Warning: This page contains spoilers for the June 12, 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 Women In Mythology) for Monday, June 12, 2023 (Season 39, Game 196):
The name of this woman, the product of an incestuous union, means “against birth”
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Marilyn Singer, a children’s book author from Brooklyn, New York |
Michael Vallely, a data analyst from Somerville, Massachusetts |
Suresh Krishnan, a networking engineer from Suwanee, Georgia (4-day total: $53,999) |
Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
I have said this before, and I will say it again: The object of Jeopardy! is to win. Suresh Krishnan has now won four times. He’s a 4-day champion with winnings a shade under $54,000. And he’s going for win #5 today. Today’s challengers are Somerville, Massachusetts’s Michael Vallely and Brooklyn, New York’s Marilyn Singer.
My Weekly Thoughts column from last week is now also online; in it, I talk about how the show’s “canon” has expanded, why TuneIn has been great, and other matters.
In case you’re wondering why the ToC Tracker hasn’t been updated, it’s because I am working on a new version of the tracker that will hopefully be finished within the next couple of days.
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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: Who is Antigone?
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.)
Antigone was the first daughter of the union of Oedipus and Jocasta in Greek mythology; Jocasta was also Oedipus’ mother. Antigone is also the title subject of a Sophocles tragedy, and the subject of a clue from 1988 that I put into J! Archive over the past few days: By a twist of fate, Jocasta was both mother & this to Antigone (all of the three players took guesses, nobody came up with “grandmother”.)
Remember what I said on May 2 regarding Archive studying? If a player had taken this unto themselves beforehand (as my notes say that this episode taped on April 4), they may have discovered Final Jeopardy from February 28, 2018: Poet & translator Anne Carson addresses her: “Your name in Greek means something like ‘against birth’”. Amazingly, the categories for both Finals were also “Women In Mythology”. I also mention this because I believe that Anne Carson’s Antogonick is the most common modern citation for “against birth”.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Monday, June 12, 2023 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Pop Songs; Tropic Of Capricorn Nations; Narrator Of The Novel; Core Values; 5-Letter Words; Ben & Jerry’s Flavor Graveyard)
This game started off as essentially a two-player battle between Suresh and Michael — a rare $5 Daily Double bet from Suresh meant that he was only a little bit behind after 30 clues!
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Michael 7 correct 0 incorrect
Marilyn 3 correct 0 incorrect
Suresh 3 correct 1 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Marilyn got to narrate her own poetry audiobook, but Mayim Bialik was her second-choice narrator.
Michael plays Jeopardy with a cancer support group.
Suresh does not know how to tie a tie and hasn’t worn one since his father has passed.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Michael 11 correct 2 incorrect
Suresh 10 correct 2 incorrect
Marilyn 5 correct 4 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Michael $5,600
Suresh $5,395
Marilyn $0
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: The War Of 1812; Like A Statue; Health & Medicine; Color My World; Hang Up Your Tv Reboots; “Ax” Marks The Spot)
Michael got to the third Daily Double and doubled up! Unfortunately, he was unable to parlay that into a runaway game; Suresh was just inside of 50% of Michael’s score!
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Michael 23 correct 2 incorrect
Suresh 19 correct 2 incorrect
Marilyn 9 correct 5 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 34 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Michael $26,400
Suresh $14,195
Marilyn $4,400
Suresh was the only player correct in Final—and it seems like he got his writing done at the very last second! This means Suresh is now a 5-day champion—though I’m almost positive we’re going to be seeing Michael back in Second Chance.
Tonight’s results:
Marilyn $4,400 – $1,000 = $3,400 (Who is Niobe?)
