Warning: This page contains spoilers for the December 29, 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 Famous Names) for Friday, December 29, 2023 (Season 40, Game 80):
In 2023, shortly after his death, his name was added to a Brazilian dictionary to describe one who’s superior or out of the ordinary
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Christopher Pennant, a sports journalist & announcer from Chicago, Illinois
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Xanni Brown, a post-doc researcher originally from Cincinnati, Ohio
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Greg Czaja, a cardiologist from San Diego, California
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Today and Monday will see our second finals of Winter 2024’s Second Chance; one of Greg Czaja, Xanni Brown, and Christopher Pennant will be advancing to Champions Wildcard in January. A reminder that today’s score will be added to Monday’s in order to determine the overall winner. Of the three players in this match, it was Greg who had the best overall semifinal performance, but absolutely anything can happen in this!
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(Content continues below)
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Correct response: Who is Pelé?
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.)
After the death of incomparable Brazilian soccer legend Pelé in December 2022, tributes poured from around the world. As a way of honoring the player widely considered to be the best in history, Michaelis dictionaries added the following entry into its Portuguese-language editions:
pe.lé adj. That or someone who is out of the ordinary, who or who by virtue of their quality, value or superiority cannot be equalled to anything or anyone, just like Pelé, nickname of Edson Arantes do Nascimento (1940-2022), who is considered the greatest athlete of all time; exceptional, incomparable, unique.
This should be a straightforward clue, if you remember that Pelé was Brazilian and that he died recently.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Friday, December 29, 2023 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Begins With “S”; Features Of The Planet; Girl Dinner; Finance Terms; TV Writers; Canadian Postal Abbreviations)
Xanni held the lead at the first break courtesy of seven correct responses before the opening break; I’ll overlook the fact that she prounounced Newfoundland to rhyme with Maryland instead of Disneyland. After the break, Greg doubled his score through the Daily Double and found that his score at the second commercial break was over five figures!
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Xanni 7 correct 1 incorrect
Greg 4 correct 0 incorrect
Christopher 2 correct 1 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Christopher is now retired from coaching roller derby.
Xanni has a bunch of questions for Martha Bath.
Greg wants to meet a bunch of former champions.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Greg 13 correct 1 incorrect
Xanni 8 correct 1 incorrect
Christopher 6 correct 1 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Greg $11,800
Xanni $4,800
Christopher $2,600
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Literary Towns & Cities; It Happened In December; Words On The Map; A Master-Ful Category; Movie Scores; Glad-Jectives)
Double Jeopardy saw Xanni and Christopher play the Daily Double in much different ways. Xanni brought herself into contention with a True Daily Double, while Christopher, despite being in a distant third, only bet $2,000 on his. Greg still led going into Final, but things were still very tight between him and Xanni!
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Greg 23 correct 2 incorrect
Xanni 16 correct 3 incorrect
Christopher 12 correct 2 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 0 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Greg $20,200
Xanni $17,600
Christopher $10,200
Everyone got Final Jeopardy correct as our players made increasingly larger bets. As it stands now, Greg has an “effective lead” of just $2,800 over Xanni and $9,600 over Chrstopher. Game 2 of the final is Monday!
Tonight’s results:
Christopher $10,200 + $5,800 = $16,000 (Who is Pele?)
Xanni $17,600 + $12,000 = $29,600 (Who is Pele?)
