Warning: This page contains spoilers for the May 4, 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 Bodies of Water) for Thursday, May 4, 2023 (Season 39, Game 169):
Formed some 10,000-15,000 years ago & with an average depth of only about 150 feet, it’s named for a man who sailed through it in 1728
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Marie Claude Dussault, a translater & editor from Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
Warren Grace, a croupier from Lanham, Maryland |
Hannah Wilson, a data scientist from Chicago, Illinois (1-day total: $25,800) |
Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
We have a new champion on the Alex Trebek Stage—Hannah Wilson put up a “perfect game” with 25 correct last night in a convincing victory (that wasn’t quite a runaway). Today she faces off against Maryland’s Warren Grace and Montreal’s Marie Claude Dussault.
You may be wondering what has happened to my Jeopardy! Masters preview. And to that, I say: “It’s hard to preview a tournament and impossible to make predictions where the show and the network have kept the actual format so close to their chest”. Certainly, there have been changes between when the format was detailed on Inside Jeopardy and what is being posted now—there were no hints of “semifinals” or “finals” in the initial format. To be quite honest, whoever ordered these changes, in my opinion, has taken a reasonable format and made it worse—and it’s severely hampered my own enthusiasm about covering the series of games. If Jeopardy! wants to be treated like a sport, it needs to be completely transparent with its audience about things like scheduling, format, and rules—transparency which has been sorely lacking.
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 Bering Strait?
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.)
The Bering Strait, named for the explorer Vitus Bering who first sailed through it in the 1720s, separates Russia from Alaska in the western Arctic. Due to its shallow depth, lowered sea levels during the last Ice Age caused a land bridge to form between Asia and North America—it was via this land bridge that North America’s indigenous peoples first reached this continent.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Thursday, May 4, 2023 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Phrasing; Florida Places; A Bible Thumpin’; U.S. Facts & Figures; Magazines In Other Words; Athletes Named For)
This game was pretty much all Hannah from the start; she had $8,200 at the first break and $13,000 after the Jeopardy! round!
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Hannah 10 correct 0 incorrect
Warren 4 correct 1 incorrect
Marie Claude 1 correct 1 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Marie Claude won a trip to Paris on Twitter.
Warren began watching Jeopardy! at the age of 10.
Hannah finished 18th at last year’s ACPT.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Hannah 17 correct 0 incorrect
Warren 8 correct 1 incorrect
Marie Claude 2 correct 1 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Hannah $13,000
Warren $3,000
Marie Claude $800
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Novel Countries; The Tower Of London; Science; A Special Train Car; 21st Century Films; Abbre-V-ations)
Hannah’s dominance of proceedings continued—Warren and Marie Claude combined for just 6 buzzes in the entire Double Jeopardy! round. Hannah also picked up a combined $11,000 on Daily Doubles to have a stunning $35,200 going into Final!
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Hannah 33 correct 3 incorrect
Marie Claude 5 correct 1 incorrect
Warren 10 correct 2 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 26 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Hannah $35,200
Marie Claude $5,600
Warren $4,600
Hannah and Marie Claude were both correct on today’s Final; Hannah added another five figures to her total, putting her over the $70,000 mark through 2 games!
Tonight’s results:
Warren $4,600 – $4,500 = $100 (What is the Cook Strait?)
Marie Claude $5,600 + $2,601 = $8,201 (What is the Bering Strait?)
Hannah $35,200 + $10,000 = $45,200 (What is the Bering Strait?) (2-day total: $71,000)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) FLORIDA PLACES $600 (clue #9)
Hannah 3200 +3000 (Warren 0 Marie Claude -600)
2) SCIENCE $1200 (clue #2)
Hannah 13400 +5000 (Warren 3000 Marie Claude 800)
3) A SPECIAL TRAIN CAR $1200 (clue #12, $20000 left on board)
Hannah 21600 +6000 (Warren 5000 Marie Claude 800)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 159
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Hannah 1 2 3 4 5 1 3*
Warren 1 2
Marie Claude
DJ! Round:
Hannah 3* 4† 5† 4 5 3 2 4 5 3*
Warren 1
Marie Claude 1
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Hannah 3.35
Marie Claude 1.00
Warren 1.33
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 26 (0.15 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Hannah $24,200 Coryat, 33 correct, 3 incorrect, 54.39% in first on buzzer (31/57), 2/2 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Marie Claude $5,600 Coryat, 5 correct, 1 incorrect, 8.77% in first on buzzer (5/57), 0/1 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Warren $4,600 Coryat, 10 correct, 2 incorrect, 19.30% in first on buzzer (11/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $34,400
Lach Trash: $13,200 (on 12 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $6,400
Player Statistics:
Hannah Wilson, career statistics:
59 correct, 3 incorrect
2/2 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
46.49% in first on buzzer (53/114)
5/5 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $19,000)
2/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $22,200
Warren Grace, career statistics:
10 correct, 3 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
19.30% in first on buzzer (11/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $4,600
Marie Claude Dussault, career statistics:
6 correct, 1 incorrect
0/1 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
8.77% in first on buzzer (5/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $5,600
Hannah Wilson, to win:
3 games: 84.294%
4: 71.055%
5: 59.895%
6: 50.488%
7: 42.559%
Avg. streak: 7.367 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- $45,200 is tied for the 121st-best single-day score in the history of the show, with Pam Mifflin (9/14/97), Larissa Kelly (5/20/08), and Jennifer Quail (12/4/19).
