Warning: This page contains spoilers for the March 11, 2024, 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 Word Origins) for Monday, March 11, 2024 (Season 40, Game 131):
A radical in an 1833 failed uprising in Germany, Ludwig von Rochau coined this term for acts taken for practical reasons not ethics
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Brian Henegar, a guest services agent from LaFollette, Tennessee
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Troy Meyer, a music executive from Tampa, Florida
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Luigi de Guzman, an attorney from Arlington, Virginia
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Welcome to a new week of Jeopardy! play; I am expecting an exciting Monday game for the third week in a row in this 31st Tournament of Champions. Two Mondays ago saw Cris Pannullo upset by Jared Watson, while last Monday saw Ike Barinholtz pull off a stunning upset of 13-day champion Ray Lalonde. Today, though, sees the battle for the final spot in the semifinals between Luigi de Guzman, Troy Meyer, and Brian Henegar. The prediction model is showing Troy as a slight favorite over Luigi in this one, but I am expecting this to be a close battle between those two. Brian, while also an excellent player, may require some help from either Daily Doubles or Final Jeopardy in order to pull out a victory today.
In other news: I received criticism over the weekend from some players for part of my Saturday editorial. In response, I would like to issue the following statement:
It is the current editorial policy of this website that Jeopardy! is as much a mind sport as a television game show at this point, and I plan to continue covering the games as if they were sporting events. That coverage as a sport means that the stories surrounding participants may be worthy of coverage on this website. That being said, I do understand there will be players who disagree with that policy and the fact that the show sees itself as a sport. To that end, I will not break the story of anyone who does not wish for their story to be told—but I will report on information that has otherwise been made public or if a player has explicitly given permission for me to report on them.
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(Content continues below)
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Correct response: What is Realpolitik?
More information about Final Jeopardy:
(The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2024 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)
The term Realpolitik is generally seen as a pragmatic or practical political position, as opposed to politics that follows strictly ideological lines; it’s certainly a term used more often to refer to diplomatic and foreign policy positions today. Ludwig von Rochau coined it in his Grundsätze der Realpolitik angewendet auf die staatlichen Zustände Deutschlands.
This is certainly a more difficult “Word Origins” Final Jeopardy clue; however, I will say that this is the sort of clue that the Tournament of Champions or other high-level tournaments are certainly known for. I think most viewers would have most likely recently encountered the term upon the recent passing of Henry Kissinger; he was often associated with Realpolitik and the term was mentioned in numerous obituaries of his. That being said: looking at today’s field, I believe that our players today should have the knowledge base to ensure that this clue is not a Triple Stumper.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Monday, March 11, 2024 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Renaissance Women; Down In The Valley; On Wheels; Resistance Is Futile; Dealing With TV Reality; Enigmatic Anagrams)
Luigi absolutely dominated the opening segment, picking up 10 correct and the Daily Double to jump out to a big lead.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Luigi 10 correct 0 incorrect
Troy 1 correct 0 incorrect
Brian 1 correct 1 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Brian had a day declared after him in his home county.
Troy took a babymoon in Paris with his winnings. He was sick a lot.
Luigi tried flashcarding on a treadmill.
While all three players were more even in this part of the round, Luigi extended his lead slightly after the interviews. With the way this tournament has gone, though, this one is definitely not over yet!
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Luigi 15 correct 1 incorrect
Troy 4 correct 0 incorrect
Brian 6 correct 3 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Luigi $10,600
Troy $2,400
Brian $1,000
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: The Civil War; Behind The Music; Nature; It’s Curtains; World Of Lit; “AI”)
In a Double Jeopardy round that saw all 30 clues responded to correctly, Troy gave 15 correct to pull into the lead after the round’s first Daily Double. However, he bet just clue value on the second one—which put him into a “crush” position, but not a runaway. Luigi will need to get Final Jeopardy correct, with Troy incorrect, to advance.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Troy 19 correct 0 incorrect
Luigi 22 correct 1 incorrect
Brian 14 correct 5 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 0 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Troy $28,400
Luigi $18,600
Brian $6,200
Both Luigi and Troy went for some variant of “pragmatic”—which means that Troy’s position after Double Jeopardy was enough to put him through to the final!
Tonight’s results:
Brian $6,200 – $6,195 = $5 (What is I love you Mom, Dad, Katie, Danny + Dave! GG :))
Luigi $18,600 – $18,599 = $1 (What is pragmatism?)
