Warning: This page contains spoilers for the April 18, 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 Oscars) for Tuesday, April 18, 2023 (Season 39, Game 157):
Born in 1932 & the son of a percussionist in the CBS radio orchestra, he’s been nominated for 53 Oscars
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Jeremy Felton, a chemist from Cary, North Carolina |
Deb Bilodeau, a winemaker from Oakland, California |
Daniel Ciarrocchi, a writer from Baltimore, Maryland (1-day total: $16,001) |
Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Baltimore writer Daniel Ciarrocchi is your new Jeopardy! champion, winning a rare three-new-challenger game last night after Ben Chan was unable to travel to defend his championship, a situation reported by local TV affiliate WLUK to be “an ill-timed illness”. Today’s challengers are Oakland winemaker Deb Bilodeau and Raleigh-area chemist Jeremy Felton.
One thing you may have noticed with yesterday’s write-up that I’m going to continue going forward: I rearranged things in the write-up in order to create a more coherent narrative of the game after I received feedback last week from a commenter. Please let me know what you think of it!
Once again, I’d like to thank everyone who contributed last week to the Gamers vs. MS charity livestream relay for MS Canada. With your help, over $30,000 was raised over the 10 days of the relay, and my portion of that raised nearly $400. Thank you all so much again! It will absolutely help the fight against multiple sclerosis. More Gamers vs. MS campaigns are coming up in 2023, make sure to keep an eye out for them!
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: Who is John Williams?
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.)
John Williams—one of the most famous film composers of modern times—was the son of Johnny Williams, who spent time as a drummer on CBS Radio and the Raymond Scott Quintette. John is most associated with scoring films directed by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, including the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films. Of his 53 nominations, Williams has 5 wins (for Fiddler on the Roof, Jaws, Star Wars, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Schindler’s List.) Oftentimes, he has been nominated for multiple films in the same year (an example of this being when Close Encounters of the Third Kind was nominated alongside Star Wars for Best Original Score at the 50th Academy Awards). Williams also composed the Olympic Fanfare and Theme for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
Meanwhile, this morning, I learned something that stood out to me as someone living in Newfoundland: John Williams’ first film composition was for You Are Welcome, a promotional film for Newfoundland tourism.
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 & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Tuesday, April 18, 2023 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Secrets Of The Elephants; Let’S Guess Your Wait; Horoscopes; ____ & ____; Ok Millennial; U.S. + Canadian Postal Abbrevs.)
It was a very closely-contested game early; Deb bet the max on a 6th-clue Daily Double to hold a slim lead at the interviews. However, Daniel played very well during the show’s second segment, jumping out to a $4,000 lead!
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Deb 6 correct 0 incorrect
Jeremy 4 correct 1 incorrect
Daniel 5 correct 0 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Jeremy always had a dream job of being a chemist.
Deb does actually get to step on the grapes as a winemaker.
Daniel is writing a scripted podcast that is a satirical look at the 1893 World’s Fair.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Daniel 12 correct 0 incorrect
Jeremy 7 correct 2 incorrect
Deb 10 correct 2 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Daniel $7,600
Jeremy $3,600
Deb $3,200
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Savoir Fair; Their First Published Novel; Old War; The Otto Club; Tv Moms; Definitions From The Devil’s Dictionary)
Daniel came back to the field a little bit when he missed Daily Double #2, but Deb’s finding of Daily Double #3—and getting it correct—brought them a lot closer to Daniel, and they found some momentum, picking up 8 of the final 16 clues! Daniel needed to get clue #30 in order to barely prevent the runaway!
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Deb 24 correct 4 incorrect
Daniel 16 correct 1 incorrect
Jeremy 11 correct 3 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 25 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Deb $16,500
Daniel $8,300
Jeremy $8,000
Everybody got Final correct today, which means that Deb finds themself as Jeopardy! champion! They’ll come back tomorrow to defend their title.
Tonight’s results:
Jeremy $8,000 + $8,000 = $16,000 (Who is John Williams?)
Daniel $8,300 + $8,202 = $16,502 (Who is John Williams?)
