Warning: This page contains spoilers for the March 20, 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 Trailblazers) for Wednesday, March 20, 2024 (Season 40, Game 138):
The foremost member of the “Sochi Six”, which was similar to a previous U.S. group, he died in a plane crash in 1968
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Andrew He, a stay-at-home dad from Concord, California
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Pam Mueller, a justice researcher originally from Chicago, Illinois
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Dan Pawson, a global health consultant from Arlington, Virginia
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Before we get into regular play (and trust me, the rest of 2024 from early April onwards will be regular play), there’s one more tournament, as a number of past greats are returning to compete for a spot in Jeopardy! Masters. This event’s first quarterfinal is taking place between 2009 ToC winner Dan Pawson, 2000 College Champion Pam Mueller, and 2021 5-time champion Andrew He (relegated from Season 1 of Jeopardy! Masters.) I can’t help but think it’s ironic that an American game show has promotion and relegation before the major American soccer league does.
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(Content continues below)
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Correct response: Who is Yuri Gagarin?
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.)
Yuri Gagarin was a Soviet cosmonaut who is most famous for being the first human to journey into space, when he did so aboard Vostok 1 in April 1961. (The “Sochi Six” is the Russian equivalent of the American “Mercury Seven” astronauts).
Although the Soviet Union attempted to keep Gagarin from flying spacecraft after the fatal crash of Soyuz 1, viewing him as a national hero (and not being willing to lose their hero in a crash), Gagarin was killed in a plane crash during routine training just weeks after being permitted to fly regular aircraft again.
I’m seeing this as a generally straightforward clue today; I’d be surprised if fewer than two players got this Final Jeopardy correct.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Wednesday, March 20, 2024 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: The Historic 1990s; First Names; Mission: Plausible; Wheaties Athletes; Bestselling Books; The Vocabulary Of Ice Ice Baby)
While Dan and Andrew both got 4 correct responses, Andrew missed a Daily Double, and Pam picked up 6 correct to jump out to an early lead.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Pam 6 correct 1 incorrect
Dan 4 correct 0 incorrect
Andrew 4 correct 2 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Andrew was featured in People after his child was born.
Pam was first on in 2000 and seems to be on every five years.
Dan feels like the half-broken old Terminator.
Pam picked up another 6 correct after the break to take a good-sized lead into the second commercial break.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Pam 12 correct 1 incorrect
Dan 7 correct 1 incorrect
Andrew 7 correct 3 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Pam $6,800
Dan $3,200
Andrew $600
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: 19th Century Newspaper Publishers; The Directing Brothers; Undeniable Chemistry; It’s A Big Country; Violent Art; Overlaps)
As he so often has in the past, Andrew managed to find both Daily Doubles. Going all in on the first one and doubling up, he didn’t go all in on the second—a decision which made things incredibly interested by the end of the round as Pam battled back to get to exactly 50% of Andrew’s score going into Final Jeopardy.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Andrew 20 correct 4 incorrect
Pam 21 correct 1 incorrect
Dan 12 correct 2 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 0 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Andrew $33,600
Pam $16,800
Dan $6,400
Andrew was the only player correct in Final—which made the betting moot (even though he made the right choice by betting $1, in my opinion.)
Tonight’s results:
Dan $6,400 – $6,400 = $0 (Who is U Thant?)
Pam $16,800 – $16,800 = $0 (Who is Dag Hammarskjold?)
