Warning: This page contains spoilers for the April 12, 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 The Bill of Rights) for Wednesday, April 12, 2023 (Season 39, Game 153):
England’s “Bloody Assizes” & a 1685 life sentence for perjury were 2 main origins of this amendment to the U.S. Constitution
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Ben Chan, a philosophy professor from Green Bay, Wisconsin |
Laura Caton, a nonprofit arts administrator from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
Kat Jepson, an artist originally from Virginia Beach, Virginia (1-day total: $20,399) |
Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
As the second week of April enters its midpoint, Kat Jepson returns to defend her championship! Laura Caron & Ben Chan are your challengers.
One thing that could become interesting in today’s game: The opening round contains an “Historic Canada” category. With all of the “Know Your Canada” problems over the years, things could certainly get interesting!
Meanwhile, the spring Gamers vs. MS Twitch live-stream charity relay started on Friday! As always, many Twitch streamers—I’ll be joining the relay for the fifth time—will collectively raise money for MS Canada from April 7–17. Canada has some of the highest rates of multiple sclerosis in the world, with an estimated 1 in 385 Canadians living with MS. MS is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that attacks myelin, the protective covering over the nerves. If the damage is bad enough, nerve impulses can be completely disrupted. There is no cure; however, researchers are learning more daily. I’ll be streaming on my Twitch channel from 2AM to 8AM Eastern on Friday, April 14; a donation link will be posted soon for those who want to donate in advance!
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 the Eighth Amendment?
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 Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution reads as follows: “Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.” The amendment, part of the Bill of Rights, was inspired by a similar part of the English Bill of Rights. The English laws regarding cruel and unusual punishment were enacted after Titus Oates perjured himself, causing numerous people to be sentenced to death. English judges, upset at not being allowed to sentence Oates himself to death, ordered several barbaric punishments, including being pilloried several times yearly in the streets.
(I wonder how many incorrect guesses of the Fifth Amendment, specifically the “double jeopardy” clause”, there will be today.)
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: Historic Canada; How Are You Feeling?; Say The Roman Numeral; Dining Out; Doggie Bag; Leftovers)
This round was pretty much all Ben. 19 correct in the round; he would have had one of the game’s all-time high first-round scores had he been able to get a $7,000 Daily Double correct! Instead, he still led, but with a much lower score.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Ben 8 correct 1 incorrect
Laura 1 correct 0 incorrect
Kat 3 correct 1 incorrect
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Ben 19 correct 3 incorrect
Kat 4 correct 1 incorrect
Laura 2 correct 1 incorrect
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: One-Word Play Titles; Lost With The Titanic; Acting The Oscar-Winning Part; In The Dictionary; Our Nation Of Immigration; This Land Is “Ur” Land)
Ben got to both Daily Doubles in this round as well; he went slightly more conservative on the last one, which did give Laura a small opening. Ben needed to get the last clue of the round correct in order to clinch a runaway! Scores going into Final were Ben at $17,000, Laura at $8,000, and Kat at $5,400.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Ben 30 correct 3 incorrect
Laura 9 correct 1 incorrect
Kat 10 correct 3 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 23 (0 today).
Kat was the only player correct today in Final, but Ben’s still your new champion! He’ll come back tomorrow to defend!
Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Wednesday, April 12, 2023 Jeopardy! by the numbers:
Scores going into Final:
Ben $17,000
Laura $8,000
Kat $5,400
Tonight’s results:
Kat $5,400 + $5,400 = $10,800 (What is the 8th amendment?)
Laura $8,000 – $2,801 = $5,199 (What is the Fourth Amendment?)
Ben $17,000 – $999 = $16,001 (What is the 7th?) (1-day total: $16,001)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Ben $2,400
Kat $1,000
Laura $400
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) DOGGIE BAG $400 (clue #23)
Ben 8200 -7000 (Kat 800 Laura 200)
2) ONE-WORD PLAY TITLES $1200 (clue #3)
Ben 2800 +2800 (Kat 1000 Laura 400)
3) IN THE DICTIONARY $2000 (clue #11, $20800 left on board)
Ben 10400 +1000 (Kat 3000 Laura 400)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 24
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Kat 4 2 3 4 5
Laura 3
Ben 5 4 5 3 4 5 4 5 3 3 4 3 5 2 2 2 2*
DJ! Round:
Kat 2 5 3
Laura 1
Ben 4 3* 4 3 4 4 5*
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Ben 3.67
Kat 3.50
Laura 2.00
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 23 (0.15 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Ben $23,400 Coryat, 30 correct, 3 incorrect, 50.88% in first on buzzer (29/57), 0/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Kat $5,400 Coryat, 10 correct, 3 incorrect, 22.81% in first on buzzer (13/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Laura $8,000 Coryat, 9 correct, 1 incorrect, 17.54% in first on buzzer (10/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $36,800
Lach Trash: $11,400 (on 10 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $5,800
Kat Jepson, career statistics:
33 correct, 6 incorrect
2/2 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
28.95% in first on buzzer (33/114)
2/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $8,000)
1/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $12,600
Laura Caton, career statistics:
9 correct, 2 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
17.54% in first on buzzer (10/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $8,000
Ben Chan, career statistics:
30 correct, 4 incorrect
0/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
50.88% in first on buzzer (29/57)
2/3 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$3,200)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $23,400
Ben Chan, to win:
2 games: 55.482%
3: 30.782%
4: 17.079%
5: 9.475%
6: 5.257%
Avg. streak: 2.246 games.
