Warning: This page contains spoilers for the March 12, 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 World Theater) for Tuesday, March 12, 2024 (Season 40, Game 132):
This 1867 play has a reindeer hunt & a king dwelling in snowy mountains but its title character also spends time in Morocco & Egypt
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Ben Chan, a philosophy professor from Green Bay, Wisconsin
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Troy Meyer, a music executive from Tampa, Florida
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Yogesh Raut, a social and personality psychologist from Vancouver, Washington
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
It is time. Today begins the finals of the 31st Tournament of Champions, contested between Yogesh Raut, Troy Meyer, and Ben Chan. All three players are absolutely more than capable of taking first blood in this final; I am expecting some of the best-played Jeopardy! games of all time, including very few Triple Stumpers. Remember, this is a first-to-three-wins final; I’m certainly expecting to see this final go into next week, with how evenly-matched all three of these players are.
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(Content continues below)
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Correct response: What is Peer Gynt?
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.)
Peer Gynt is Henrik Ibsen’s famous play chronicling the journey of the title character from the Norwegian mountains, to North Africa, and back. It is also well-known for its incidental music (composed by Edvard Grieg); that music includes “In The Hall of the Mountain King” and “Morning Mood”. Interestingly, this Final Jeopardy clue makes veiled reference to both of these pieces, with “king dwelling in snowy mountains” being the Mountain King, with “Morning Mood”, though usually imagined with Scandinavian imagery, usually appears in the play when Peer Gynt awakes in the desert.
I also really enjoy this clue from a Tournament of Champions perspective; this is the sort of material that goes deeper than just knowing that Ibsen wrote Peer Gynt; you actually need to be more familiar with the actual plot of the play in order to get this clue correct. And, as far as the year goes: While the play was first performed in 1876, the play was first published in 1867.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Tuesday, March 12, 2024 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: From The Newspapers; Investing & Business Terms; One-Word Beatles Song Titles; Soup’s On; Idioms & Expressions; Literary Title Adjectives)
Troy and Ben dominated the run of play early in this one, shutting out Yogesh completely on the buzzer.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Ben 7 correct 0 incorrect
Troy 6 correct 1 incorrect
Yogesh 0 correct 0 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Ben has a sister who was on “Where In The World In Carmen Sandiego?”
Troy promised to “learn all trivia” before the ToC.
Yogesh competed against Troy on a podcast. Troy won.
Yogesh found his buzzer timing in the second half of the round, picking up nine correct! Ben, however, still led after 30 clues.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Ben 10 correct 0 incorrect
Troy 8 correct 1 incorrect
Yogesh 9 correct 0 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Ben $6,000
Troy $5,800
Yogesh $3,600
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Plain Geography; Prose & Congress; Unmanned Space Exploration; The Knightly News; Who’s The Biopic Subject?; Starts With “P”)
It was Troy who found both Daily Doubles in this round; a correct response on the first one gave him a big lead, but an incorrect response on the second brought him back to Yogesh and Ben. Troy still led going into Final, but everyone was in contention!
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Troy 22 correct 2 incorrect
Yogesh 20 correct 1 incorrect
Ben 15 correct 2 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 0 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Troy $22,000
Yogesh $15,600
Ben $10,000
Ben and Yogesh got Final Jeopardy correct, but Yogesh played the betting situation incorrectly, betting $0 when he probably shouldn’t have. This means that Ben came from third place to take first blood in this final when Troy named the wrong Ibsen play!
