Warning: This page contains spoilers for the December 13, 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 Movie Musicals) for Wednesday, December 13, 2023 (Season 40, Game 68):
Of the musicals to win an Oscar for Best Picture, 1 of the 2 with one-word titles based on & named for literary characters
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Ed Coulson, an economics & real estate professor from Dana Point, California
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Emma Saltzberg, a campaigns director from Brooklyn, New York
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Tyler Vandenberg, a Marine officer currently serving in from Stuttgart, Germany
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
This is an interesting semifinal between three players who all struggled to some degree on the signalling device in their respective quarterfinals; Tyler was at 48%, while both Ed and Emma were below 40%. Someone’s going to improve, I’m sure! Of our three players, though, Ed did have the most quarterfinal attempts at 45; that may end up being what tilts today’s game in his favor (though Emma did go through the entire quarterfinal without being incorrect.)
In case you missed it yesterday, the entire group of 36 players returning for Season 39 Second Chance has been unveiled by the show; the first step in the road to the 31st Tournament of Champions begins December 19.
Another reminder that I have started a Sunday mailbag column where I answer fan & viewer questions regarding the show. If you have a question, feel free to send it to mailbag@thejeopardyfan.com!
(Content continues below)
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Correct response: What are Gigi or Oliver!?
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.)
This is one of those Final Jeopardy clues that stands the test of time; it wouldn’t have been out of place in 1984, either.
Gigi is a 1958 Lerner and Loewe movie musical that cleaned up its year’s Oscars, going 9-for-9, including Best Picture, Best Director (for Vincente Minnelli), and Best Song (“Gigi”). It was based on the 1944 novella Gigi by French author Colette.
Oliver! is a 1968 film version of Lionel Bart’s 1960 musical that wasn’t as successful as Gigi was on Oscar night, only winning six Oscars. It was based on Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist.
To me, having memorized the old list of Best Picture winners, this wasn’t a particularly difficult final, especially knowing that Oliver! immediately fit all parts of the clue. Did I remember that Gigi was a musical? Nope. Did I need to? Nope—the clue only asked for one. I suspect that the Dickens character will be the easier of the two responses to this Final.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Wednesday, December 13, 2023 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Science; Western Tv Shows; Holmes, Sherlock Holmes; Name That Carmaker; Slang For Liquor; Look! Up In The Sky! It’s…)
Ed and Tyler both got off to a strong start, Tyler buoyed by NAME THAT CARMAKER and Ed by HOLMES, SHERLOCK HOLMES. Ed got the Daily Double incorrect after the break, which led to Tyler holding the lead after 30 clues.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Ed 7 correct 0 incorrect
Tyler 5 correct 0 incorrect
Emma 2 correct 0 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Ed wants to thank the crew for helping out his 90-year-old parents at the studio.
Emma still gets emails for the wrong Emma Saltzberg in Brooklyn.
Tyler feels fortunate to have been contacted by the show when he did, as he was only able to respond on that specific day.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Tyler 8 correct 1 incorrect
Ed 11 correct 2 incorrect
Emma 5 correct 1 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Tyler $4,800
Ed $3,600
Emma $2,600
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: French Connections; Who’s The Mrs.?; Your Day In “C”ourt; It Was An Olympic Year!; Oscar, Meyer, Wiener; Ad-jectives)
Double Jeopardy saw Emma and Ed playing the Daily Doubles; Emma got hers correct but only made a Tim Simons bet of a clue-value $1200; Ed took a big swing with a $6,000 bet but an incorrect response took him out of contention. Emma played well enough at the end of the round to keep Tyler from having a runaway going into Final.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Tyler 18 correct 2 incorrect
Emma 13 correct 2 incorrect
Ed 19 correct 5 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 0 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Tyler $18,400
Emma $10,600
Ed $2,800
Everyone bet it all in this Final Jeopardy. (Inexplicably, in Tyler’s case.) It’s probably a good thing that this Final went 3-for-3. Tyler advances to the finals in spite of his much-too-aggressive Final Jeopardy bet.