Today’s interviews:
Ben beat Aaron Rodgers at pub trivia.
Laura wants to visit all 41 Broadway theaters.
Kat mostly does embroidery pieces as art.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Today’s result proves once again that it is more than OK to be aggressive on the opening Daily Double, with there being plenty of time to recoup any losses.
- Today’s box score: April 12, 2023 Box Score.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Ben $17,000 Laura $8,000 Kat $5,400)
Kat: If Laura is incorrect, she falls to $5,199. Limit your own bet to $199. (Actual bet: $5,400)
Laura: Standard cover bet over Kat is $2,801. (Actual bet: $2,801)
Ben: Limit your bet to $999. (Actual bet: $999)
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Yeah, the “cruel and unusual” clause makes the Eighth easy to remember.
I thought “Why would someone be given a life sentence for perjury?”, then after that, it was just a matter of time before my brain got to the Eighth Amendment. Not bad for my pretty sleep-deprived self!
Hope everyone is having a great week 🙂
Ben will be one to watch out for as he knows the wisest ways to wager on daily doubles and seems to be pretty quick on the signaling device.
This is kind of a local knowledge case. I happen to have filed a case involving the “excessive fines” clause of the 8th amendment, so for me this was, perhaps, the easiest final ever..
With regards to your thought about going aggressively on DD1, I would agree with that in pretty much every situation but this.
Unless I did my math wrong, going all in would’ve left Ben with $15,800 going into Final. So ironically, not going all in led to him keeping his runaway at the end!
He might have made up for that by wagering more on the last DD, though I suppose there’s no way to know for sure how his wagering strategy there would have been affected.
Awwww, Andy, I am disappointed that no one responded with the Fifth Amendment if only to see what Ken would have said. [I bet if no one had gotten it correct AND no one put the 5th, Ken might have said something like “and it’s not the 5th amendment against double jeopardy, either” before saying it was the 8th. Did he say anything other than saying that Kat was correct? Ken’s comments on regular questions appear in Jeopardy Archive, but I’m not sure if not showing one there for FJ means anything as I don’t recall ever seeing one at that point.]
If one didn’t know the correct amendment, it would have been enticing to write . . . What is “I take the 5th?”, but with a one in ten chance of just guessing the right number, I don’t think anyone would have risked that (and since surely everyone knows what the 2nd and 5th amendments are, that makes it a one in eight chance of just guessing right).
Lisa,
Along with the 2nd and 5th, I’d say most people know the 1st just as well or better, making it a one in seven chance of just guessing correctly.
Oh drat, oh drat! I didn’t know today’s Final answer. I could only think of the 5th Amendment, although I knew that that would not be the correct answer. I knew that there is an amendment regarding “cruel and unusual punishment.” I just didn’t know that it was the 8th.
You are probably right, but I was thinking that most people just know “freedom of religion is a basic right this country was founded on” without thinking of it as an amendment number, whereas “taking the 5th” has been referenced in popular TV and movies since at least ‘Perry Mason’ (probably longer) and you can hardly turn around without hearing someone yammering about “the second amendment right to bear arms”.
The Fifth Amendment seems like the second best guess to me. One could reason that the self-incrimination clause would protect defendants from the dilemma of giving evidence against themselves or facing a long sentence for perjury.
Ben has a lot of potential.
funniest comeback when Ken commented there was no apostrophe after the O in Obama!!! After Obama was seen in front of an Irish flag….
I think the prediction model underestimates Ben’s chances moving forward. He looks formidable.
I wonder if losing so much on his first Daily Double is a factor. Perhaps Andy can shed some light on that.
I went back and looked at the recap of Ray Lalonde’s first victory (2022 Dec 15) and he was given a 70.418% probability of winning a second game – and he didn’t have a runaway like Ben. BUT he twice the money of Ben: $32,600 versus 16,001.
One thing that gives pause is that Ben’s 77% success rate on the buzzer probably isn’t sustainable. But getting 30+ clues correct in a single game does seem to correlate strongly with being a multi-day champ.
I’m sorry to say that I did not come up with the correct NUMBER of the amendemnt. After originally thinking it was the fourth, freedom of the press, I did come up with “cruel and, unusal punishment,” which is the phrase everyone remembers, but, since the clue called for the number of the amendment, it would’ve been like Ken’s “close, but no cigar” type comment to Ben.
(wonder how many people, including myself, have never heard the whole amendment, before Andy posted it here in his explanation of this FInal Jeopardy?)