Are you looking for the recap for Game 1 of Jeopardy Masters? Find that here!
Are you looking for the recap for Game 2 of Jeopardy Masters? Find that here!
Warning: This page contains spoilers for the May 15, 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 19th Century Literary Characters) for Wednesday, May 15, 2024 (Season 40, Game 178):
John Elwes, a millionaire Member of Parliament who would go to bed before dusk to save on candles, inspired this character
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Grant DeYoung, a grocery clerk from Prescott, Arizona
|
Kathy Olson, a journalism professor from Allentown, Pennsylvania
|
Will Stewart, a political organizer originally from Nashville, Tennessee (3-day total: $70,501)
|
Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Nashville’s Will Stewart is hitting his stride; in yesterday’s game, he picked up 25 correct responses and converted a $10,000 Daily Double in picking up victory #3. As you can see in our ToC Tracker, though, both Allison Gross and Weckiai Rannila couldn’t get to win #4; is a curse starting, or can Will take an important fourth win? Certainly, Grant DeYoung and Kathy Olson would rather the former. Grant has had some recent Online Quiz League experience, to boot—I anticipate that he’ll be a worthy challenger today.
Also, remember to watch Jeopardy! Masters tonight; the crucial final set of quarterfinals features an Amy Schneider–Mattea Roach matchup where only one will advance through to the semifinals. It airs at 8:00 (7:00 Central) on ABC (potentially a different station than you’d normally watch Jeopardy! on.
I have an occasional mailbag column where I answer fan & viewer questions regarding the show. If you have a question, feel free to send it to mailbag@thejeopardyfan.com!
(Content continues below)
My friends over at Geeks Who Drink have introduced a daily trivia game—Thrice! Existing to make daily clever trivia content accessible to a wide audience, it's a daily challenge that tries to get you to the answer via three separate clues. It has a shareable score functionality to challenge your friends and new questions every day will give you a new daily social ritual. You can find it at thricegame.com.
Are you going on the show and looking for information about how to bet in Final Jeopardy? Check out my Betting Strategy 101 page. If you want to learn how to bet in two-day finals, check out Betting Strategy 102. In case the show uses a tournament with wild cards in the future, there is also a strategy page for betting in tournament quarterfinals.
Are you looking for information on how to stream Jeopardy! in 2024? Find out information here on how to stream from most places in North America!
Do you appreciate the work I do here on The Jeopardy! Fan? Would you like to make a one-time contribution to the site? You may do so here!
You can find game-by-game stats here at The Jeopardy! Fan of all 17 players, now including Adriana Harmeyer, that have won 10 or more games on Jeopardy!
You can now listen to Alex Trebek-hosted Jeopardy! episodes from TuneIn Radio without leaving The Jeopardy! Fan — listen now!
Correct response: Who is Ebenezer Scrooge?
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.)
Ebenezer Scrooge was Charles Dickens’s famed miserly character from “A Christmas Carol”; for the character, Dickens took inspiration from John Elwes, a miserly millionaire who would do anything to avoid spending any of his fortune, including failing to spend any money to do routine repairs on his homes. As a Member of Parliament, despite switching political parties as per his whim, it was often joked that he could never be accused of being a turncoat since he possessed only a single suit—and he retired from politics when he realized that he might have to actually spend money on a re-election campaign.
To me, this feels like a relatively straightforward Final Jeopardy clue.
We have many new offerings at The Jeopardy! Fan Online Store! Here are our current featured items, including our new Masters Season 3 Player List T-shirt:
Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Wednesday, May 15, 2024 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Union Men; Sportswomen; TJ Max; Facts About Foursomes; Foodie Book Titles; Antonymic Perrys)
While Grant did well on the buzzer to open, he had three incorrect responses—all of which were rebounded by Will. Will also doubled up through the Daily Double. After 15, Will had $6,000, Grant $2,200, and Kathy -$200.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Will 7 correct 0 incorrect
Grant 5 correct 3 incorrect
Kathy 2 correct 2 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Grant was the victim of a hit & run in his car while getting The Call.
Kathy tried out for the show 38 years ago by seeding the mail with postcards.
Will wants to run a bespoke treasure hunt with his winnings.
Will got his correct response total up to 12 in the second half of the round, rebounding Grant’s fourth neg to boot. (I think Will is worthy of the basketball-inspired nickname “Windex” at this point.) Will led after 30, with Grant in second and Kathy third.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Will 12 correct 0 incorrect
Grant 10 correct 4 incorrect
Kathy 7 correct 3 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Will $7,600
Grant $3,400
Kathy $1,800
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: 2020S Politics; Trees; In The Period Film; The Runaways; Once Yugoslavia; The Next Word In The Dictionary After…)
It was Grant who got to both Daily Doubles, but he split them. That made for a very close race to the finish over the final dozen clues, and Grant pulled out a lead on the last clue before the end-of-round signal!
