Warning: This page contains spoilers for the June 21, 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 World of Water) for Wednesday, June 21, 2023 (Season 39, Game 203):
The Bass Strait divides Tasmania & mainland Australia & hydrographers have disputed which of these 2 larger bodies it’s part of
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Lee Papa, a professor from Bloomfield, New Jersey |
Nabeela Rahman, a co-operative education coordinator from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada |
Ben Goldstein, a content marketing specialist from Dexter, Michigan (3-day total: $21,293) |
Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Ben Goldstein is a 3-day champion, with winnings of just over $20,000. As I’ve said numerous times, the winnings don’t matter as much as the fact that Ben has won three games—the point of this game is to win. Today’s challengers are Canadian Nabeela Rahman and New Jersey’s Lee Papa.
That said, I feel obligated to defend my prediction model, which has generally been sour on Ben’s chances of winning. His scores after Double Jeopardy! are not usually conducive to winning; however, there’s always a chance, and he’s taken advantage of the opportunities presented to him.
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(Content continues below)
Correct response: What are the Indian & Pacific Oceans?
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.)
I’m going to open by saying that I hate this Final. Even depending on whether or not you’re in Australia, there may be many possible answers to this one. On its west, depending on who’s making the definition, the body of water is either the Great Australian Bight, the Indian Ocean, or the Southern Ocean. (The Southern Ocean definition is used mainly by Australia.) On its east, it’s either the Tasman Sea or the Pacific Ocean. Considering that either half of this response has multiple possible responses, I don’t think that it’s an appropriate subject for a Final.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Wednesday, June 21, 2023 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Collect ‘Em All!; -Ologies; Misheard Lyrics; Official Nicknames; Nevada; The “Silver” State)
All three players got off to a good start in an opening segment that saw just one Triple Stumper. Coming out of the break, Ben got the Daily Double correct and propelled into the lead.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Ben 6 correct 0 incorrect
Lee 3 correct 0 incorrect
Nabeela 5 correct 1 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Lee has a daughter who is a rock musician with a band called “Natalie and the Monarchy”.
Nabeela got her middle name in honor of Nadine Gordimer.
Ben once played a music gig for just three people.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Ben 12 correct 0 incorrect
Nabeela 9 correct 3 incorrect
Lee 4 correct 1 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Ben $7,400
Nabeela $3,400
Lee $1,600
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: The Plot Thickens; Alliteration; History Is Elemental; Celebs; Discovery & Invention; Shoe Gazing)
Both Lee and Ben got Daily Doubles incorrect, and a run from Nabeela saw her come very close to leading! Unfortunately for her, Ben played a little bit better near the end of the round to cement a runaway!
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Ben 21 correct 1 incorrect
Nabeela 16 correct 7 incorrect
Lee 8 correct 2 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 34 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Ben $15,200
Nabeela $6,200
Lee $4,600
Ben and Nabeela got Final correct; Ben is now a 4-day champion!
Tonight’s results:
Lee $4,600 – $1,401 = $3,199 (What are the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans?)
Nabeela $6,200 + $6,000 = $12,200 (What are the Pacific & Indian Oceans?)
Ben $15,200 + $800 = $16,000 (What are the Indian and Pacific Oceans?) (4-day total: $37,293)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) OFFICIAL NICKNAMES $800 (clue #20)
Ben 4400 +1000 (Nabeela 2800 Lee 2000)
2) THE PLOT THICKENS $1600 (clue #3)
Lee 1600 -1000 (Ben 7400 Nabeela 2200)
3) ALLITERATION $1200 (clue #7, $28000 left on board)
Ben 8600 -1400 (Nabeela 2200 Lee 600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -44
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Ben 4 5 2 1 2 3 5 2 3 4*
Nabeela 1 2 5 1 4 1
Lee 3 2 3 4
DJ! Round:
Ben 2 3*
Nabeela
Lee 3 2 4* 5† 1†
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Ben 3.00
Nabeela 2.33
Lee 3.00
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:
Ben $16,400 Coryat, 21 correct, 1 incorrect, 35.09% in first on buzzer (20/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
Nabeela $6,200 Coryat, 16 correct, 7 incorrect, 38.60% in first on buzzer (22/57), 0/1 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
Lee $5,600 Coryat, 8 correct, 2 incorrect, 15.79% in first on buzzer (9/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $28,200
Lach Trash: $15,200 (on 13 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $10,600
Player Statistics:
Ben Goldstein, career statistics:
78 correct, 16 incorrect
2/3 on rebound attempts (on 29 rebound opportunities)
36.56% in first on buzzer (83/227)
1/4 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$5,200)
1/4 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $11,650
Nabeela Rahman, career statistics:
17 correct, 7 incorrect
0/1 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
38.60% in first on buzzer (22/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $6,200
Lee Papa, career statistics:
8 correct, 3 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
15.79% in first on buzzer (9/57)
0/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$1,000)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $5,600
Ben Goldstein, to win:
5 games: 31.272%
6: 9.779%
7: 3.058%
8: 0.956%
9: 0.299%
Avg. streak: 4.455 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Today’s box score: June 21, 2023 Box Score.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Ben $15,200 Nabeela $6,200 Lee $4,600)
Ben: Limit your bet to $2,799. (Actual bet: $800)
Nabeela: Standard cover bet over Lee is $3,001. (Actual bet: $6,000)
Lee: Limit your bet to $1,399 to have the best chance of taking second place. (Actual bet: $1,401)
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I went for Tasman Sea and Indian Ocean. The FJ does say 2 large bodies of water
“Large” isn’t an objective measurement.