Andrew $33,600 + $1 = $33,601 (Who is Gagarin?) (Semi-Finalist)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) THE HISTORIC 1990s $1000 (clue #13)
Andrew 1000 -1000 (Dan 2400 Pam 3000)
2) IT’S A BIG COUNTRY $1200 (clue #11)
Andrew 8600 +8600 (Dan 5200 Pam 11600)
3) 19th CENTURY NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS $1200 (clue #12, $18000 left on board)
Andrew 17200 +10000 (Dan 5200 Pam 11600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 58
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Dan 1 2 3 2 2
Pam 4 4 5 3
Andrew 5 5 4 5*
DJ! Round:
Dan 4
Pam 5 3 4
Andrew 5 5 4 3 4 2 3* 3*
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Andrew 4.00
Pam 4.00
Dan 2.33
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:
Andrew $18,400 Coryat, 20 correct, 4 incorrect, 35.09% in first on buzzer (20/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Pam $16,800 Coryat, 21 correct, 1 incorrect, 33.33% in first on buzzer (19/57), 3/3 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Dan $6,400 Coryat, 12 correct, 2 incorrect, 21.05% in first on buzzer (12/57), 2/2 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $41,600
Lach Trash: $5,600 (on 6 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $6,800
Lead Changes: 6
Times Tied: 1
Player Statistics:
Dan Pawson, career statistics:
345 correct, 46 incorrect
15/17 on rebound attempts (on 85 rebound opportunities)
34.61% in first on buzzer (335/968)
16/22 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $52,878)
7/17 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $13,765
Pam Mueller, career statistics:
302 correct, 45 incorrect
18/25 on rebound attempts (on 76 rebound opportunities)
29.12% in first on buzzer (290/996)
10/13 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $20,000)
6/16 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $12,944
Andrew He, career statistics:
495 correct, 69 incorrect
34/40 on rebound attempts (on 92 rebound opportunities)
32.35% in first on buzzer (461/1425)
29/38 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $127,600)
12/25 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $15,632
Andy’s Thoughts:
- A lot of viewers made it clear during the Tournament Champions that they didn’t understand this: The tournament bracket does not care—a loss on a tiebreaker is identical to a loss in “regulation”. The Jeopardy! equivalent of “playing for penalties” is not going to be a winning strategy overall.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Andrew $33,600 Pam $16,800 Dan $6,400)
Dan: Bet whatever you like; you can’t advance unless Andrew overbets significantly. (Actual bet: $6,400)
Pam: Go all in; that’s your only chance of victory. (Actual bet: $16,800)
Andrew: As I say above: don’t “play for penalties”. Make the cover bet—$1. (Actual bet: $1)
Updated JIT odds:
Andrew +830
Matt +950
Larissa +1300
Sam K. +1300
Brandon +1400
Victoria +1400
Amy +1500
Ben +1600
Jennifer +1800
Jason +1800
Austin +2200
Arthur +2500
Alex +2600
David +2600
Chuck +3000
MacKenzie +3400
Leonard +3600
Alan +4100
Colby +4400
Sam B. +5300
Dhruv +6300
Celeste +7300
Lilly +8200
Monica +8500
Terry +13000
Finals length odds:
2 games: +170
3 games: +110
4 games: +350
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As Andy often says, you have to have an easy final every now and then to keep them honest. I would’ve only gotten this one wrong by throwing an extra r in Gagarin somewhere.
Same here, except it may have been an extra “a” in my case. I wonder how the judges would have scored that.
Uggg my fave Pam held her own but I’m happy to see Andrew advancing as well as he’s great with those daily doubles
As soon as “Sochi” hints to the USSR, things are straightforward. Otherwise, I can somehow understand “Dag Hammarskjold” as a guess – he did die in a plane crash, although in 1961, and he was the 2nd U.N. General Secretary.
About this Final Jeopardy, not only did I NOT know who the Sochi Six were, but until I googled it, I didn’t know that Sochi was a city in Russia.
Andy; this is getting off the topic of Jeopardy, but I’ve read that the idea of regulation (promoting a team, or, sending one to a lower level, in North American soccer, has been discussed, at least abstractly, or, at least so I’ve read. But reportably, despite the trend to use European style team names in MLS, MLS has decided that team names is as far as they want to go in copying the European leagues.
Bill:
I’m a little bit more surprised at the “didn’t know Sochi was a city in Russia” comment—after all, it was the host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
My reply to Bill, but now I will make it to you, is that I DID remember that it had been a host city to Winter Olympics before, but I had it in my mind that Sochi was in Japan, so that didn’t help 🤷.
The Japanese cities that have previously hosted the Winter Olympics are Sapporo (in 1972) and Nagano (in 1998).
True, but I can see why Lisa would get confused, considering that Sochi sounds a lot like mochi.
I am so awful at FJ lately. 17 day losing streak….how is that even possible? I knew Sochi was in Russia. I knew it hosted the Winter Olympics in 2014. And one of my favorite movies ever, The Hunt for Red October, has a speech by Captain Marko Ramius that pays tribute to Gagarin! Ugh!!! How did I ever get 2 out of 3 FJ correct when I went to see 3 show tapings on December 5th of last year? LOL On to tomorrow!
Retro congrats to the Daily Double terror known as Andrew He! On to 1 of the 3 Semifinals sir! Can’t wait to see you on April 2nd, 3rd, or 4th!
Tomorrow’s 3 players will all be new players for me to watch. Looking forward to it! Should be a fun JIT!