Are you looking for the recap for tonight’s first Masters game? Find it here!
Are you looking for the recap for tonight’s second Masters game? Find it here!
Warning: This page contains spoilers for the May 22, 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 Children’s Books) for Monday, May 22, 2023 (Season 39, Game 181):
The original 1900 printing of this book was in a pale green dust jacket stamped in a vivid jewel tone of green
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Nancy Duran, a marketing copywriter from Stowe, Vermont |
Joe Lasser, an astronautical engineer originally from Colfax, Illinois |
Ben Chan, a philosophy professor from Green Bay, Wisconsin (8-day total: $227,800) |
Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
It’s a holiday up here in Canada—Victoria Day. Meanwhile, after running through the March 22 tape day, Ben Chan returns for the March 23 tape day as an 8-day champion, only $1,000 away from surpassing Jennifer Quail for 20th place in all-time regular play winnings. Today, Joe Lesser and Nancy Duran hope to be able to stop Ben—firstly, hoping to be the first players to keep Ben from having a runaway, secondly, hoping to win the game outright!
Also, the semifinals for Jeopardy! Masters begin tonight at 8:00 (7:00 Central) on ABC in the U.S. and on CTV2 in Canada.
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 Wonderful Wizard of Oz? (Alternate title: The Wizard of Oz)
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.)
One important note towards the correct answer to today’s Final Jeopardy: Because the work has been published under both The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and The Wizard of Oz, the show accepts either title as equally correct—in fact, that’s exactly what happened on September 11, 2019: Frank Augello gave the original title and Jason Zuffranieri gave the alternate.
The original design for the dust jacket for The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was meant to evoke the emerald of the famed Emerald City from the work; in fact, L. Frank Baum wanted the book itself to be titled The Emerald City, but was rebuffed by his publisher, who refused to publish books with precious gems in the title. (Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article said “precious metals”; this has been corrected.)
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 Monday, May 22, 2023 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Art Imitating Life; Americana; Assisting The Detective; Book-Pourri; If There Was A Problem; “Yo”, I’Ll Solve It)
Joe and Nancy struggled early on—Nancy especially with determining what clues were asking for—but Ben was off and running, with $7,800 at the first break and $8,400 at the second!
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Ben 9 correct 0 incorrect
Joe 2 correct 2 incorrect
Nancy 0 correct 1 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Nancy was on an Australian game show, “RocKwiz”.
Joe went coffee-picking in Colombia.
Ben thinks it’s an honor to be on “Jeopardy!”
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Ben 15 correct 2 incorrect
Joe 7 correct 3 incorrect
Nancy 2 correct 2 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Ben $8,400
Joe $1,400
Nancy -$400
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Historic People; A Loss For Words; Walking In A Redwood Forest; Pop Culture 2003; Vacation Spots; Rice Pudding)
Joe quickly got to the first Daily Double, but it took a while for Ben to find the last one! His correct response put him in a strong position, and he cemented his 9th runaway in 9 games going into Final over the final 10 clues of the round!
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Ben 25 correct 2 incorrect
Joe 14 correct 6 incorrect
Nancy 6 correct 3 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 27 (1 today).
Scores going into Final:
Ben $20,800
Joe $7,600
Nancy $3,600
Ben and Joe got the Final; Ben is now over the quarter-million-dollar mark! He’ll go for super-champion status tomorrow!
Tonight’s results:
Nancy $3,600 – $3,500 = $100 (What is Anne of Green Gables?)
Joe $7,600 + $399 = $7,999 (What is The Wizard of Oz?)
Ben $20,800 + $4,000 = $24,800 (What is The Wizard of Oz?) (9-day total: $252,600)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) ART IMITATING LIFE $600 (clue #9)
Ben 2800 +2800 (Joe -1000 Nancy -800)
2) POP CULTURE 2003 $1200 (clue #2)
Joe 2200 +2200 (Ben 8400 Nancy -400)
3) WALKING IN A REDWOOD FOREST $2000 (clue #19, $6400 left on board)
Ben 16400 +2000 (Joe 8000 Nancy 3600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 212
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Ben 4 5 3 4 4 5 5 3*
Joe 3
Nancy
DJ! Round:
Ben 4 5 4 5 5 4 5*
Joe 3* 4† 5† 3 4 3 3 4
Nancy 2 3 3 5
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Ben 4.33
Joe 3.56
Nancy 3.25
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: WALKING IN A REDWOOD FOREST $400
Total Left On Board: $400
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 27 (0.15 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Ben $18,600 Coryat, 25 correct, 2 incorrect, 39.29% in first on buzzer (22/56), 1/3 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
Joe $6,600 Coryat, 14 correct, 6 incorrect, 30.36% in first on buzzer (17/56), 0/2 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Nancy $3,600 Coryat, 6 correct, 3 incorrect, 16.07% in first on buzzer (9/56), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $28,800
Lach Trash: $15,400 (on 14 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $9,400
Player Statistics:
Ben Chan, career statistics:
261 correct, 22 incorrect
8/12 on rebound attempts (on 36 rebound opportunities)
46.68% in first on buzzer (239/512)
18/23 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $37,005)
8/9 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $22,933
Joe Lasser, career statistics:
15 correct, 6 incorrect
0/2 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
30.36% in first on buzzer (17/56)
1/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $2,200)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $6,600
Nancy Duran, career statistics:
6 correct, 4 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
16.07% in first on buzzer (9/56)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $3,600
Ben Chan, to win:
10 games: 76.222%
11: 58.098%
12: 44.284%
13: 33.754%
14: 25.728%
Avg. streak: 12.206 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Ben moves into 16th all-time in terms of regular play winnings; 15th is Seth Wilson at $265,002.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Ben $20,800 Joe $7,600 Nancy $3,600)
Ben: Limit your bet to $5,599. (Actual bet: $4,000)
Joe: Limit your bet to $399. (Actual bet: $399)
Nancy: Bet whatever you like. (Actual bet: $3,500)
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Today’s results will be posted once the show airs! Due to changes in air times in some markets, this will take place later than in previous seasons.