- Today’s box score: May 4, 2023 Box Score.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Hannah $35,200 Marie Claude $5,600 Warren $4,600)
Hannah: Bet anything between $0 and $23,999 and enjoy victory #2! (Actual bet: $10,000)
Warren: Limit your bet to $2,599—this way, you stay ahead of Marie Claude if she is incorrect. (Actual bet: $4,500)
Marie Claude: Standard cover bet over Warren is $3,601. (Actual bet: $2,601)
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tch I wasted my time thinking about seas and lakes and would never have considered the Bering Strait😕 Oh, well… at least I learned something!
Current FJ streak: 2L
Magellan popped into my head right away even though I knew the time frame was wrong. Magellan’s presence left my wee brain no space to cogitate further and then time was up. I did not write down a response.
Fortunately I had discovered all three Daily Doubles earlier and could not be caught.
I am now a 7-day champion.
In my dreams.
I went with the Straits of Magellan. 🙁
Me, too.
I guessed the Cook Strait (in New Zealand) based on the century. I now see that Cook was born in 1728, so he would had to have been a baby when he sailed through it.
I also thought of Cook. But I did not know of a body of water named after him.
Wow! What a performance by Hannah😲 Now I’m just going to dream about her getting comfortable enough to go big on those DD2s and DD3s and then betting the maximum safe amount in FJ!😴💭🤑
Hannah looks like she has the chops to go on a little run here, which could get very interesting when Ben returns on 5/15. A potential Zach vs. Brian situation is in the works.
I agree as she is the first winner in a long time to have an incorrect rate well under 10%, currently 5%. The majority for a while have been ABOVE 10%! The big winners tend to maintain an incorrect rate between 5% and 7.5%.
By some luck after first thinking Magellan, (wrong date and not shallow). . then Vitus Bering popped into my head!
Unfortunately, for me, the Final Jeopardy “answer” was specific enough so that if you had some idea, knowledge, of bodies of water, specifically relatively shallow ones, as it was for Hannah, and, Marie, but not for me.
Had no idea that the Bering Strait was so shallow. Went with Hudson Bay, but I think that may have been a century earlier now. Tough when you only have 30 seconds.
Hannah changed gears between rounds, with starting low in Single Jeopardy but still buzzing in a lot. In Double Jeopardy, she went more aggressive, selecting higher value clues. It was over after the first Daily Double of DJ since Warren and Marie Claude got scared. Playing against a smart player like Hannah is intimidating and I expect her to face off against Ben on the 15th. That is something to look forward to!
My thinking was similar to yours so I guessed Lake Champlain, but also sailed through 100 years too early. I think it is kind of funny that your guess was a little over TWICE the clued average depth and mine was a little less than HALF the clued average depth. You were closer on latitude — that was not part of the clue but I [correctly] assumed from the age that the body of water was “formed” by glaciers, putting it “up there”.
Yeah, it must be awfully cramped for Champ and its friends in there😅
My one experience with the area was the time we went from Montreal to Boston and took the Plattsburgh Ferry to Grand Isle on the way. That part of upstate NY has been living in my memory since then😍
As others have mentioned, I, too, look forward to a possible Hannah versus Ben match. If they get to go head-to-head, it will be a shame that either one has to lose.
On a completely different note, can anyone truly be said to be indigenous if they came from somewhere else, for example, via a land bridge? After all, indigenous implies originating or occurring naturally in a particular place, i.e., native.
About “indigenous”: just about everyone living today has ancestors that came from somewhere else. My understanding is that, just as the first plants and animals to arrive on a previously barren island are considered “endemic”, the first humans to arrive in areas where no humans had previously lived are considered “indigenous”. Many indigenous people prefer other terms, especially since some believe that their ancestors arose directly from the lands where they began, but “indigenous” is the most widely used term, such as in “Indigenous People’s Day”. I would be pleased to hear Andy’s opinion, since he seems to be more up than I am on this kind of thing.
I can’t speak for Andy and don’t know his opinions but might I suggest, “First People” or as Canada uses “First Nations.” I like those terms as more accurately descriptive since they get around what may or may not be, strictly speaking, indigenous
That sounds good to me, but I can’t speak for them as 23andMe has proved my spoken family history to have [probably] been wrong about a Cherokee great-great grandparent. [I say “probably” because I have since learned that mathematically(?)/statistically(?) ALL genes from a specific ancestor CAN happen to be lost from one (or more) direct line in just a few generations.]
This makes me wonder how many significant sailable bodies of water named after a specific person there are. In addition to those already mentioned here, the Tasmin Sea, the Hudson River, Puget Sound, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca come to mind. I’m not sure if Lake Washington would count since I believe it was named after the state as opposed to the former president.
How about the St. Lawrence River and the St. Lawrence Seaway, would they count?
I wish they wouldn’t wait so long to post the box score; it used to be released much earlier in the day. Pretty sure the streak of sub-40 attempts was shattered today, though.