Tonight’s results:
Ben $10,000 + $5,601 = $15,601 (What is Peer Gynt?) (1 win)
Yogesh $15,600 + $0 = $15,600 (What Peer Gynt I for one welcome our new Troy overlord)
Troy $22,000 – $9,201 = $12,799 (What is Hedda Gabler?)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) FROM THE NEWSPAPERS $1000 (clue #4)
Troy 1600 +1600 (Yogesh 0 Ben 600)
2) PROSE & CONGRESS $1600 (clue #10)
Troy 9000 +9000 (Yogesh 9600 Ben 9200)
3) STARTS WITH “P” $2000 (clue #19, $7600 left on board)
Troy 24800 -6000 (Yogesh 11600 Ben 10000)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 176
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Yogesh 3
Troy 4 5*
Ben 4
DJ! Round:
Yogesh 4 4 3 5 5 5 2 4
Troy 5 4* 2 3 4 3 5*
Ben 4 3 3 3
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Ben 3.40
Yogesh 3.89
Troy 3.89
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:
Ben $10,000 Coryat, 15 correct, 2 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Yogesh $15,600 Coryat, 20 correct, 1 incorrect, 36.84% in first on buzzer (21/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Troy $20,000 Coryat, 22 correct, 2 incorrect, 29.82% in first on buzzer (17/57), 4/4 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $45,600
Lach Trash: $2,400 (on 3 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $6,000
Lead Changes: 9
Times Tied: 3
Player Statistics:
Yogesh Raut, career statistics:
178 correct, 12 incorrect
13/14 on rebound attempts (on 29 rebound opportunities)
40.85% in first on buzzer (163/399)
6/6 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $22,000)
5/7 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $21,400
Troy Meyer, career statistics:
269 correct, 21 incorrect
21/23 on rebound attempts (on 38 rebound opportunities)
42.46% in first on buzzer (242/570)
14/15 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $58,200)
6/10 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $23,320
Ben Chan, career statistics:
353 correct, 33 incorrect
16/20 on rebound attempts (on 50 rebound opportunities)
43.98% in first on buzzer (325/739)
21/28 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $41,405)
9/13 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $21,369
Andy’s Thoughts:
- The prediction model believes that Ben has a 55.054% chance of winning the tournament, while Troy now has a 27.523% chance and Yogesh a 17.423% chance.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Troy $22,000 Yogesh $15,600 Ben $10,000)
Yogesh: You’re in Stratton’s Dilemma; you can’t both cover Ben and win a Triple Stumper. Your decision should be informed by what Ben should do. Because Ben’s in a position where it’s a good idea for him to go all in, you need to bet to cover that—so, at least $4,401, but you could defend an all-in bet here to force a cover bet out of Troy. (Actual bet: $0)
Troy: Standard cover bet over Yogesh is $9,201. (Actual bet: $9,201)
Ben: You can only win if you’re right and Troy isn’t. Bet at least $2,800—but you should go all-in here to force a cover bet from Yogesh. (Actual bet: $5,601)
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I love Grieg’s “In The Hall Of The Mountain King”, but didn’t know it was from “Peer Gynt”, by Ibsen. Not being familiar with the play at all, I had no guess.
same….great piece of music.
1867, as a clue, was an immense help to me, otherwise the allusion of “hunt” would’ve torn me between Peer Gynt and William Tell (14th Century).
I’m lucking out with these theatre clues the last few days…
Super-excited for this final, and, as a fellow professor, rooting for Ben! Though honestly, all 3 of these players are highly competent and deserving.
Hey, we have all been waiting six months for this. My pick to win this TofC is Troy Meyer in five games (first pick), Troy Meyer in six games (second pick) or Ben Chan in six games (third pick).
Yeah! Ben 10 [$10,000 Coryat]
Exciting game! I agree that Yogesh probably made a betting error.
Scenario 1: Yogesh bets $0. Assuming Troy and Ben bet optimally, Yogesh does not win unless both Troy and Ben miss FJ (a somewhat unlikely result).
Scenario 2: Yogesh goes all in. He then wins if he makes and Troy misses FJ (a somewhat more likely result than in Scenario 1).
From somewhere back in my childhood, the “Peer Gynt Suite” has always stuck in my mind. I’ve never seen the play but familiarity with the music helped.
Speaking of which, I was somewhat surprised that the music executive was the only one not to get the final correct. On the other hand, musicians and people with a music background have historically done well in tournaments. Therefore, I expect Troy to continue to do well and, perhaps, even win it all. This is some stiff competition so anything can happen but history bodes well for Troy.
p.s. I did not understand Yogesh’s final wager at all.
I didn’t realize that this TofC final wasn’t going to be the usual 2-day, total point format. Today’s game reads like it would’ve been interesting to watch. Unfortunately, even though I thought I’d set my DVR to record today’s game, I must’ve did something wrong, because Jeopardy wasn’t on my recorded programs list.
As for Final Jeopardy, I’ve heard of Peer Gynt, but never knew what it was about. So, the “answer” meant nothing to me
It would have been interesting to see how the wagering in final would have been different if it had been a two-day, total point format. Of course, we can never know that as we can’t have it both ways. Still, interesting to speculate how the wagers may have been different under the previous format.
As someone who ordinarily depends on their DVR, perhaps you have not ever checked out the list of how to next-day-stream the episodes aired by various stations. If you check that out you might get lucky for your station being available. [I seem to recall that some of them are available for a little longer than one day, too.] The best I recall this list was developed by someone other than Andy, but I believe he has a link to it somewhere on this site. [At one point within the last few months I went to the “later viewing” site for “my” station, then bookmarked it, but that bookmark no longer works. Hopefully they just changed the URL rather than eliminating the option.]