Greg $20,200 + $15,000 = $35,200 (Who is Pele?)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) FEATURES OF THE PLANET $400 (clue #21)
Greg 5200 +5200 (Xanni 4600 Christopher 2000)
2) LITERARY TOWNS & CITIES $2000 (clue #7)
Xanni 6000 +6000 (Greg 15800 Christopher 600)
3) A MASTER-FUL CATEGORY $1600 (clue #25, $2400 left on board)
Christopher 7400 +2000 (Greg 19000 Xanni 17200)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 227
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Greg 4 5 3 3 3 3 5 3 2*
Xanni 5 4 4 4 5 4 4 5
Christopher 3 5 2 1
DJ! Round:
Greg 1 4 5 4 3 4 5 3
Xanni 4 3 5* 3 5 2 3 2 4
Christopher 3 5 2 2 1† 5 2 4*
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Greg 3.53
Xanni 3.88
Christopher 2.92
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:
Greg $15,400 Coryat, 23 correct, 2 incorrect, 38.60% in first on buzzer (22/57), 1/2 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Xanni $13,600 Coryat, 16 correct, 3 incorrect, 29.82% in first on buzzer (17/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Christopher $9,800 Coryat, 12 correct, 2 incorrect, 21.05% in first on buzzer (12/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $38,800
Lach Trash: $8,400 (on 9 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $6,800
Lead Changes: 4
Times Tied: 1
Player Statistics:
Greg Czaja, career statistics:
62 correct, 7 incorrect
4/5 on rebound attempts (on 12 rebound opportunities)
32.75% in first on buzzer (56/171)
4/5 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $17,200)
3/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $14,600
Xanni Brown, career statistics:
59 correct, 9 incorrect
4/4 on rebound attempts (on 9 rebound opportunities)
33.33% in first on buzzer (57/171)
4/4 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $16,000)
2/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $15,000
Christopher Pennant, career statistics:
56 correct, 12 incorrect
2/2 on rebound attempts (on 9 rebound opportunities)
36.26% in first on buzzer (62/171)
1/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $2,000)
2/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $10,467
Andy’s Thoughts:
- I think it was a tactical error for Christopher not to go all in on the last Daily Double of this game. Considering how far Greg and Xanni are ahead, he is playing too conservatively for the situation.
- Today’s box score: December 29, 2023 Box Score.
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Who is Pelé? Yes, Brazilian, died recently, and “incomparable”.
The players will get his faster than one of his bicycle kick goals!
One of the most common trivia to learn as a kid was the complete name of Pelé.
It wasn’t until he passed that I realized I’d always been pronouncing his name incorrectly. But yeah, this seemed easy.
As a soccer fan, I’m so thrilled about today’s Final Jeopardy. I actually think most people around the world have been mispronouncing his name.
Today’s episode is being pre-empted on WIAT (CBS 42) in Birmingham, AL, for the Sun Bowl college football game.
All CBS markets from 1pm to 5 pm Central Time (including Memphis also at 3:30 and San Antonio at 4:30) will be affected by this game.
On Monday, coverage of the Rose Parade and the Citrus Bowl will affect early ABC stations, including KTRK in Houston, and possibly WLS in Chicaco if the football game goes long (as it should be expected to).
I’m going to check my TV provider’s listings, but I fully expect Jeopardy to be pre-empted by football on ABC7 CHicago (WLS-TV.)
Wow! I got a Sports-related FJ correct (even though I did not know that Pelé was Brazilian and I thought he’d died a little longer ago). [I’m not totally “out of it”, I did think he was South American, probably from Argentina or Brazil, but if someone had told me with conviction that he was from Portugal or Mexico, I would have believed them.]
I can relate to that first point… I figured out Pelé in about five seconds, but when I scrolled down to see what the right answer was, my immediate first thought was “Wait… I got a sports-related Final Jeopardy question right? What sort of parallel universe am I living in right now?”
Just goes to show how VERY FAMOUS he was! [Sorry, Pelé, is!]
I am embarrassed to say I couldn’t come up with the answer. I played soccer for 6 years as a kid and totally knew who Pele was, as he was playing in North America (New York no less) at the time. I knew he had passed away recently too. My brain just couldn’t get there. Heck, I even knew he was from Brazil. 🙁
But wow, what a game. Pretty much what I expected in regards to aggression in the DD’s for Greg and Xanni. Monday’s game to start 2024 should be great! Happy New Year everyone! 🙂
The keywords Brazillian, superior, out of the ordinary, certainly made it straight forward for the correct response on this Final Jeopardy to be “Who is Pele?” I wasn’t conciously aware that he had passed. Why hasn’t FIFA renamed the MVP trophy of the (men’s) World Cup after him.
A straight forward get for me.
I like the idea of naming the MVP Trophy after him. Perhaps that will happen when World Cup is here in North America in 2026.