Warning: This page contains spoilers for the May 2, 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 Medical History) for Tuesday, May 2, 2023 (Season 39, Game 167):
A vaccine against this respiratory illness came out in the U.S. in 1914 & eventually combined with 2 other vaccines
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Amanda Hendrickson, a costumer from Highland Village, Texas
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Paul Guelpa, an attorney from Rossmoor, California
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Kevin Belle, a trail planner from Silver Spring, Maryland (2-day total: $24,398)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
2-day champion Kevin Belle (or, should I say "Whiskey Ginger", after Kevin's Zoom trivia–hosting drag persona) has survived a pair of Triple Stumper Final Jeopardy clues in his two victories. Today's challengers are California attorney Paul Guelpa and Texas costumer Amanda Hendrickson. (Meanwhile, I'm surprised that the show didn't try to find someone named "Ghibellina" to match with someone named "Guelpa". Yes, it's a deep historical cut.)
In other important news, Jeopardy!'s writers are now on strike after the WGA called a strike overnight. What does this mean for the show right now? It appears as though production is continuing; the writers would have been asked to prioritize finishing as many game boards as possible before last night. In terms of episode production, the final six episodes of Jeopardy! Masters, as well as the final four weeks of Season 39, have yet to be taped. It appears as though non-writing production will continue; however, IATSE (the union that represents many behind-the-scenes workers) has stated that employees "retain their right to honor a lawful picked line", but the studios also retain the right to temporarily replace workers who do not cross that picket line. What will likely end up happening, though, is that the writing quality may suffer, for two reasons: firstly, the writers would have been rushed to finish games; secondly, revisions may not be possible due to the strike.
If you're going to be a contestant over the final four weeks of the season, I would highly recommend going back about five to ten years and memorizing as much of J! Archive as you can. During the last strike in 2008, there were instances where Jeopardy! would essentially lift past categories wholesale from about a decade earlier.
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 pertussis (whooping cough)?
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.)
In the late 1900s and early 1910s, artificially-grown pertussis bacterium began to be grown by Jules Bordet and Octave Gengou of the Pasteur Institute; experimentation then began, using their methods, on developing a vaccine for pertussis, also known as whooping cough. In 1914, the American Medical Association listed the pertussis vaccine. By the 1920s, a pertussis outbreak was controlled by the vaccine in the Faeroe Islands. Later, by 1948, the pertussis vaccine was combined with vaccines for diphtheria and tetanus, known as the DTP vaccine; it was replaced by the DTaP (diphtheria-tetanus-acellular pertussis) in 1991. The vaccine has managed to reduce the number of cases of pertussis in the United States by over 97%.
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, May 2, 2023 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: They Won The Battle; A Jr. In Entertainment; Mind Your Grammar; Australian Wildlife; Double Double Letters; Jeopair! Boarding Process)
Paul got off to the best start, but fell back to $0 after a missed Daily Double. However, Paul did play well enough to Amanda struggled with incorrect responses on high-valued clues and was in the red after 30 clues.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Kevin 3 correct 0 incorrect
Paul 5 correct 3 incorrect
Amanda 3 correct 4 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Amanda has a MadLib from Neil Gaiman as an anniversary gift.
Paul interrupted David Hasselhoff on the “Baywatch” set.
Kevin had to answer “Seinfeld” trivia for his birthday.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Paul 12 correct 3 incorrect
Kevin 7 correct 0 incorrect
Amanda 6 correct 4 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Paul $4,600
Kevin $3,600
Amanda -$1,200
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Mythology; Nonfiction; Eat Food. Not Too Much. Mostly Plants; TV & Movie Comedies; World Cities; That’s So “Extra”)
The writers’ failure to anticipate an alternate correct response on the opening clue of Double Jeopardy! was compounded when the Daily Double was found on clue #2. Amanda got that correct, while Kevin went on a run in the early part of the round, including the last Daily Double. Meanwhile, Paul played well to pull close by the end of Double Jeopardy.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Kevin 20 correct 1 incorrect
Paul 18 correct 3 incorrect
Amanda 11 correct 6 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 26 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Kevin $14,400
Paul $10,200
Amanda $2,400
Kevin and Amanda got Final Jeopardy! correct today, rendering the earlier Daily Double issue effectively moot. Kevin’s now a 3-day champion, going for win #4 tomorrow!
Tonight’s results:
Amanda $2,400 + $15 = $2,415 (What is Pertussis? Whooping cough?)