Is it going to be custom going forward through the final to list the players’ winning chances only in percentage terms (not stated as odds), and to not state at all odds on the length of the final?
I think Yogesh playing for the triple stumper was at least defensible. He had just seen Troy and Ben miss their FJs in the semis, and probably figured the clues would only get tougher. Furthermore he needed Troy to miss, and might have figured the conditional probably of a Ben miss given a Troy miss was higher than a Yogesh get given a Troy miss.
That said, he did have $2800 of wiggle room to bet and still win the TS, and there was no reason I can see not to use that.
Ugh, conditional probability
Yeah, that $2800 I noticed as well Eric.
I am now 0 for my last 11 on FJ, but that’s not a surprise, because we are in the ToC and I am nowhere near a player of that quality. I suspect I won’t be getting a FJ correct here in this final. Unless the writers give me a bone with a NASCAR category. 😉
But wow, what a great first game we were treated to. Great action all around. Only 3 Triple Stumpers. A comeback from 3rd place win. And all in Game 1 of a potential 7 games.
Retro congrats to fellow Packers fan Ben Chan! Can’t wait to see what Game 2 gives us tomorrow.
🙂
A bit of a game theory/betting strategy rumination incoming…
I think this was a great game. But beyond the high level of play, I think the final jeopardy situation/wagering is rather fascinating. I think betting strategy in Jeopardy! is so much more complicated than most of us (who are not game theorists) realize. The complex examples don’t always abound, but when they present themselves, they really offer a lot to chew on.
In last night’s game, Andy said that Yogesh made a betting mistake. Did he? I think an argument could be made that all three players made a betting mistake, and here’s why. I think Yogesh’s instincts were right. He clearly thinks that Troy is the strongest player in the group (note the shoutout), and perhaps rightfully so. I think his instincts to assume that there aren’t that many clues that he’s getting right and Troy is getting wrong might be correct. Hence, he should bet no more than 2800 if that assumption is correct. Now why he didn’t bet 2800, that might be his only mistake. As such, if Ben is trying to play optimally, he should be aware that Yogesh may cap at 2800, and he’s never winning when Troy gets it right. So Ben also in that case made a mistake. His bet should be no less than 7801. So that way, he wins when Troy gets it wrong and Ben gets it right, as long as Yogesh doesn’t go over his 2800 cap. Now the question is how did Troy make a mistake, if at all? This is probably a longer digression. But the standard cover bet by the leader strikes me as one of the most simplistic, and probably facile rules of thumb for Jeopardy! strategy. Like, if Final conversion rates were comparable to daily doubles, sure…that would make more sense. But they’re not. If Troy thinks Yogesh will cap to 2800 max (very likely), why not just bet 1999 and then you win no matter what. Triple stumper, triple get, etc. Ben is irrelevant no matter what in that case. I understand he would lose if Yogesh bets more than 2800 or even more than the Ben cover bet of 4401, but I have a hard time believing using conditional probability that 9201 actually works out better for Troy in all implied scenarios than 1999. Would love any pushback or rebuttal though.
Lastly, Andy said that in his semifinal game Ben was likely nervous when he bet 4k on the first daily double. Was he? I mean, maybe, or maybe it was just a wrong bet. I think again if there’s one thing that we’ve learned from elite players, it’s that their daily double conversion rate is extremely high. I think Ben should of course have gone all in, as they all should except with big leads late. That mistake cost him being in a crush position to Ike, who then didn’t take advantage with an errant wager in Final. The point being, the margins are very thin at this level. Any wagering mistakes are as likely if not more so to cost a player the win as what they know. And I think the intuitive assumptions about who made a betting mistake when, and why, should be challenged often as they are not always as obvious as they seem.
I think Ben’s one correct bet was to go all in. He needs to get final right to have any chance of winning barring a massive blunder by Troy, so there’s no reason not to bet it all.
As I said above, I think $2800 was Yogesh’s correct low-range bet, but a) it should have been moot and b) there are conceivable (if extremely unlikely) scenarios where betting $0 might have actually saved him.
Since (as Andy notes), going all in is a defensible bet for Yogesh, Troy’s cover bet seems justified to me. Assigning probabilities to Yogesh’s actions is basically impossible for Troy, so I can’t fault him at all for betting to put the game in his own hands.