Warning: This page contains spoilers for the March 29, 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 9:30 AM Eastern today in some U.S. television markets—earlier than usual due to March Madness coverage on CBS this week.
Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category U.S.S.R.I.P.) for Friday, March 29, 2024 (Season 40, Game 145):
Of the 15 countries formed by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, this one is alphabetically last
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Ben Ingram, a business control specialist originally from Florence, South Carolina
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Dhruv Gaur, a grad student from Cambridge, Massachusetts
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Victoria Groce, a writer & television personality from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Happy Good Friday! As we near the end of the quarterfinal round of this Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament, our 8th of 9 games in this round features Ben Ingram, Dhruv Gaur, and Victoria Groce. Ben Ingram won the 25th Tournament of Champions back in 2014 after his skill in Final Jeopardy shone through in the final. Meanwhile, Dhruv Gaur is another college champion who advanced to the Tournament of Champions semifinals, here to show that his skills have only improved since his last appearance. Finally, our third player in this game is Victoria Groce: Victoria was a giant-killer back in 2005, ending David Madden’s win streak. Since then, her trivia game has only gotten much stronger—she is in the debate right now for “best quizzer on the planet” and starred as a Chaser on Season 3 of ABC’s The Chase.
The prediction model thinks that both Ben and Victoria are going to have an excellent battle in this quarterfinal; certainly, if Ben is within shouting distance going into Final Jeopardy, he’s in with a shot; he’s one of the best players of Clue #61 in the history of the show.
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Correct response: What is Uzbekistan?
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 list of internationally recognized post-Soviet states, which currently number 15, are, in alphabetical order: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
I think that as long as our players remember Uzbekistan, this should be a relatively straightforward clue to get a correct response to within 30 seconds.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Friday, March 29, 2024 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: The Ancients Speak; State Flags; A Standout Stand-Up; Penalties & Bonuses; Classic Ad Slogans & Jingles; 13-Letter Words)
Dhruv got off to the best start in this one, though he did leave $1,400 on the table with the first Daily Double. He had $5,400 to Victoria’s $3,400 and Ben’s -$1,600.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Dhruv 7 correct 0 incorrect
Victoria 5 correct 1 incorrect
Ben 0 correct 2 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Ben had heart surgery a few months back.
Dhruv helped organize a play-along fundraiser.
Victoria has a daughter now in college who was 7 months old during her first appearance.
Victoria had a strong performance in this part of the round, picking up 9 correct in this half of the round to take the lead.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Victoria 14 correct 1 incorrect
Dhruv 9 correct 1 incorrect
Ben 3 correct 2 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Victoria $7,600
Dhruv $5,200
Ben -$200
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: South American History; Plays & Playwrights; Biology “A”, “B”, “C”s; A Warming Trend; Mr. Or Mrs. Song; Eponyms)
In a Double Jeopardy round that saw both Daily Doubes in $800 boxes, it was Ben and Dhruv who found Daily Doubles. Dhruv did go all-in this time in order to make sure that things weren’t a runaway going into Final, but Victoria did have a crush-sized lead—without finding a Daily Double!
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Victoria 28 correct 3 incorrect
Dhruv 12 correct 1 incorrect
Ben 12 correct 4 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 0 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Victoria $22,800
Dhruv $14,400
Ben $5,800
Ben and Victoria were correct in Final; Victoria is now a semifinalist!
Tonight’s results:
Ben $5,800 + $1,854 = $7,654 (What is Uzbekistan)
Dhruv $14,400 – $8,401 = $5,999 (What is Ukraine?)
Victoria $22,800 + $6,001 = $28,801 (What is Uzbekistan? Hi, Nora! <3) (Semi-Finalist)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) THE ANCIENTS SPEAK $800 (clue #10)
Dhruv 3400 +2000 (Victoria 1800 Ben -600)
2) SOUTH AMERICAN HISTORY $800 (clue #5)
Ben 1400 -2000 (Victoria 9600 Dhruv 5200)
3) BIOLOGY “A”, “B”, “C”s $800 (clue #15, $17600 left on board)
Dhruv 6400 +6400 (Victoria 16400 Ben 200)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 59
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Victoria 4 5 3
Dhruv 2 3 4 5 1 3 4*
Ben
DJ! Round:
Victoria 4 4 4 3 5 3 5 4
Dhruv 2*
Ben 1 2* 1 2 3 3
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Victoria 4.00
Ben 2.00
Dhruv 3.00
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:
Victoria $22,800 Coryat, 28 correct, 3 incorrect, 52.63% in first on buzzer (30/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Ben $7,800 Coryat, 12 correct, 4 incorrect, 26.32% in first on buzzer (15/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Dhruv $7,600 Coryat, 12 correct, 1 incorrect, 15.79% in first on buzzer (9/57), 2/2 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $38,200
Lach Trash: $7,600 (on 7 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $8,200
Lead Changes: 2
Times Tied: 0
Player Statistics:
Victoria Groce, career statistics:
79 correct, 17 incorrect
4/5 on rebound attempts (on 10 rebound opportunities)
51.20% in first on buzzer (85/166)
2/3 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $7,100)
2/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $14,467
Dhruv Gaur, career statistics:
129 correct, 19 incorrect
9/10 on rebound attempts (on 27 rebound opportunities)
29.80% in first on buzzer (118/396)
10/13 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $23,000)
3/7 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $12,771
Ben Ingram, career statistics:
309 correct, 26 incorrect
24/24 on rebound attempts (on 65 rebound opportunities)
33.58% in first on buzzer (271/807)
18/25 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $27,300)
14/15 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $15,973
Andy’s Thoughts:
- WTSP Tampa Bay aired today’s game at 9:30 AM Eastern.
