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Warning: This page contains spoilers for the May 24, 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 Classical Music) for Wednesday, May 24, 2023 (Season 39, Game 183):
When the opera “Lohengrin” premiered in 1850, this man, a future in-law of the composer, was the conductor
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Joyce Sun, a retired lawyer from Bloomfield, New Jersey |
Ed Petersen, a planning technician from Orlando, Florida |
Lynn Di Vito, a retired museum educator from Colorado Springs, Colorado (1-day total: $11,800) |
Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
The post-Ben Chan era begins today, with champion Lynn Di Vito defending her title against Florida’s Ed Petersen and New Jersey’s Joyce Sun.
One thing that I’d like to start out today’s game post with is by reiterating: Last night, the judges made the 100% correct call in Final Jeopardy. (And no, I am not blindly defending the show here. I am happy to level criticisms against the show and the judges when I feel it is justified.) The show’s spelling rules have not changed. The fact of the matter is that “Benedick” is a fundamentally different name than “Benedict,” which is also pronounced differently. Much like you wouldn’t be able to misspell Joe Biden’s name “B-O-D-E-N” and get away with it, the line is generally drawn when the spelling can not be pronounced the same way as the intended correct response. (Likewise, with normal clues, as long as the pronunciation given by a contestant could reasonably be spelled the same way as the intended correct response, credit is given. It works both ways.)
One very important thing about tonight: The finals of Jeopardy! Masters airs at 8:00 Eastern (7:00 Central) on ABC in the United States and on CTV2 in Canada. If you need to catch up, past episodes are available on Hulu in the United States and on CTV (or on-demand) in Canada.
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(Content continues below)
Correct response: Who is Franz Liszt?
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.)
Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin was originally conducted by famed composer Franz Liszt, whose daughter Cosima ended up marrying Wagner in 1870. After Richard Wagner’s death, Cosima became a major champion of her late husband’s works, having founded the Bayreuth Festival with him in 1876. Unfortunately, while Bayreuth has become a major event in the world of opera, the antisemitism espoused by both Richard and Cosima has put a stain on their respective legacies.
(And, a note on spelling: I’d expect that both “Lizst” and “List” would both be fine here, being that the Z is generally silent when pronounced in English.)
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Wednesday, May 24, 2023 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Thanks A Million; Africa; Con Must Go; Teaching: Some Anagrams; State Of The Union; That’s A Wrap, Everybody!)
Joyce got off to the best start, at $3,600 after 15 clues. After the break, Lynn got the Daily Double, but lost two-thirds of her score. Joyce led after 30, with Ed in a distant third.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Joyce 5 correct 0 incorrect
Lynn 4 correct 1 incorrect
Ed 3 correct 1 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Joyce was in a Pampers commercial in the late ’60s.
Ed tends to have his shoes untied.
Lynn got to listen to Archbishop Desmond Tutu give a convocation speech on Mother’s Day.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Joyce 8 correct 0 incorrect
Lynn 10 correct 2 incorrect
Ed 5 correct 3 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Joyce $5,600
Lynn $3,200
Ed $0
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: These Bros Are Lit; Science; Train-ing Day; Overlaps; To The Fort!; I Am “D.B.”)
In spite of both Daily Doubles being responded to incorrectly, we still had a very exciting Double Jeopardy! Round! Ed picked up 9 correct to nearly overtake Joyce for the lead, but sat in a strong second place going into Final!
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Joyce 13 correct 1 incorrect
Ed 14 correct 5 incorrect
Lynn 16 correct 3 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 30 (2 today).
Scores going into Final:
Joyce $10,800
Ed $10,400
Lynn $6,400
Final Jeopardy! today was a Triple Stumper—Ed bet small and is your new champion! He’ll return tomorrow to defend.