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Grant 22 correct 7 incorrect
Will 18 correct 1 incorrect
Kathy 13 correct 5 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 16 (1 today).
Scores going into Final:
Grant $13,200
Will $12,800
Kathy $6,600
Final Jeopardy was a triple-get; Grant is your new Jeopardy! champion!
Tonight’s results:
Kathy $6,600 + $6,599 = $13,199 (Who is Scrooge?)
Will $12,800 + $401 = $13,201 (Who is Scrooge?)
Grant $13,200 + $12,401 = $25,601 (Who is Scrooge?) (1-day total: $25,601)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) UNION MEN $800 (clue #3)
Will 1400 +1400 (Kathy 0 Grant 0)
2) THE RUNAWAYS $1600 (clue #15)
Grant 7400 +5000 (Will 10800 Kathy 3800)
3) 2020s POLITICS $1600 (clue #18, $9600 left on board)
Grant 13200 -4000 (Will 12000 Kathy 3800)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 137
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Will 3 4 4*
Kathy
Grant
DJ! Round:
Will 5 4 4 2
Kathy 2 3 4 5 3 5
Grant 4 3 5 3 3 4* 3 4*
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Grant 3.63
Will 3.71
Kathy 3.67
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: 2020s POLITICS $400
Total Left On Board: $400
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 16 (0.09 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Grant $13,800 Coryat, 22 correct, 7 incorrect, 46.43% in first on buzzer (26/56), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Will $12,200 Coryat, 18 correct, 1 incorrect, 25.00% in first on buzzer (14/56), 4/4 on rebound attempts (on 8 rebound opportunities)
Kathy $6,600 Coryat, 13 correct, 5 incorrect, 25.00% in first on buzzer (14/56), 1/4 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $32,600
Lach Trash: $6,800 (on 5 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $14,200
Lead Changes: 3
Times Tied: 3
Player Statistics:
Will Stewart, career statistics:
86 correct, 7 incorrect
14/14 on rebound attempts (on 26 rebound opportunities)
30.84% in first on buzzer (70/227)
4/5 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $15,400)
3/4 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $16,450
Kathy Olson, career statistics:
14 correct, 5 incorrect
1/4 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
25.00% in first on buzzer (14/56)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $6,600
Grant DeYoung, career statistics:
23 correct, 7 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
46.43% in first on buzzer (26/56)
1/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $1,000)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $13,800
Grant DeYoung, to win:
2 games: 41.283%
3: 17.043%
4: 7.036%
5: 2.905%
6: 1.199%
Avg. streak: 1.703 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- While many don’t avail themselves of the opportunity, every contestant is permitted to ask for a chair to sit on instead of standing.
- A reminder that all of the responses in the “Antonymic Perrys” category needed to fit the lyrics of the Katy Perry hit song “Hot N Cold”—if it doesn’t, it’s not correct.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Grant $13,200 Will $12,800 Kathy $6,600)
Will: Standard cover bet over Kathy is $401. (Actual bet: $401)
Kathy: Your best bet today is a singular one: bet exactly $5,800. This will keep you ahead of Grant on a Triple Stumper on his cover bet and pass Will on a singular get if he makes his smallest bet possible ($401). (Actual bet: $6,599)
Grant: Standard cover bet over Will is $12,401. (Actual bet: $12,401)
Become a Supporter now! Make a monthly contribution to the site on Patreon!
Contestant photo credit: jeopardy.com
When commenting, please note that all comments on The Jeopardy! Fan must be in compliance with the Site Comment Policy.
If you are going to quote any information from this page or this website, attribution is required.
Have you had a chance to listen to our podcast game show, Complete The List, yet? Check it out! It's also available on Apple Podcasts.
Too funny! The clue led me straight to the answer before I even got to the period. I love it when that happens!
Me, too. Guessing that this will be a triple get.
That is almost always the case w/ Final. Often a stand-alone puzzle.