Paul $10,200 – $4,202 = $5,998 (What is Tuberculosis)
Kevin $14,400 + $4,000 = $18,400 (What is pertussis?) (3-day total: $42,798)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) AUSTRALIAN WILDLIFE $600 (clue #9)
Paul 2000 -2000 (Kevin 200 Amanda -2200)
2) MYTHOLOGY $800 (clue #2)
Amanda -800 +2000 (Kevin 3600 Paul 4200*)
3) WORLD CITIES $1200 (clue #13, $21600 left on board)
Kevin 8800 -2000 (Paul 5000 Amanda 800)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -23
*Paul was later credited with $800 extra before Daily Double #3.
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Kevin 1 2 3
Paul 4 5 4 5 3*
Amanda 4
DJ! Round:
Kevin 3 2 1 1 2 3*
Paul
Amanda 1 2* 3† 4† 5† 5 4
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Kevin 2.00
Paul 4.20
Amanda 3.50
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:
Kevin $16,400 Coryat, 20 correct, 1 incorrect, 35.09% in first on buzzer (20/57), 0/1 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
Paul $12,200 Coryat, 18 correct, 3 incorrect, 29.82% in first on buzzer (17/57), 2/3 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Amanda $1,200 Coryat, 11 correct, 6 incorrect, 26.32% in first on buzzer (15/57), 1/2 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
Combined Coryat Score: $29,800
Lach Trash: $14,000 (on 10 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $10,200
Player Statistics:
Kevin Belle, career statistics:
59 correct, 5 incorrect
2/3 on rebound attempts (on 18 rebound opportunities)
32.16% in first on buzzer (55/171)
2/4 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $800)
1/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $14,667
Paul Guelpa, career statistics:
18 correct, 4 incorrect
2/3 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
29.82% in first on buzzer (17/57)
0/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$2,000)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $12,200
Amanda Hendrickson, career statistics:
12 correct, 6 incorrect
1/2 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
26.32% in first on buzzer (15/57)
1/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $2,000)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $1,200
Kevin Belle, to win:
4 games: 46.411%
5: 21.540%
6: 9.997%
7: 4.640%
8: 2.153%
Avg. streak: 3.866 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Regarding the first two clues of Double Jeopardy, there’s a lot to unpack here. Firstly: the situation with Paul not receiving the Daily Double did not adversely affect his ultimate outcome, as Paul did not get Final Jeopardy! correct. There is no situation where Paul would have won this game had he received that Daily Double (holding everything else constant). Thus, I would not invite Paul back to regular play if I were in Michael Davies’s position. (Another matter is whether the show sees fit to invite him to Second Chance.)
- In my opinion, would this situation have happened under Ken Jennings? No. However, this does not mean that I blame Mayim Bialik, either. I blame the writers & researchers. There should never be a situation where the host needs to be the last line of defense against this sort of thing. The writers should have placed both Eros & Cupid on the card and instructed Mayim in advance to accept either. The fact that this happened falls squarely on the writers, and anyone blaming Mayim for this is out of line, in my opinion.
- That being said, the optics of this situation does not make the show look good, even though the game’s ultimate outcome was not affected. There is no way that the show is going to be shielded from criticism tonight, and people are going to unfairly blame Mayim Bialik for what happened.
- Another option—which I submit that the show should have opted for instead—would have been for the show to stop tape as soon as Amanda called for MYTHOLOGY $800, adjudicated the issue then and there, re-hid the Daily Double if required, and continued on with the game.
- If you wish to comment regarding the situation on the first two clues of Double Jeopardy, your comment must be substantive and provide something not already provided in either this section or another comment.
- Today’s box score: May 2, 2023 Box Score.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Kevin $14,400 Paul $10,200 Amanda $2,400)
Kevin: Standard cover bet over Paul is $6,001. (Actual bet: $4,000)
Paul: Normally, I’d suggest limiting your bet to $1,799. However, Kevin didn’t cover yesterday, so you should go all in. (Actual bet: $4,202)
Amanda: Bet whatever you like; you don’t have much chance. However, I might be conservative here, as Paul has occasion to go all in. (Actual bet: $15)
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Remember this as the “triple antigen” vaccine for India.
A fair clue, but I couldn’t think of it in 30 seconds. Probably should have, since my dad had pertussis as a child. He had a lifelong scar on his chest from where the doctors tapped into the airway. Nasty stuff.
Oh my gosh, that does sound scary. I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone who survived or died from pertussis. Then again, three of my four grandparents were born in the 19th century and there are a few young deaths in the family tree.
Feels like this came up recently. Maybe on a regular game board clue?
I remembered it from somewhere🤷
There has been (per J!Archive) a couple clues each of the last couple of years for measles, including February and March 2023, and there were whooping cough ones in March and December of 2022. J!Archive shows those two diseases to be nearly as persistent as clues over the last 35 years as they are as diseases — around 90 times between them.
