Warning: This page contains spoilers for the April 20, 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 Modern Words) for Thursday, April 20, 2023 (Season 39, Game 159):
Neal Stephenson coined this word in his 1992 novel “Snow Crash”; it was later shortened by a company to become its new name
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Emma Hill Kepron, a librarian from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
Sam Claussen, a history professor from Santa Clarita, California |
Devin Lohman, an architectural designer & Masters student from Peachtree City, Georgia (1-day total: $1,200) |
Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
After a Final Jeopardy! clue last night that left champion Devin Lohman returning with a low total (an occurrence so unusual that even the Jeopardy! website, in its “Overheard” section, accidentally declared second-placed Ben Spilsbury as the new champion), Devin returns hoping to win more than $1,200 today against Santa Clarita’s Sam Clausen and Winnipeg’s Emma Hill Kepron. A handful of Winnipeggers have appeared on Jeopardy! over the years (dating all the way back to Bill Klippel in January 1985, who still holds the record for being the lowest-earning 3-day champion, at just $4,400.)
One thing that I’m realizing, especially about the current popularity of Jeopardy!: Something happened on The Price Is Right yesterday that hasn’t happened in nearly 25 years; a player played the Ten Chances pricing game perfectly; getting all three prizes on their first guess for each prize. And, just out of curiosity, I decided to search this morning to see if anyone wrote anything about it. I found nothing. I’m not sure what the Jeopardy! equivalent might be, but I bet the number of articles about it would have been in the dozens, at least.
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(Content continues below)
Correct response: What is metaverse?
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.)
There are quite a few times over my decades as a diehard Jeopardy! fan where I have said that I don’t think that the show will ever run out of topics for Final Jeopardy. Today is one of those clear cases. In October 2021, Facebook announced a corporate name change to Meta, thereby bringing the term “metaverse” into the forefront of the public consciousness. Many of today’s tech giants have cited Stephenson’s writings as having been majorly influential to them. The term Metaverse, as used by Stephenson in Snow Crash, described a virtual reality world not too dissimilar from how a massively multiplayer online virtual reality world might look today, and many concepts from Stephenson’s works 20–30 years ago are ubiquitous in today’s society, including cryptocurrency, avatars, and the concept of a metaverse itself.
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 Thursday, April 20, 2023 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: History; Literary Fruit Stand; Flying Colors; Missing U; ’80s & ’90s R&B Songs; My Prerogative)
In an opening round where all three players had their moments, Sam got off to the fastest start, while Devin got to the Daily Double (unfortunately dropping his score back to $0), while Emma finished the round well enough to sneak into the lead after 30 clues!
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Sam 8 correct 0 incorrect
Emma 3 correct 0 incorrect
Devin 4 correct 0 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Emma once nearly shared an elevator with Adele.
Sam specializes in medieval history.
Devin got to study abroad in France during the pandemic.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Emma 10 correct 0 incorrect
Sam 11 correct 0 incorrect
Devin 5 correct 2 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Emma $6,600
Sam $6,400
Devin -$1,000
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Face The Politician; Globetrotting; Reptiles; “P”otpourri; Triple Homophones; Remembering Barbara Walters)
Double Jeopardy! saw Devin find the Daily Doubles within the first 4 clues, with his score going from -$1,000 to $7,200 in that time! From there, all three players played very well, with Sam doing enough to hold a slim $3,000 lead going into Final Jeopardy!
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Sam 23 correct 0 incorrect
Emma 17 correct 0 incorrect
Devin 13 correct 3 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 26 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Sam $18,400
Emma $15,400
Devin $10,200
For the second day running, Final Jeopardy! was a Triple Stumper. Emma went more conservative on the wager, meaning, she is the new Jeopardy! champion! She’ll return to play tomorrow.
Tonight’s results:
Devin $10,200 – $8,300 = $1,900 (What is powder?)