Become a Supporter now! Make a monthly contribution to the site on Patreon!
Contestant photo credit: jeopardy.com
When commenting, please note that all comments on The Jeopardy! Fan must be in compliance with the Site Comment Policy.
If you are going to quote any information from this page or this website, attribution is required.
Guessed it correctly, though, I guess I never really considered it a children’s book – maybe since I never read it until I was an adult.
Heh 🙂 Yes, I read the series of Baum’s books when I was in my 40s. The publishing year of 1900 for the first book is still clear in my memory. I’ll probably go back and reread them soon.
I read them as a lower-teen, which (at least in my case) would be “an older child”. However, before some books began being labeled YA in the 1960s, I think all books mainly intended to be read to children were called “children’s books” (and maybe they still are).
Interesting side note…Baum’s biggest cheerleader to pursue his writing was actually his mother-in-law. If not for her constant motivation, there would be no Oz.
I guessed right. When I was a freshman in high school, I was in Algebra class and the sky turned a greenish black and we had to go to the basement because we had a tornado warning. So my first thought was The Wizard of Oz.
Thinking of book covers reminded me of this final jeopardy clue from a few years back (that I was surprised only one got).
A special edition of this 1953 novel came with an asbestos binding
Fahrenheit 451?
Was that Fahrenheit 451? (Not looking it up because just guessing because “to not burn” came immediately to mind but also because Ray Bradbury was my favorite author for a long time.)
Yep, 1953 points us there. The only other book that I’ve heard of with an asbestos binding is Stephen King’s Firestarter.
Good guess by Nancy in Final Jeopardy, although I doubt that the writers would have used the word “green” twice in the clue if that word also appeared in the book title.
Did you know that the Wizard of Oz was also a Broadway play in 1902? Instead of a pet dog named Toto, Dorothy had a pet cow named Imogene.
Hah! Imagining the witch’s dialogue from the 39 film rewritten –
“I’ll get you, my pretty! And your little cow too?!?”🤣
And a little cow can be a dogie, right? (As in “get along, little dogies”.) [The etymology of that term is surprising.]
Hah! +1 🙂
Thanks, Gregory! LOL, I said that because “Anne of Green Gables” was my guess, too, though I’m sure you are right about too many ‘greens’ in the clue to be one in the title, too. I think probably the key word in the clue was ‘jewel’.
I was kicking myself for not thinking of WoO because I did know it was first published in 1900 (but I was not expecting to know the publish date of any books so was only trying to think of books that might be associated with greenness). [I also thought maybe Jungle Book, but thought it older — which it was, but only by 6 years (but AoGG was 8 years later than WoO).]
I was thinking Peter Pan, but I guess that was a few years later. Still a green cover, IIRC.
Peter Pan was a final jeopardy answer not too long ago referencing the lead character wearing a harness.
If this has been asked before, apologizes. I know the award amounts have changed over the years, and there is inflation. Are there any game inflation/CI inflation all time money winners list. Just asking? There care – great website !
Not adjusted for inflation.
There was a math question on the May 22, 2023 Regular Jeopardy. Would you please give the question and answer again? Thanks in advance
IF THERE WAS A PROBLEM $600: Solve for x: 3x – 2y = 11, when y=2
Yay! I got today’s Final! correct. I, too, briefly said “Anne of Green Gables,” but then changed my answer to “The Wizard of Oz.” Also, a big CONGRATS to Ben Chan for making it this far along on the show. He’s fun to watch.
A “childrens” book, all that emphasis of green in the answer? My mind went nowhere else but the Wizard of Oz.