Deb $16,500 + $101 = $16,601 (Who is John Williams?) (1-day total: $16,601)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) HOROSCOPES $1000 (clue #6)
Deb 800 +1000 (Daniel 600 Jeremy 800)
2) OLD WAR $1200 (clue #12)
Daniel 10000 -2500 (Deb 3600 Jeremy 5600)
3) DEFINITIONS FROM THE DEVIL’S DICTIONARY $1200 (clue #14, $20000 left on board)
Deb 4400 +2500 (Daniel 7500 Jeremy 5600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 132
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Daniel 1 2 3
Deb 4 5*
Jeremy 1
DJ! Round:
Daniel 5 3* 2†
Deb 1 2 1 2 3 4 5 3 4 3*
Jeremy 2
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Deb 3.08
Daniel 2.67
Jeremy 1.50
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 25 (0.16 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Deb $15,200 Coryat, 24 correct, 4 incorrect, 42.11% in first on buzzer (24/57), 2/2 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Daniel $10,800 Coryat, 16 correct, 1 incorrect, 22.81% in first on buzzer (13/57), 3/3 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
Jeremy $8,000 Coryat, 11 correct, 3 incorrect, 24.56% in first on buzzer (14/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $34,000
Lach Trash: $11,400 (on 8 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $8,600
Player Statistics:
Daniel Ciarrocchi, career statistics:
33 correct, 4 incorrect
4/4 on rebound attempts (on 13 rebound opportunities)
25.89% in first on buzzer (29/112)
0/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$4,500)
2/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $10,800
Deb Bilodeau, career statistics:
25 correct, 4 incorrect
2/2 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
42.11% in first on buzzer (24/57)
2/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $3,500)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $15,200
Jeremy Felton, career statistics:
12 correct, 3 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
24.56% in first on buzzer (14/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $8,000
Deb Bilodeau, to win:
2 games: 53.977%
3: 29.135%
4: 15.726%
5: 8.488%
6: 4.582%
Avg. streak: 2.173 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Kudos to Ken for not mentioning anything about it not being a runaway; I’m very much of the “let the players figure out the situation on their own” persuasion.
- Today’s box score: April 18, 2023 Box Score.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Deb $16,500 Daniel $8,300 Jeremy $8,000)
Daniel: Bet at least $8,101, thereby passing Deb if they get Final incorrect. (Actual bet: $8,202)
Deb: Standard cover bet over Daniel is $101. If you want to be more aggressive—and I don’t really recommend it—limit your bet to $499 to keep Jeremy locked out. (Actual bet: $101)
Jeremy: Limit your bet to $7,799, thereby staying ahead of Daniel if he gets Final incorrect.(Actual bet: $8,000)
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meh – Not a category that I ever paid attention to, sadly. I had no clue :p
Current FJ Streak: 1L
Good educated guess today knowing it had to be a composer who has been nominated a gazillion times.
same here 🙂
good start to the week
Does this mean when Ben returns they’ll have two champions competing against a third newcomer?
That is correct.
On a hunch due to the huge number of Oscar nominations and wins, it had to be the very talented John Williams!
Had to be him. A great talent.
Agree!
I was excited to see the category but wasn’t excited to see the clue about composers. Definitely one of my weak spots. I went with Hans Zimmer (ridiculously incorrect) because he was the only Oscar nominated composer I could think of in 30 seconds. Disappointing for me.
I had a feeling the correct response was John Williams, and I was right! He has scored so many movies that have been Oscar nominated. I root for him each time he is nominated.
John Williams was my first thought, but I mostly know him for scoring sci-fi movies and since sci-fi generally gets short-shrift by the Academy (and since I have no money on the line), I thought it could be a trick category, so I said Oscar Hammerstein.
Hammerstein was born in 1895; in 1932 he was already a very prominent lyricist, having written the lyrics to the musical Show Boat five years earlier.
I realized that later, but in the 30 seconds it takes to answer, I didn’t take into consideration how old I am, and thus how old John Williams is and Oscar H would have been!
I like Daniel’s wager – as you mention, Andy, let the contestants figure out it’s a runaway – and in the odd case where Deb calculates wrong and wagers zero, Daniel could get the win.
Figured it had to be John Williams. Even though he hasn’t won in a long time, he continues to be nominated frequently.
Now that you mention it, I do prefer to read the contestant biographies in the Jeopardy section. Once I know someone has lost, I tend to lose interest in them.
John Williams is the easy answer in part because of the huge number of nominations, but also because of the age. John Williams was just nominated this year (the Fabelmans) and they mentioned that he is in his nineties.
John’s son ,Joseph,is the lead singer in Toto.He wasn’t an original member,but has been in the band for many years.
Not only did the huge number of nominations lead to John Williams but I’ll give a nod to Stephen Colbert, too. Just recently (in the last couple of week), John Williams appeared alongside Steven Spielberg in a featured 2-part interview on Colbert’s late night TV show. That made this particularly easy for anyone who watches that program.
Also, I, too, like the new format of the website. Kudos to Andy and the unnamed commenter who made some suggestions.
That was easy. I could not think of anyone else who made any sense. Good to have ones like this because it helps make FJ unpredictable.
Still enjoying the new format (looks like you didn’t get to my comment from yesterday, which I think was flagged for perhaps poor phrasing on my part; my bad).