Winter 2024 Champions Wild Card, Play-In Game #3 Recap (February 2, 2024)


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This game is also available on demand at the TuneIn website.

Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:

Ilena Di Toro, a public relations specialist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Ed Petersen, a planning technician from Orlando, Florida
Eric Anderson, a director of customer success from Brooklyn, New York

Andy’s Pre-Game Thoughts:

Today’s Play-In game, hosted by Buzzy Cohen, is taking place between Eric Anderson, Ed Petersen, and Ilena Di Toro, with the winner advancing to the quarterfinal of Champions Wildcard (and will be playing on Thursday, February 8.) Of the three, I think Ilena is probably the most well-known, having gone viral because a teacher of hers was on the show in the 1990s. However, I do think the stats favor Ed here in this matchup; both Eric and Ilena had relatively low Coryat scores during their initial runs.

As with the first set of play-in games, our players did have their travel to Los Angeles and accommodations while in L.A. provided for them.

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(Content continues below)


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Final Jeopardy category: Landmarks

Final Jeopardy clue: Then 71, a reluctant Michaelangelo took on the design of this building only for the love of God and in honor of the apostle


Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:

Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Friday, February 2, 2024 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:

Jeopardy! Round:

(Categories: Ideas For Tourism Campaigns; Broadway Hit Aliases; Scientific & Medical Abbrev.; Occupations; H.P. Sauce; NATO Phonetic Alphabet Code Words)

Eric got off to the best start, but a Daily Double knocked him back to $0. This was an opening round where Ilena was struggling on the buzzer, but Eric and Ed’s incorrect responses were keeping Ilena in contention.

Statistics at the first break (15 clues):

Ilena 2 correct 0 incorrect
Eric 5 correct 3 incorrect
Ed 3 correct 2 incorrect

Today’s interviews:

Ilena got to reunite with her high school history teacher who was a J! champ.
Ed got recognized while on vacation in Alaska.
Eric had to fly directly from Brazil to compete.

Statistics after the Jeopardy round:

Ed 10 correct 3 incorrect
Eric 9 correct 3 incorrect
Ilena 4 correct 1 incorrect

Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:

Ed $2,800
Eric $2,600
Ilena $2,200

Double Jeopardy! Round:

(Categories: Literature; Pick Your Poison; Rhyming Folks; Miscellany; Will You Still Need “Me”; When I’m 64)

Very interestingly, we had a 3-way tie at $3,800 ten clues into this round, and Ed looked to break free of the pack when he got a Daily Double correct. However, Eric picking up the $1600 and $2000 clues in RHYMING FOLKS was enough to give him a good-sized lead going into Final Jeopardy!

Statistics after Double Jeopardy:

Eric 16 correct 3 incorrect
Ed 22 correct 7 incorrect
Ilena 8 correct 2 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 0 (0 today).

Scores going into Final:

Eric $11,800
Ed $7,200
Ilena $6,600

Final Jeopardy correct response: What is St. Peter’s Basilica?

Unfortunately for Eric, he was the only player not to get this Final Jeopardy clue correct, which means that Ed has advanced into the quarterfinals!

Tonight’s results:

Ilena $6,600 + $5,201 = $11,801 (What is $ St. Peter’s Basilica)
Ed $7,200 + $7,200 = $14,400 (What is St. Peter’s Basilica) (Quarter-Finalist)
Eric $11,800 – $2,601 = $9,199 (What is the Cistine Chapel?)


Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:

Daily Double locations:

1) “H.P.” SAUCE $1000 (clue #7)
Eric 1200 -1200 (Ed 0 Ilena 200)
2) LITERATURE $1600 (clue #5)
Ed 3200 -2200 (Eric 3800 Ilena 2200)
3) PICK YOUR POISON $1200 (clue #13, $21600 left on board)
Ed 4200 +2200 (Eric 3800 Ilena 3800)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -116

Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:

J! Round:
Eric 3 3 1 3 4 5*
Ed
Ilena 2

DJ! Round:
Eric 1
Ed 2 3 4* 5† 2 3 4 2 3*
Ilena 1 5 1

† – selection in same category as Daily Double

Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:

Ed 3.11
Ilena 2.25
Eric 2.86

Unplayed clues:

J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
#DIV/0!

Game Stats:

Ed $8,400 Coryat, 22 correct, 7 incorrect, 43.86% in first on buzzer (25/57), 1/2 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Ilena $6,600 Coryat, 8 correct, 2 incorrect, 17.54% in first on buzzer (10/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
Eric $13,000 Coryat, 16 correct, 3 incorrect, 26.32% in first on buzzer (15/57), 3/3 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $28,000
Lach Trash: $13,600 (on 12 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $12,400
Lead Changes: 17
Times Tied: 9

Player Statistics:

Eric Anderson, career statistics:

34 correct, 10 incorrect
3/5 on rebound attempts (on 19 rebound opportunities)
19.88% in first on buzzer (34/171)
1/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$200)
1/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $6,867

Ed Petersen, career statistics:

62 correct, 20 incorrect
1/2 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
43.79% in first on buzzer (74/169)
1/3 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$1,600)
2/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $10,933

Ilena Di Toro, career statistics:

29 correct, 11 incorrect
0/1 on rebound attempts (on 16 rebound opportunities)
20.47% in first on buzzer (35/171)
1/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $1,000)
2/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $5,133

Andy’s Thoughts:

  • Ed posted a photograph on Facebook that showed the spelling of each player’s Final Jeopardy! response.
  • As a listener, I really appreciated that Jeopardy listened to feedback from listeners of the first two games. I very much appreciated the extra score updates.
  • Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.

Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:

(Scores: Eric $11,800 Ed $7,200 Ilena $6,600)

Eric: Standard cover bet over Ed is $2,601. (Actual bet: $2,601)

Ed: Standard cover bet over Ilena is $6,001, but because that’s likely to finish third anyway if you’re incorrect, you’re probably OK going all in to force a cover bet out of Eric. (Actual bet: $7,200)

Ilena: Bet at least $2,600 (thereby passing Eric if you’re the only one correct), but no more than $5,400 (thereby taking at least second if Ed covers you and is incorrect.) (Actual bet: $5,201)


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7 Comments on "Winter 2024 Champions Wild Card, Play-In Game #3 Recap (February 2, 2024)"

  1. John Boardman II | February 2, 2024 at 5:29 pm |

    I went through & checked & the only season 39 champion that didn’t come back for play in games champions wildcard or tournament of champions was Chris Ban do you know why ?

    • It is the editorial stance of this website that if the contestant in question wishes to tell their story publicly, they are welcome to, and I will not report on that until and unless that happens. (And any speculative comments are also out of order.)

  2. Unless my local station showed wrong episode, today’s show was hosted by Ken, not Buzzy. So now I’m confused! What did I miss?

  3. Retro congrats to Ed Peterson to making it to Champions Wildcard Group 2! He’ll be squaring off against 2x winner Alex Gordon and 1x winner Suzanne Goldlust next Thursday, February 8th.

    And yes Andy, it was very nice to hear Buzzy giving the score updates much more frequently. It made the game much easier to follow.

    I will give my Quarterfinal predictions on Saturday or Sunday.

    Have a great weekend all! 🙂

  4. Mention of an apostle in the clue directed me away from the Cistine Chapel and to the correct response.

Comments are closed.