Warning: This page contains spoilers for the December 11, 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 20th Century Literature) for Monday, December 11, 2023 (Season 40, Game 66):
Thomas Pynchon wrote that this novelist “in 1948 understood that despite the Axis defeat…fascism had not gone away”
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Emma Saltzberg, a campaigns director from Brooklyn, New York
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Donesh Olyaie, a marketing director from Los Angeles, California
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Amal Dorai, a venture capital investor from San Francisco, California
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
We enter the final full week of strike replacement programming on Jeopardy! today with the last quarterfinal of Fall 2023’s Champions Wildcard. Amal Dorai, Donesh Olyaie, and Emma Saltzberg return to the Alex Trebek Stage. My preview believes that this will be a relatively equal match between all three players. However, 3-day champions have tended to have an upper hand throughout the Champions Wildcard competitions—this may tip the scales in Emma’s direction today.
In case you missed my editorial columns this weekend, my Weekly Thoughts focused on one topic only: why Nick Cascone’s comments on Inside Jeopardy were spot on (and how Reddit has lost its way), and my Mailbag column answered questions about how contestants are paired and the show’s relationship with the Daytime Emmy Awards.
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Correct response: Who is George Orwell?
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.)
For an edition of George Orwell’s 1984 published in 2003 to coincide with the centennial of Orwell’s birth, Thomas Pynchon contributed a foreword to the book. Prior to its publication, The Guardian published an edited extract of the introduction titled “The Road to 1984”. Orwell, having fought against the fascists in the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, saw firsthand of the dangers of fascism, and spent the rest of his career writing works in an attempt to warn against its dangers.
Pyncheon wrote “Orwell in 1948 understood that despite the Axis defeat, the will to fascism had not gone away, that far from having seen its day it had perhaps not yet even come into its own.” And “What could prevent the same thing from happening to Britain and the United States? Moral superiority? Good intentions? Clean living?”
With fascism so very clearly on the doorstep of the Western world in 2023, this Final Jeopardy clue definitely feels like a clue designed to get the viewer to consider that fascism has “not gone away”. Thankfully, we still have a chance to prevent it from completely overtaking us.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Monday, December 11, 2023 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Got Your Name Tag?; It’s The Geneva Convention; The Music Of Canada; Hydrology; Circle Time; F-Stop)
Amal certainly got off to a hot start; seven correct responses to open the game was punctuated by a Daily Double! He had $7,600 before Donesh and Emma even got on the board. However, he only had $8,600 at the end of the round, as Donesh and Emma both got well on track through 30 clues.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Amal 8 correct 0 incorrect
Donesh 5 correct 0 incorrect
Emma 0 correct 0 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Emma did many interviews; her favorite one was her high school newspaper.
Donesh still is not wearing his Little Orphan Annie costume.
Amal had a cake made that looked like a Jeopardy! board for his viewing party.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Amal 12 correct 2 incorrect
Donesh 10 correct 1 incorrect
Emma 5 correct 0 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Amal $8,600
Donesh $4,600
Emma $2,200
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: The Country’s Unknown Soldier…; Directors’ First Features; The 7 Deadly Sin-Onyms; Home On The Range; Arts; Crafts)
Amal got to the second Daily Double, but an incorrect response on that brought him back to the field. After Emma played the last one, everyone was separated by just $200 with 12 clues to play! Emma did the best over those final 12 clues and held the lead going into Final!
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Emma 16 correct 0 incorrect
Donesh 20 correct 4 incorrect
Amal 16 correct 3 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 0 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Emma $15,000
Donesh $12,600
Amal $11,200
Amal and Emma both got Final correct; Emma is a semifinalist!
Tonight’s results:
Amal $11,200 + $11,200 = $22,400 (Who is Orwell?)
Donesh $12,600 – $12,600 = $0 (Who is Roth?)