I also went with the Inaian Ocean and the Tasman Sea, thoguh I did second guess myself by thinking that Australia was too far south for the Indian Ocean.
I can’t judge wether this was a good, or, bad Final Jeopardy. Just consider myself a winner of sorts that despite not knowing much Australian geography, I managed to have half the correct response.
I guessed this correct due to lack of knowledge. If I’d known more bodies of water, I may have chosen one of them. But the only ones I knew of in that are are Indian and Pacific Oceans. If people miss this it will because they knew too much and had more than those two possibiliities.
Kind of a gimme, but I won’t complain… glad to continue my hot streak that started when Masters ended!
I would’ve gone with the correct two oceans for large bodies, but definitely 2nd guessing myself about seas while writing.
Okay so I was in the studio audience for this game. Right before FJ those of us sitting on the left side of the audience (while looking onto the stage) were taped for the 10 second moment when the announcer tells the viewers that ‘we will be right back’. So if I look quickly, I may be able to see myself.
Despite me being in studio during this episode, I did forget the correct response.
“Indian and Pacific” looks too obvious for a FJ; I would have responded “Southern and Pacific”.
While defending the prediction model is understandable, I don’t think it’s necessary. I took a look back through the archives. On May 31, 2019, it gave James Holzhauer a 40.2% chance of surpassing Ken’s 74 game streak — and only a 3.17% chance of being defeated in his next game. And we all know what happened the following Monday.
I fortunately managed to give the correct responses to both parts of this Final, but I was also debating both halves, more so Tasman Sea vs. Pacific Ocean.
I would certainly think that Tasman Sea would be ruled an acceptable replacement for Pacific Ocean.
I went with Southern Ocean and Pacific Ocean, because the Southern Ocean has become an accepted body of water within the geography community, and as a geographer I would be inclined to use that before Indian Ocean. And after making my response, I started to wonder about the Tasman Sea and the Great Australian Bight, so I have to agree that this is a poorly worded and categorized Final.
I answered the same as you. However, having stuck with Southern Ocean for one, I had trouble deciding between Pacific and Indian for the other one without realizing that was the exact dispute the clue actually referred to!
I, too, totally agree with Andy about this clue being an inappropriate choice as a Final. In addition to the many oceans and seas he mentioned, the Southern Ocean is also called the Antarctic Ocean and the South Polar Ocean and even Great Southern Ocean. Also, the Southern Ocean was named that in 1999 (with an 18 to 11 vote), and I bet the hydrographers’ dispute dates back to before that. One could say that all those names for the Southern Ocean shouldn’t matter since the correct response is Pacific and Indian, but it means there is A LOT to consider during those 30 seconds.
I said Southern Ocean and Tasman Sea. Going to go ahead and mark myself correct on this one.
I’m also not a fan of the “tough ticket” Daily Double, as I can’t find the phrase in any standard dictionaries, and Googling it in quotes seems to only bring up complaints about the clue itself. At the very least it seems unfair for a DD.
Don’t like to scroll much, do you? 😉 JK, I agree with you (and many others) about this not seeming to be a known “phrase”, but not very far past the Jeopardy! hits are several first-quarter 2023 usages of those words in sentences that don’t even make it sound like a “phrase”, just words in a sentence pertaining to actual hard-to-get seats to ball games (or berths in tournaments).
I was gob-smacked that not one of three [people capable of getting onto Jeopardy!] knew of the Dead Sea scrolls (especially with FIVE facts given in the clue). I would not have been surprised to have seen it in the $400 clue slot.
I was thinking “Qumran scrolls” (not up to the correct spelling, though); hope it would have been an acceptable answer.
Here from my teenage ears is an extra one for the category MISHEARD LYRICS . . . I couldn’t understand what “they” were singing about their pizza burning.