”.
However, I do see that without requiring it to be an exact quote, it really wasn’t $2000 material and had they not required an exact quote they could have written it as . . . little Zuzu Bailey says this happens “Every time a bell rings”. On the other hand, if not requiring an exact quote they could have increased the difficulty by not saying the name of the movie (nor even that it was in a movie, just beginning where my example did).
What you’re suggesting is outside of the show’s style guide that has been used since the mid-‘80s.
I’m not surprised, but if their style guide leaves a particular clue unclear about being a direct quotation, especially for one that is otherwise seemingly easy, then instead of following the guide, they could just choose to not use that clue at all.
I suspect that, since the character name was given with a “says this”, that was sufficient to indicate that they were after the exact quote, even though I thought it a little bit unfair, at first blush. But after thinking on it, it made sense, particularly with Ken’s explanation of the ruling in giving the correct response.
Geography is a category where I do have some knowledge. But not enough to know Mongolia is the largest (in area) land locked country.
Tomorrow is another chance.
Don’t forget Mongolia is only the 2nd largest landlocked country.
Kazakhstan is 74% bigger.
Stephen is really consistent, and as we’ve seen the last two nights, can put up strong totals without hitting Daily Doubles.
I wonder if there’s a chance Long could be invited back for Second Chance….he deserves it.