Emma $15,400 – $4,000 = $11,400 (What is uber?) (1-day total: $11,400)
Sam $18,400 – $12,401 = $5,999 (What is avalanche?)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) FLYING COLORS $800 (clue #20)
Devin 2400 -2400 (Sam 5600 Emma 3800)
2) GLOBETROTTING $1600 (clue #2)
Devin 200 +2000 (Sam 6400 Emma 6600)
3) REPTILES $1600 (clue #4, $29600 left on board)
Devin 4200 +3200 (Sam 6400 Emma 6600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 76
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Devin 4 5 4 3 4 4*
Sam 3 2 1 5 2 1 5 2 5
Emma 4 3 1 2 3
DJ! Round:
Devin 3 4* 5† 4*
Sam
Emma
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Emma 2.60
Sam 2.89
Devin 4.00
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 26 (0.16 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Emma $15,400 Coryat, 17 correct, 0 incorrect, 29.82% in first on buzzer (17/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Sam $18,400 Coryat, 23 correct, 0 incorrect, 38.60% in first on buzzer (22/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Devin $10,600 Coryat, 13 correct, 3 incorrect, 22.81% in first on buzzer (13/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 0 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $44,400
Lach Trash: $7,400 (on 6 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $2,200
Player Statistics:
Devin Lohman, career statistics:
25 correct, 7 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
22.12% in first on buzzer (25/113)
4/5 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $15,600)
0/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $10,800
Sam Claussen, career statistics:
23 correct, 1 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
38.60% in first on buzzer (22/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $18,400
Emma Hill Kepron, career statistics:
17 correct, 1 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
29.82% in first on buzzer (17/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $15,400
Emma Hill Kepron, to win:
2 games: 29.328%
3: 8.601%
4: 2.523%
5: 0.740%
6: 0.217%
Avg. streak: 1.415 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Today’s box score: April 20, 2023 Box Score.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Sam $18,400 Emma $15,400 Devin $10,200)
Devin: Bet at least $201 to pass Emma if she makes a cover bet, but limit your bet to $4,199 (thereby staying ahead of Sam.) (Actual bet: $8,300)
Sam: Standard cover bet over Emma is $12,401. (Actual bet: $12,401)
Emma: Standard cover bet over Devin is $5,001. (Actual bet: $4,000)
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I never read the book, but I know vaguely about it, something to do with hacking, and a probable entry in the cyberpunk genre. Based on that I was able to guess the company referred to was “Meta” and the word was metaverse.
Happy Banned Wager Day to you and yours, Andy! 🙂
Looking at the box scores, it looks like Devin only had 17 attempts yesterday. I imagine that’s gotta be close to the record for lowest attempt count by a winner, if not breaking it entirely.
While I won’t reproduce the five numbers purportedly prohibited from being wagered, my recollection is that the one represented by Roman numeral CDXX isn’t one of them.
I think I remember a player during MacKenzie Jones’ run wagering that number on Final and saying “what is the answer to this clue” because he was locked out. However, the post for this day last year christened the day as Banned Wager Day, so I figured it was still labeled as such. 🙂
I may as well mention it; I watched “The Price is Right” yesterday as was so thrilled that the contestant got the car with his third chance, correctly writing all three prices correctly for all three prizes. As Andy has said, that last happened over 25 years ago. And I think I saw THAT happen back then. But I am overjoyed that I saw it happen yesterday.
And so perhaps on Jeopardy one of the three may get this response correctly.
I’m not shocked we aren’t hearing anything about the 10 chances huge moment on the price is right. We only like to shed light on the negative on game shows these days. The last time I saw anything in the news price is right wise was that guy getting the final showcase on the nose because he went with a super fans bidding suggestion (which there is a whole documentary on)
While Devin’s total winnings of $2,200 is just a bit more than the one game-second place prize… his one win not only gives him the life status of “Jeopardy Champion”… the “Holy Grail” for Jeopardy fans…but also an invite to that new “all champions” wild card… am I correct? If that declared Wild Card tournament is a firm “go”… Devin will be back with other 1-3 game champions for another chance.
You would be correct on his invitation to Champion’s Wildcard. There, I’m more interested if Devin’s clear strategic preparation will hold up against the other champions’ knowledge. If you only make 17 attempts the whole game and still have more than $20,000 going into Final (and end up winning the game), you’re doing something very right!
I never heard of the book or the author but “company,” “new name” and the category “Modern Words” helped me out. I reasoned, it has to be one of the social media like Facebook, Twitter, Google, Instagram, etc. So which ones have a new name? Google became Alphabet, that’s not a modern word. Oh, yeah, Facebook became Meta which is the shortened form of metaverse. Bingo, I’m going with “What is metaverse.” Turned out to be right. 🙂
Ditto for me except I “went” immediately to ‘Meta’, thus metaverse, then did not let any of those other possibilities change my mind.
I was SURPRISED that on the question in the Barbara Walters category referring to her interview with Fidel Castro, that both his first and last names wasn’t required to have the correct response, since there were two Castro brothers lead Cuba. Though Fidel would be the better known, possibly be the more ifluencial of the two.
As for Final Jeopardy, I didn’t understand the clue until I read Andy’s “further thoughts.” So obviously, like this game’s contestants, I had no clue as to the correct response/
I did understand the clue (and actually got the right response) but I think the clue would have been better worded by saying conglomerate instead of company. Would that have helped you or were you already too disoriented by the rest of the clue? [Not that they necessarily do, but I don’t think the writers should be trying for Triple Stumpers, just trying to avoid Triple Gets.]
Sorry, it amuses me when someone says they “had no clue” when it was AN ACTUAL CLUE! Or were you trying to amuse us?
Lisa, I doubt if exchanging conglomerate for company would[ve helped any. For whatever reason, the wording of the clue,etc, this Final Jeopardy was something that just didn’t come together for me, until Andy’s “further thoughts.”
My choice of words to describe the abscence of having ANY idea what the correct response was unfortunate, but not intentionally meant to be humoress.