Tonight’s results:
Ed $2,800 + $2,800 = $5,600 (What is Gigi?)
Emma $10,600 + $10,600 = $21,200 (What is Oliver!?)
Tyler $18,400 + $18,400 = $36,800 (What is Oliver!) (Semi-Finalist)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) SCIENCE $600 (clue #23)
Ed 4000 -1000 (Tyler 3400 Emma 2600)
2) IT WAS AN OLYMPIC YEAR! $1200 (clue #12)
Emma 5800 +1200 (Tyler 6800 Ed 4400)
3) YOUR DAY IN “C”OURT $1200 (clue #22, $10000 left on board)
Ed 8400 -6000 (Tyler 15200 Emma 7000)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -76
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Tyler 1 2 4 5 1 4 4
Emma 3 2 3 5 1 1
Ed 3 2 4 5 1 3 5 2 2 3*
DJ! Round:
Tyler 1 4 5† 1† 2 3 5 5
Emma 1 2 4 5 3* 4†
Ed 1 3 2 3 2 4 2 3*
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Tyler 3.13
Emma 2.83
Ed 2.78
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:
Tyler $18,400 Coryat, 18 correct, 2 incorrect, 29.82% in first on buzzer (17/57), 2/3 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Emma $10,600 Coryat, 13 correct, 2 incorrect, 22.81% in first on buzzer (13/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Ed $9,800 Coryat, 19 correct, 5 incorrect, 38.60% in first on buzzer (22/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $38,800
Lach Trash: $7,200 (on 8 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $8,000
Lead Changes: 11
Times Tied: 6
Player Statistics:
Tyler Vandenberg, career statistics:
99 correct, 12 incorrect
9/10 on rebound attempts (on 23 rebound opportunities)
30.88% in first on buzzer (88/285)
6/8 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $13,200)
3/5 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $15,800
Emma Saltzberg, career statistics:
114 correct, 16 incorrect
9/10 on rebound attempts (on 29 rebound opportunities)
31.09% in first on buzzer (106/341)
7/8 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $10,600)
3/6 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $14,933
Ed Coulson, career statistics:
98 correct, 15 incorrect
5/6 on rebound attempts (on 17 rebound opportunities)
33.33% in first on buzzer (95/285)
4/7 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $1,500)
3/5 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $14,560
Andy’s Thoughts:
- This was certainly the sort of game that will have the strategy wonks pulling their hair out.
- Contestants have not been kind to Garth Brooks in the fall of 2023.
- Today’s box score: December 13, 2023 Box Score.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Tyler $18,400 Emma $10,600 Ed $2,800)
Tyler: Standard cover bet over Emma is $2,801. (Actual bet: $18,400)
Emma: If there were different prizes based on second and third place, a bet of exactly $5,000 would be perfect here, as it guarantees second while also passing Tyler by $1 if you’re right and he’s wrong. (Assuming he covers.) (Actual bet: $10,600)
Ed: You can’t win unless Tyler does something incredibly foolhardy. Bet whatever you like. (Actual bet: $2,800)
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Yeah, I would not have come up with Gigi, but I thought of Oliver! right away.
Same here. I could have picked Gigi from a multiple choice as I knew it was a musical, but I never would have just remembered it on my own.
Easy one for this Broadway Musical fan. (Thanks, Mom!) Love Oliver! Play songs from the show daily on my ukulele!
In 30 seconds, only one word named musical that is a person’s name that I could come up with was Mame. Oddly, I’m not familiar with any of the music from it unlike Gigi and Oliver!
Did you think Mame had gotten a Best Picture Oscar or just hoped it had?
I just hoped it had since it was the only one I came up with in 30 seconds.
I quickly thought of Oliver! because I’d seen it when visiting relatives in Detroit, which made it even more memorable. However, I was not sure it had won a best picture Oscar — I kinda thought it really had, but it was more of a hope, too.