- While it did not make a difference to today’s result, the money left on the table by Dhruv on the first Daily Double was the difference between him being within 63% of Victoria’s score and him being within 75% of Victoria’s score going into Final Jeopardy. That is a big change in win chances!
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Victoria $22,800 Dhruv $14,400 Ben $5,800)
Victoria: Standard cover bet over Dhruv is $6,001. (Actual bet: $6,001)
Dhruv: You have to bet at least $2,400 to have any chance of winning. Because there’s no difference between second and third, you might as well go all in. If this was regular play, though, I’d suggest a bet between $2,400 and $2,799. (Actual bet: $8,401)
Ben: You can’t win unless Victoria overbets. Bet whatever you like. (Actual bet: $1,854)
Updated JIT odds:
Matt +450
Victoria +510
Larissa +510
Amy +730
Jennifer +760
Sam K. +830
Andrew +1100
David +1100
Colby +6500
Sam B. +7700
Lilly +12000
Finals length odds:
2 games: +180
3 games: +110
4 games: +340
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Well, I got the last four letters correct. Upset at myself I didn’t get the whole word correct.
I did get it exactly, but I could not have named too many of the others [such as knowing of Armenia, Latvia & Lithuania, but not knowing they used to be part of the USSR] and I was not 100% certain I was not forgetting about one that started with X, Y, or Z (though I was probably overconfident [even though actually correct] that there were none that started with V or W!
I recently heard Uzbekistan mentioned on a TV show, so it readily came to mind. (I thought “U.S.S.R.I.P.” was a clever category name.)
In the greenroom we were debating what the category could mean. Top choices were soviet breakup history, soviets who died, or if you parse it a little differently, United States Ships that sunk or were decommissioned.
Admin note: A comment in reply to this was removed as it implied a show procedure that was very much incorrect. It should be noted that this “green room” discussion would have taken place while watching a closed-circuit transmission of the game being recorded in real-time.
Great insight there Sam. I was debating this here at home tonight while in commercial. A very cleverly worded FJ. Retro good luck next week!
Got it after being thoroughly stumped on yesterday’s final. Thoroughly enjoying the JIT and looking forward to the last two quarterfinals! Watching Chuck Forrest play again yesterday was a real treat.
Although my mind initially went to Ukraine, I came up with Uzbekistan well within the 30 seconds.
Dominant game by Victoria!
Ditto. When Ukraine immediately came to mind, I then had to think of what could be after it alphabetically. That’s when I thought of Uzbekistan and couldn’t think of anything that could be beyond that alphabetically.
I’d like to see both Victoria and Matt make it to the finals and, then maybe, Andrew or one of Sam K. or Sam B.
Uzbekistan came to mind right away. Hooray for Victoria! She’s really good. I haven’t seen the show yet, but I’m guessing she was too busy to do any knitting. 🙂 I concur it was great to see Chuck Forrest yesterday, 40 years after his initial appearance. He was Ken Jennings before there was a Ken Jennings!
I remember watching Chuck Forrest’s original run on Jeopardy. Alex Trebek was visibly impressed by him; there had never been a player of his caliber up to that point on the show. I remember on the show after he was automatically retired as a 5-day champion, Alex extolled how great Chuck was and said something like “If we had asked him my social security number, I am sure he would have known that too!”.
…David/Victoria rematch incoming??
Well MasterDoge, the futility continues. I was 0 for March. 0 for my last 24. I could only think of Ukraine in 30 seconds. Probably could have gotten to Uzbekistan had I had a bit more than 30 seconds. This one is embarrassing, as I feel that I should have gotten it.
Retro congrats on a very nice win Victoria, in the very cool glasses.
Also, a very heartwarming story by Ben and I am glad that he’s back in full health after what he’s been though.
Looking forward to a nice 3 day weekend and seeing what Quarterfinal #9 gives us on Monday. Bring it Sam and friends!!!
Drat…
You’re gonna get at least one correct by the end of this tournament, I’m sure of it!
Fingers crossed!
After seeing Ben’s wager and final score what was Ken referring to when he said’i see you you did, even if you don’t?”
Ken was assuming that Ben was trying to get his score to a nice-looking 7654, while Ben simply bet the founding year of his alma matter (Wofford, 1854).