Tonight’s results:
Lynn $6,400 – $5,000 = $1,400 (Who is Toscanini)
Ed $10,400 – $2,401 = $7,999 (Who is Haydn?) (1-day total: $7,999)
Joyce $10,800 – $10,500 = $300 (Who is Rachmaninoff?)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) AFRICA $800 (clue #22)
Lynn 1800 -1200 (Ed 1000 Joyce 3600)
2) TO THE FORT! $1200 (clue #9)
Lynn 5200 -2000 (Ed 3200 Joyce 7600)
3) SCIENCE $1200 (clue #14, $21200 left on board)
Ed 4400 -1600 (Lynn 3200 Joyce 7600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -141
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Lynn 2 3 5 3 4 1 4*
Ed 1 3 4 2 1 2 3 4
Joyce 5 3 4 2 3 2 1
DJ! Round:
Lynn 3 4 3* 4† 5†
Ed 1 1 2 1 1 2 3*
Joyce 5 2
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Ed 2.07
Lynn 3.42
Joyce 3.00
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: OVERLAPS $1600 $2000
Total Left On Board: $3,600
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 30 (0.16 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Ed $12,000 Coryat, 14 correct, 5 incorrect, 32.73% in first on buzzer (18/55), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
Lynn $9,600 Coryat, 16 correct, 3 incorrect, 25.45% in first on buzzer (14/55), 2/3 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Joyce $10,800 Coryat, 13 correct, 1 incorrect, 25.45% in first on buzzer (14/55), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $32,400
Lach Trash: $10,400 (on 12 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $7,600
Player Statistics:
Lynn Di Vito, career statistics:
30 correct, 6 incorrect
4/5 on rebound attempts (on 9 rebound opportunities)
23.42% in first on buzzer (26/111)
1/3 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$200)
0/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $11,300
Ed Petersen, career statistics:
14 correct, 6 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
32.73% in first on buzzer (18/55)
0/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$1,600)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $12,000
Joyce Sun, career statistics:
13 correct, 2 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
25.45% in first on buzzer (14/55)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $10,800
Ed Petersen, to win:
2 games: 35.977%
3: 12.943%
4: 4.657%
5: 1.675%
6: 0.603%
Avg. streak: 1.562 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Video clues with crucial anagram information as part of the clue make for an incredibly poor home viewing experience, as occurred with the TEACHING: SOME ANAGRAMS $200 clue. Thus, I would like to officially propose a moratorium on video clues in anagram categories going forward.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Joyce $10,800 Ed $10,400 Lynn $6,400)
Lynn: Bet between $1,601 (thereby passing Ed if he bets to cover you) and $5,599 (thereby staying ahead of Joyce if she bets to cover Ed.) (Actual bet: $5,000)
Ed: Standard cover bet over Lynn is $2,401. (Actual bet: $2,401)
Joyce: Standard cover bet over Ed is $10,001. (Actual bet: $10,500)
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Regarding the spellings last night, and tonight:
I call my dad every night after the local airing ends. The first thing he asked last night was “what happened there? Why did they call Ben wrong?” I explained the rule (thanks, Andy…I hadn’t known the rule until mentioned it on another occasion a few months ago) and that “Benedic” would have been ruled correct because the pronunciation would be the same, but that the “t” at the end made it wrong.
As relates to today’s Final, Liszt was a Hungarian, and the ‘z’ in the name is an indicator to how to pronounce the ‘s’. The ‘zs’ is usually closer to an English ‘z’, while ‘s’ or ‘ss’ is like an English ‘sh”, and ‘sz’ is like an English ‘s’, from what I’ve been taught by the Hungarian side of my family and other Hungarian-speaking people who I know. As a result, of the three spellings you give, the Lizst would be questionable, but probably accepted because it could yield the proper pronunciation, and the other two would be accepted without a doubt.
Yeah, there are a lot of good “Six Degrees of Separation” style clues possible with the old composers 🙂
The Masters Tournament has been a drag on my Season 39 FJ! performance, so I’m hoping that I can use this momentum to get a strong finish in tonight’s finale.
Andy – thank you for acknowledging the antisemitism point.
Back as a high school freshman, my very first “Reach for the Top” coach made a point of pointing out Wagner’s antisemitism every time a Wagner question happened in practice.
I am also Reach for the Top alum 🙂
Can’t wait to watch the finals of Jeopardy Masters so I can watch the most strategic way to play the game again. Sadly with Ben gone we have gone back to a much less efficient way of playing the game and going forward we are likely to see many single and two day champs.
I still think yesterday’s FJ clue was too-clever-by half. In Trebek’s day such a sneaky clue would never have passed muster with the adults in the room. It was hard enough without splitting hairs on Benedick /Benedict. My hat goes off to Ben for getting it right.. especially spelling in 16th century English.
Just my opinion – Since Ben Chan’s departure, today’s game was maddeningly slow and cumbersome. There were even 2 clues left on the board at the end. It made me miss Ben Chan even more. Looking forward to the next Tournament of Champions.
I came here to say the same thing. It really was slow and cumbersome.
BUT I have a theory: All the gasping in the studio when Ben lost sucked the oxygen out of the room. The lack of oxygen made everyone groggy and unable to focus. (Alternatively, Ben’s loss put the next set of contestants on edge and made them fearful, which threw them off their game as it were.)
Respectfully, that is far-fetched speculation. I wasn’t the least bit fearful because of Ben’s loss, I was completely relieved I wouldn’t have to face him! Also, I wasn’t “thrown off my game” at all, since I had never played Jeopardy on stage before. And your oxygen comment isn’t exactly sound science, heh.
Ed:
Thanks for stopping in!
I could have sworn Tim’s oxygen comment was sarcasm, but that might just have been me.
Oh yeah. I picked up on the sarcasm, don’t worry. 🙂
The “Science” Daily Double was ambiguous at best. The measure of the size of seismic wave is the amplitude. The Richter scale uses the amplitude of the waves to compute the magnitude, which is a measure of the earthquake itself. I hope they would’ve accepted “amplitude” as well as “magnitude”.
Cite: https://www.britannica.com/science/Richter-scale