The phrases “millionaire Member of Parliament“ and “to save on candles” made me think that the character that might have been described as miserly. My immediate thought was Scrooge McDuck, but that seemed too late. From there, I managed to arrive at the correct Scrooge. Good job, me 🙂
I like you chain of thought
Charles Dickens had so many characters which were named for their characteristics (or eventually “gave” their name to their characteristics) that I feared that it might be one less prominent than my first thought of Ebeneezer Scrooge (a character that unlike most people I have not seen over and over again because I so quickly grew tired of “A Christmas Carol” many decades ago — plus, is stingy and miserly exactly the same thing?), but who could forget ‘Scrooge McDuck’ (who I knew was named for Ebeneezer), so I quickly settled on ‘Ebeneezer Scrooge’.
Love the old school Jeopardy with real amateurs playing their best game!
“Who was Ebenezer Scrooge?” An easy get for me too (though I did have to read the clue).
Got it immediately. Seems like an easy Final.
I didn’t know any of the history and had no clue. Luckily the description brought my mind to Scrooge as a guess which turned out to be correct.
Someone once said, “Misers make lousy friends, but great ancestors!”
I think a curse has started; three games won and you’re out!!!
Again today this Final Jeopardy seemed to me to be “who (what) else could it be?”
An apparent miser, who inspired an 19th Century Literary Character? I would have been floored if the correct response had been anything but “Who was Scrooge?”
So far this week, 2 “gets,” and, an “incomplete.” Wonder how the rest of the week will go?
Finally, a Final Jeopardy question I could answer.
Interesting to me that Grant’s “Lucy… Arnaz” (accepted by Ken as Lucille Ball on clue #60) seemingly wasn’t a point of contention today. I get it, given Lucy’s ubiquitous fame, yet technically, her daughter Lucie Arnaz isn’t the same person. Might’ve made some cosmic difference,but if the judges are cool, so am I.
Part of me is thinking that it was a retroactive acceptance of Grant’s original response of “Lucy” itself, which should have been enough.
Karen, exactly my thinking. “LUCY” should’ve been enough. Never has Lucille Ball gone by Lucy Arnaz. Nicole Kidman portrayed Lucille Ball in the movie. Sheesh
I’d like to see the exact text of the answer about movie about Ricardo family.
Courtesy of j-archive:
It’s the role Nicole Kidman played in “Being the Ricardos”
(Regarding accepting “Lucy” alone… I don’t know. Seems like “Lucy” doesn’t uniquely identify Lucille Ball. Is the argument that she played Lucille Ball playing Lucy Ricardo?)
An argument has been made by some (most notably, Matt Carberry) that Lucy Ricardo is the only Lucie/Lucy in the film in the clue; and thus, Ken’s ruling of correct was made on simply “Lucy” before any further information was taken into account.
Fair enough. I was thinking that since they had to identify a real person, both names would be needed, but I can see the “first name only rule” applying in the context of a film.
I want to elaborate on this a bit, particularly to clarify an “is/ought” distinction. You do accurately represent what I’ve said in terms of how I think the judges reached their conclusion, like you state at 19:28 EDT. On that basis, I expect that if this is further explained at all, the show will stand on its ruling and Will won’t be returned. (That’s the “is” half.)
The “ought” part is that I disagree with the judges, feel Will was materially disadvantaged given the scores and Final outcome, and should be returned. The show makes clear on its website: “Contestants may change their responses as long as neither the host nor the judges have made a ruling.” At the time Grant added “Arnaz,” Ken had not ruled. Lucie Arnaz is a distinct person, not the one played by Nicole Kidman in “Being the Ricardos.” The show has also said, in an infamous circumstance: “When a contestant adds incorrect information to an otherwise correct response, they are ruled incorrect.”
I hold that Grant changed his response to an unambiguously incorrect one, and it accordingly should have been negged, giving Will the lead entering Final. All three players having responded correctly in that round, it stands to reason that, ceterus paribus, Will would have won the game.
As an aside: I dismiss as entirely speculative any objection that a separate disadvantage was introduced by the delay in ruling on DJ!29 precluding the last clue from being played.
As of a few minutes ago, the official Jeopardy site has no results from tonight’s game. Is this maybe why?
I agree that “Lucy” should have been enough. I don’t think she ever professionally went by “Lucy Ball”; she was always announced as “Miss Lucille Ball,” so insisting on a last name with that seems inappropriate, although less so than “Arnaz.” Technically, if you want to go by the film credits, “Lucille Ball” would be the best answer. This seems like something Ken and the producers should have anticipated so that Ken could have made a quick and firm ruling.
My guess is that they didn’t anticipate it because they were taking for granted that someone would get such an easy one EXACTLY correct with “Lucille Ball”.
That failure to anticipate, along with the failure of a timely, accurate ruling, is perhaps all the more reason the show should consider bringing Will back as Matt suggests.
FJ was easy. It was pretty straightforward.