Troy $28,400 – $8,801 = $19,599 (What is pragmatic?) (Finalist)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) DOWN IN THE VALLEY $600 (clue #7)
Luigi 2600 +2600 (Troy 0 Brian 200)
2) THE CIVIL WAR $800 (clue #7)
Troy 6800 +6800 (Luigi 12200 Brian 2600)
3) “AI” $2000 (clue #24, $2800 left on board)
Troy 25600 +2000 (Luigi 18200 Brian 4600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 208
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Luigi 5 5 4 3*
Troy
Brian 3 4 4
DJ! Round:
Luigi 5 3 4 2 3 3
Troy 4 3 2* 4 5 3 5 4 5 2 2 5*
Brian 5 4 3 4 2 1
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Troy 3.67
Brian 3.33
Luigi 3.70
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:
Troy $22,400 Coryat, 19 correct, 0 incorrect, 24.56% in first on buzzer (14/57), 3/3 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Brian $6,200 Coryat, 14 correct, 5 incorrect, 33.33% in first on buzzer (19/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
Luigi $16,600 Coryat, 22 correct, 1 incorrect, 36.84% in first on buzzer (21/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $45,200
Lach Trash: $3,800 (on 5 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $5,000
Lead Changes: 2
Times Tied: 0
Player Statistics:
Luigi de Guzman, career statistics:
205 correct, 30 incorrect
11/14 on rebound attempts (on 34 rebound opportunities)
44.03% in first on buzzer (199/452)
12/14 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $41,600)
6/8 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $19,375
Troy Meyer, career statistics:
247 correct, 18 incorrect
17/19 on rebound attempts (on 34 rebound opportunities)
43.86% in first on buzzer (225/513)
12/12 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $53,600)
6/9 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $23,689
Brian Henegar, career statistics:
151 correct, 32 incorrect
6/8 on rebound attempts (on 22 rebound opportunities)
47.35% in first on buzzer (161/340)
5/8 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $4,000)
1/6 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $17,200
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Chances of winning in the finals: Troy 40.264%, Ben 32.275%, Yogesh 27.461%.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Troy $28,400 Luigi $18,600 Brian $6,200)
Luigi: If Troy makes the cover bet here and gets Final Jeopardy incorrect, he falls to $19,599. Because that’s above your score, you have to be correct to win. You might as well go all in to force the cover bet out of Troy here. (Actual bet: $18,599)
Troy: Cover bet over Luigi is $8,801 (Actual bet: $8,801)
Brian: Bet whatever you like—you can’t win unless Troy significantly overbets. (Actual bet: $6,195)
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Andy, why haven’t you’ve done a mailbag lately?
I have been thinking about emailing him that question 🙂
I have just assumed that he is not getting any worthwhile questions. [Maybe none, but possibly some inane ones.]
When Andy first announced the Mailbag, two or three questions immediately came to my mind, but didn’t “get right on” writing them up and sending them. In the meantime they all got answered just in information he provided in other writings (rather than anyone else having asked the same thing in Mailbag).
Also, because I am not “on” Facebook, X, other Jeopardy-related blogs, etc. I tend to think that questions I may have could have been covered already in one of these other places, so am hesitant to pose them to Andy. So maybe others are like that, too.
I guessed “What is ‘pragmatism’? I didn’t pick up on the German connection. I probably wouldn’t have gotten it anyway. I’ve heard the word, but it’s not really part of my vocabulary.
Yep, this was a tough one. German was the biggest clue here, but for some reason, I was stuck on individual acts rather than state- or nation-level acts, so I drew a blank. This should be a fun game today; can’t wait for the finals starting tomorrow!
I think “acts taken” was VERY misleading (though probably was wording used by Rochau in some portions of his work) and did NOT put me in mind of pertaining to “policy” or “political positions” either. Based on their responses, I think Luigi and Troy were in the same frame of mind as we were.
Since “pragmatic” (or even “utilitarian”) were pretty straight-forward responses for our line of thought [referring to ordinary actions], I believe Brian MAY have interpreted the clue better than Troy or Luigi did, but just did not know the correct response for that.
The dominance of Troy in the DJ round and of Yogesh in his DJ round in his quarterfinal matchup (after having been outbuzzed by Jake before that) underscore how having an especially deep knowledge base makes a difference with these harder clues.
It took about ten seconds to think though “practical reasons, not ethics” and “German” and then Willy Brandt and “Realpolitik” clicked in my mind. Even so, I wasn’t sure that it was going to be right. But I guess my AP Government course and PoliSci minor came through for me in the end. 🙂
As a Poli Sci major, I probably should have known, but I couldn’t come up with the correct answer. Congrats Katerina! 🙂
I’ve heard the term “realpolitik” ut never knew where it came from, so today’s Final Jeopardy “answer” meant nothing to me. Although I can certainly see where Troy and Lugi came up with pragmatic.
Interestingly, Rochau’s book came out in 1853 and the failed uprising they’re referring to happened in 1848. I don’t know where the 1833 reference is from, but I’m thinking it might be wrong. Any thoughts?
I know nothing about the topic. But, Google for “Rochau 1833” and you get hits about it. The Wikipedia page on Rochau says he participated in this in 1833: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurter_Wachensturm
The clue is correct. He participated in the Frankfurter Wachensturm in 1833:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurter_Wachensturm
Not only that, “He engaged in the Frankfurter Wachensturm of 1833” appears within my Google search result without even having to leave Google.
😉 Maybe because so many other people had already been Google-ing on this subject Monday 😉
Glad to see that my reality TV knowledge is (almost) on par with that of three ToC players combined, ha.
It’s going to be amazing watching these three players in the finals. I’m hoping we get to see seven games of it.
Admin note:
A pair of comments were removed. Basically, we very much appreciate the fact that the show is telling us where in the draw the players are ending up after their victories, and we do not want to give the show any reason to take that away from us. Look at it like “loose lips sink ships”.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Understood and I wondered if I should have gone there. I agree that I shouldn’t have.