Got both musicals straight away. Gigi was a movie before it was a musical play. I saw it performed in Washington about nine years ago, starring Vanessa Hudgens. Although I thought it was pretty good, it didn’t make it to Broadway. The plot — a wealthy Frenchman decides to marry a girl because he loves her too much as a person to make her his mistress — is a bit politically incorrect by today’s standards.
“Gigi” played on Broadway twice, in 1973-1974 and again in 2015. I have attached the info.
https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-show/gigi-9620
Is there some kind of advantage to going all in on final jeopardy? I must assume the high score gets to choose first in the finals otherwise I can’t think of one valid reason to bet in that way
The high scorer in the semifinals would select first only in the first game of the final. (In the second game, first choice goes to the leader after game one — I don’t think Ken will make a mistake again, as he did in one of the earlier Second Chance competitions.)
Whatever advantage that conveys, and it isn’t certain for Tyler because the third semifinal hasn’t been played yet, is vastly outweighed by the downside risk of losing a game that would have otherwise been won by a more standard cover wager.
Two “out there” theories . . .
😉 that he loves musicals and as a Marine had gotten teased about it and decided to go “all in” to throw it in their faces.
😉 that he was unsure taking much time out of his job/service to be on Jeopardy! was a good idea so left it to fate to show if it was. [with his bet and its result at worst exhibiting bravado and at best not only winning, but perhaps intimidating future opponents or at least making their betting in games with him more complicated]
I got both Oliver and Gigi since one of them is a movie before becoming a Play. Still happy to see another triple solve today
Go Tyler!
As Andy suspected (predicted?), “Oliver” was the easier of the two to come up with for me. “Oliver” came to mind immediately, but “Gigi” took more than the allotted 30 seconds.
Congratulations to Tyler and thank you for your service.
This Final Jeopardy was very specific as to which musicals would be the correct responses. Unfortunately though I am vaguely familar with Gigi, and, a lot more with Oliver, not knowing that they were Oscar winners for Best Picture, wasn’t able to come up with the correct response.
Lisa;
I presume that being teased, or, not, Tyler must of have been very familar with this category as evidenced by his wager, and, how uickly he wrote his response.
What about Mame? Doesn’t that work, also?
I would invite you to find a source anywhere that claims that “Mame” won the Oscar for Best Picture.
Did you not read the existing comments first? Two earlier ones pretty much cover your question (in context if not explicitly).
‘Mame’ was not really a very good movie and got NO Oscar nominations at all, much less winning Best Picture. Maybe you were actually thinking of ‘Auntie Mame’ which got six Oscar nominations in 1959, including best picture, but even it won none.
I liked Auntie Mame, although it’s not a musical. It wasn’t going to win anything against Ben-Hur though. I immediately thought of Gigi and thought for sure I’d come up with the other, only to run out of time. I kept thinking, is anyone named “Chicago”?
I like how Tyler says “please” with every clue choice. He’s a credit to the USMC.
Yes, I was thinking of Auntie Mame. And when I looked it up, I missed the word Auntie and the word nominee. It must have been late 😞. My fault.
Dan, it sounds like you forgot that the clue said “1 of the 2”. If you were on the show, you probably would have gone ahead and written down the one you’d thought of, so you would have been OK.
Your saying “I kept thinking, is anyone named “Chicago”?” brought back some fond college memories for me. There was someone in our “group” who had been nicknamed (the year before I arrived) ‘Chicago’ because he was from there [the college was in TN] and reportedly had mentioned where he was from so routinely as a freshman that people started calling him that. I was told his name, but only ever thought of him as ‘Chicago’ as that’s all I ever heard him called and he seemed to like the moniker despite its teasing origin. (This was shortly before the Broadway musical and long before the Oscar-winning movie. When the movie came out I wondered if everyone who knew him at our college would think of him.)
Got Oliver! right away. Had no idea that Gigi was a movie based on a musical based on a novel, though. I know it as a Best Picture winner and that’s it. Sporcle quizzes were hugely helpful.
No idea what Tyler was thinking with that reckless Cliff Clavin kind of bet, though. If he got it wrong, he goes viral, and he never hears the end of it from his buddies at the base.