Emma $15,000 + $10,201 = $25,201 (Who is Orwell?) (Semi-Finalist)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) HYDROLOGY $600 (clue #7)
Amal 4600 +3000 (Donesh 0 Emma 0)
2) ARTS $1600 (clue #8)
Amal 10600 -3000 (Donesh 7800 Emma 3800)
3) THE 7 DEADLY SIN-ONYMS $1200 (clue #18, $8000 left on board)
Emma 9000 +2000 (Amal 10800 Donesh 11000)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 59
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Amal 3 2 4 4 5 5 3*
Donesh
Emma
DJ! Round:
Amal 4* 4 3 4 5
Donesh 5 4 4 5 5 4 5 5
Emma 1 3 3† 3 3*
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Emma 2.60
Amal 3.83
Donesh 4.63
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 0 (0.00 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Emma $14,200 Coryat, 16 correct, 0 incorrect, 21.05% in first on buzzer (12/57), 3/3 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Amal $11,800 Coryat, 16 correct, 3 incorrect, 29.82% in first on buzzer (17/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Donesh $12,600 Coryat, 20 correct, 4 incorrect, 38.60% in first on buzzer (22/57), 1/2 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $38,600
Lach Trash: $9,200 (on 7 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $6,200
Lead Changes: 4
Times Tied: 2
Player Statistics:
Amal Dorai, career statistics:
69 correct, 13 incorrect
0/1 on rebound attempts (on 16 rebound opportunities)
30.97% in first on buzzer (70/226)
6/7 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $14,500)
3/4 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $11,400
Donesh Olyaie, career statistics:
57 correct, 9 incorrect
5/6 on rebound attempts (on 10 rebound opportunities)
31.58% in first on buzzer (54/171)
1/3 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$6,000)
2/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $14,867
Emma Saltzberg, career statistics:
100 correct, 14 incorrect
8/9 on rebound attempts (on 25 rebound opportunities)
32.75% in first on buzzer (93/284)
6/7 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $9,400)
2/5 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $15,800
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Today’s box score: December 11, 2023 Box Score.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Emma $15,000 Donesh $12,600 Amal $11,200)
Amal: If you think Donesh will bet bet, make a small bet. In that case, make sure to stay above $4,800 and bet no more than $6,400. If you think Donesh will make a small bet, go all in. (Actual bet: $11,200)
Donesh: You’re in Stratton’s Dilemma: you can’t both cover Amal and win a Double Stumper with Emma. If you think Amal will make a big bet, bet at least $9,801 to cover (but you might as well go all in in that case). If you think Amal will make a small bet, bet $5,001 to cover his small range. That said, if you’re betting for a Triple Stumper anyway, you might want to consider betting $0. (Actual bet: $12,600)
Emma: Standard cover bet over Donesh is $10,201. (Actual bet: $10,201)
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I was thinking Rand or Huxley.
Guessed it, even though I had a vague but unsettling suspicion that 1984 was later.
Who is George Orwell? “1984” and “Animal Farm”, classics of anti-Fascist literature.
Yes of course reading animal farm by Orwell helped me with today’s final jeopardy. Oh yes that 1984 book was good too
agree with fascism comments, and agree it is currently a grave danger. Just not sure the clue is spot on because i’ve always been under the impression that both books (1984 and animal farm) were more a warning against communism than fascism. “all creatures are equal, some are just more equal” lol.
With all due respect, the clue is a direct quote from Pynchon referring to a specific author.
Got Orwell before I finished reading the clue, though the fact that I’m currently reading 1984 in school might have something to do with it. I’m technically 100% in Finals this week at the moment 🙂
I enjoy your humor, Masterdoge..I am also 100% for the week 😅
The quotes in the second paragraph of Andy’s (as always) useful reference info point out how dangerous it is to believe that “American exceptionalism” keeps us from making all the classic mistakes. Will the Republic succumb to a would be dictator?
When today’s Final Jeopardy answer was revealed, I initally said Huxley, then on second thought, believed the correct response could either be Huxley, or, Orwell. Obviously my second choice was right. And, this was from not know Pynchon’s quote, but somehow understanding that it referred to a work like “Brave New World,” or, correctly, “1984.”
Whenever I see literature and the year 1948, George Orwell and Nineteen Eighty-Four immediately come to mind. I read somewhere that the title came from an inversion of the year in which it was written. I’m not sure if that is completely accurate, but it makes it easy for me to remember when Nineteen Eighty-Four was written.
One big indicator of the correct response was obvious right there in the clue. There is a theory that the title “1984” was chosen over the alternative title, “The Last Man in Europe,” because it was an inversion of 1948 when the book was finished being written (although actually published in 1949). 1948 being shown in the clue could lead one to “1984” which, of course, gives you George Orwell.
This is what saved me. I initially said “Camus” for The Plague, but then registered the year and switched to Orwell. (Turns out The Plague was published in 1947, which I didn’t know while responding.)
I didn’t get the FJ right, but what a game tonight! These 3 players put on a show!
On to the Semifinals (Predictions):
1 – Julia Markham Cameron
2 – Emma Saltzberg
3 – Yungsheng Wang
Also of note, the next Second Chance players (of the 1st group) is up on the Jeopardy site.
Have a Happy Semifinals everyone!