Suresh $14,195 + $14,000 = $28,195 (Who Antigone?) (5-day total: $82,194)
Michael $26,400 – $2,000 = $24,400 (Who is Uncle Steve?)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) NARRATOR OF THE NOVEL $400 (clue #11)
Suresh 2000 -5 (Michael 2600 Marilyn 600)
2) LIKE A STATUE $2000 (clue #5)
Suresh 8195 +2000 (Michael 6800 Marilyn 0)
3) THE WAR OF 1812 $1600 (clue #8, $26800 left on board)
Michael 8400 +8400 (Suresh 10195 Marilyn 0)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 124
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Suresh 1 2 5 1 2*
Michael 3 4 5 2 3
Marilyn 1
DJ! Round:
Suresh 2 3 5* 1
Michael 4 3 4*
Marilyn 1
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Suresh 2.44
Michael 3.50
Marilyn 1.00
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 34 (0.17 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Suresh $14,200 Coryat, 19 correct, 2 incorrect, 26.32% in first on buzzer (15/57), 3/4 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
Michael $19,600 Coryat, 23 correct, 2 incorrect, 40.35% in first on buzzer (23/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Marilyn $4,400 Coryat, 9 correct, 5 incorrect, 24.56% in first on buzzer (14/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $38,200
Lach Trash: $9,400 (on 8 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $6,400
Player Statistics:
Suresh Krishnan, career statistics:
83 correct, 14 incorrect
10/12 on rebound attempts (on 30 rebound opportunities)
26.43% in first on buzzer (74/280)
4/6 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $10,195)
4/5 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $10,520
Michael Vallely, career statistics:
23 correct, 3 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
40.35% in first on buzzer (23/57)
1/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $8,400)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $19,600
Marilyn Singer, career statistics:
9 correct, 6 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
24.56% in first on buzzer (14/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $4,400
Suresh Krishnan, to win:
6 games: 35.684%
7: 12.733%
8: 4.544%
9: 1.621%
10: 0.579%
Avg. streak: 5.555 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Unless you’re in a position where you absolutely need to bet a large amount of money to have any chance of winning, there is generally nothing wrong with a $5 bet on a Daily Double. In fact, the extra $1,995 Suresh had after that was the difference between him staying within 50% going into Final and not.
- It would not surprise me if Michael was the first player invited back for Second Chance; between his cancer story and how close he came to winning, it would be a travesty if we did not see him again.
- Today’s box score: June 12, 2023 Box Score.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Michael $26,400 Suresh $14,195 Marilyn $4,400)
Suresh: Bet at least $10,216 to have any chance of winning. (Actual bet: $14,000)
Michael: Standard cover bet over Suresh is $1,991. (Actual bet: $2,000)
Marilyn: Limit your bet to $419 to stay ahead of Suresh if Suresh misses Final. (Actual bet: $1,000)
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Yay! Started the week off with a correct answer. Popped right into my head: against = anti = Antigone.
My thoughts went straight to Oedipus, but had no idea his child’s name. Despite having cats named Persephone, Cassiopeia, and Andromeda, Greek mythology is not my forte.
I’m with you, I thought of Oedipus only.
I went right to “anti-” as the Greek prefix meaning “against”, and “Antigone” being the only woman in mythology that I could think of with “Anti” in her name. 🙂
I used same logic. Funny as I know zilch about Greek mythology but have a speech/language/audiology background 🙂
You got the right one! There are quite a few Antiopes.
Knowing Greek root words, “against” should take you straight to “anti”…from there, it’s a short hop to get to Antigone.
I see your logic, and, wish I had seen it myself, and, follow it. Maybe if I had, I would’ve gotten this Final Jeopardy right. I am a little familiar with the Oedipus story, and, believe I knew the name Antigone, but my mind didn’t connect the translation to her.
It was announced yesterday that this next season (2023-24) will be Pat Sajck’s last as host of Wheel. Unlike Alex Trebek’s sudden departure, Sony has a year to plan for Sajak’s replacement, hopefully with this cushion, they won’t have a “hot mess” on their hands like with the Mike Richards debacle here on Jeopardy.
Got it! Had to go language-first with this one. Mind first went to contra-something, and then anti…gone. I imagine if you don’t do that it would be really hard.
my mind went to birth, and I was trying to come up with something with ‘natal’ or part of the word in it.
tch I was looking higher up the chain and would not have remembered the plays of Sophocles in time 🙁 Despite not getting it, I really like the clue because you can break her name in English into two parts and put together the “Against birth”. It sure would have helped if I was familiar with Carson’s book. or watched that 2018 episode of Jeopardy!😅
That ends my record FJ! win streak of 13 in a row😞 Ah, well… it had to end eventually.
Current FJ! streak: 1L
I was thinking of some variation of abortion until I ran out of time
but that word itself has nothing to do with birth (or against birth) – we just have decided to use it that way.
There’s an awful lot of sttong Second Chance contenders named Mike or Michael (Elliott, Vaz, Cavaliere), and I hope this doesn’t count against any of their chances.
Suresh Krishnan will never lose.
Suresh reminded me of Gilbert Collins coming up from behind with the big bet to get to the tournament of champions in 2018. He is a pretty good player as far as I know. As a mythology buff I got this one because of the child name and greek root words.
suresh’s betting is very in line with what I would expect in each cases