Oh, but it seems that this WAS the first time for either as a Final Jeopardy.
Ach. Went with Tuberculosis. It was the first respiratory illness that came to mind.
There is a tuberculosis vaccine, but it is little used in the U.S. because the risk is extremely low and the vaccine is not 100% effective, anyway. [I googled that info because I was thinking that there wasn’t even a TB vaccine at all.]
I did not come up with Whooping cough…but, I did experience this as a young child. It’s a good thing that I can’t remember how it made me feel.
I thought of the MMR vaccine, and then had to pick one of M, M, or R – so went with rubella.
Wrong!
D’oh!
🙁
Me, too, knowing mumps and measles aren’t respitory
Do you know now that Rubella is just a different kind of measles? In my day [😆] they were called Red Measles and German Measles. The latter is Rubella and the former is worse than the latter.
Both the MMR and DTaP would seem to fit the bill for combined vaccines, so without any knowledge of the date, you’re left guessing at a 1 in 6. I picked up on the word “respiratory” on 2nd reading, but likely would’ve panicked behind the podium.
“Respiratory” jumped out at me and I immediately said “Whooping Cough”.
Regarding today’s final:
I got caught up in an outbreak of pertussis in the Golden Horseshoe/GTA in 2001. I was at a convention near Pearson and my partner at the time and I came home with a cough that was dry, unproductive, led to some awful fits of coughing, and lasted about two weeks (for me) to a month (for her). It’s nasty, though not fatal, in adults our age at the time, but I could not imagine how bad it would be for a child. At the time we were either unaware that the DTaP needed to be boosted in adulthood, or doctors took the blithe attitude of “there hasn’t been an outbreak in years” and just never bothered to recommend the booster. Looking back, I wish I would have been aware that a booster was needed, because I could have been saved a couple of weeks of misery.
Fascinating stuff. I had no idea. And I live in Ontario too.
The 3-part vaccine part of the clue didn’t register with me (it’s been more than 15 years since my kids were getting vaccines), so I was only left with “respiratory disease,” and tuberculosis was the only thing that came to mind. My wager was premised on two things: (1) it wasn’t a favorable category for me, and (2) if Kevin covered me doubling (which I figured he’d do) and was right, it wouldn’t matter what I wagered. I therefore wagered for me being right and him wagering $0: $10,200 + $4,202 > $14,200 (I did $4,202 instead of $4,201 just for fun). The wager also ensured that Amanda couldn’t catch me.
Paul:
Thanks for chiming in!
For what it’s worth, your wager does fall under what I defined many years ago now as Zerg’s Fallacy: https://thejeopardyfan.com/2017/02/strategy-talk-zergs-fallacy-part-1-and-why-trailers-often-make-the-wrong-wager.html
Fair enough, but it obviously became a moot issue. Now that I’ve watched the episode, I think being ruled against on the first clue messed me up more than I remembered. More than half the round passed before I was able to buzz in first. However, Kevin was on fire in the DJ round. The great unknown is whether I would have hit the DD on clue #2 and, if I had, what I would’ve wagered. I for sure knew the answer.
Paul, you played a very good game!
Just saw this…thank you!
Very interesting to see Kevin’s conservative FJ betting approach. Surely it will burn him in the near future.
To be fair, we said that about Ryan Long in the beginning of his run, and look how that turned out!
Kevin’s playing conservatively in general; he’s been 95% correct on non-betting clues. It seems like a good time for a conservative strategy. The recent increased difficulty of FJ has been noted, but it’s also true of the material in first two rounds. We’re on a streak of eight straight games in which no contestant has more than 38 buzzer attempts. In a typical game from earlier in the season there would be at least one contestant with at least 40 attempts.
I do have an opinion about the whole situation, but it isn’t actually concerning Paul; rather, it’s concerning Amanda and the affect on their score.
Amanda finished Double Jeopardy with just $2,400. But what would’ve happened if Paul was credited upfront (as he should’ve been)? Well, that would’ve been a loss of $400 for Amanda, leaving them at $2,000. And since they got $2,000 on the Daily Double immediately after that decision, removing that $2,000 would’ve left them with no money at the end of the round. And as such, they would’ve been unable to play Final Jeopardy.
I recognize that the outcome would not have changed either way, as Paul and Kevin locked Amanda into third place with their respective bets, but all things considered, I don’t believe Amanda should have been around for Final. It pains me to say that, but that’s my stance on this whole thing.
I got this right away, because I do watch TV, and awhile back there was a series of health-promoting TV ads with the slogan “Whooping cough—it’s not just for kids!” And, again, I am astounded by Andy’s ability to provide such a depth of knowledge about such a wide range of subjects. Kudos to him!