Today’s Final Jeopardy – Tuesday, August 20, 2024


Note: This page contains spoilers for the August 20, 2024, game of Jeopardy! — please do not scroll down if you wish to avoid being spoiled. Please also note that today’s game is an encore presentation of the game that originally aired on March 21, 2024.

Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category 20th Century Novels) for Tuesday, August 20, 2024 (Season 40, Game 139):

Virginia Woolf disliked this book that was “cutting out the explanations and putting in the thoughts between dashes”

(correct response beneath the contestants)

Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:

Larissa Kelly, an editor from Richmond, California
Larissa Kelly on Jeopardy!
Jason Zuffranieri, a n upper school mathematics faculty member from Carrollton, Texas
Jason Zuffranieri on Jeopardy!
Leonard Cooper, a doctoral student from Little Rock, Arkansas
Leonard Cooper on Jeopardy!

Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:

Today’s encore presentation features Leonard Cooper, Jason Zuffranieri, and Larissa Kelly. Coming into this game the first time, I thought this was an intriguing matchup between generally underrated players. 

On a more personal note, I should also mention that Hurricane Ernesto passed southeast of the Avalon Peninsula overnight; a large amount of rain fell upon St. John’s, Newfoundland overnight, but I have made it onto the other side of this storm without any issues. 


(Content continues below)


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Correct response: What is Ulysses?


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.)

Virginia Woolf, along with her husband Leonard, had been operating Hogarth Press for about a year or so when they were given a copy of four chapters of James Joyce’s Ulysses. Virginia Woolf’s response to the novel was lukewarm, with Hogarth rejecting the novel for a number of reasons. In one letter, she said, “We’ve been asked to print Mr Joyce’s new novel, every printer in London and most in the provinces have refused”, and “I don’t believe that his method, which is highly developed, means much more than cutting out the explanations and putting in the thoughts between dashes. So I don’t think we shall do it.” She was more diplomatic in her official rejection letter, saying, “…the length is an insuperable difficulty to us at present. We can get no one to help us, and at our rate of progress a book of 300 pages would take at least two years to produce—which is, of course, out of the question for you or Mr Joyce.” Interestingly, while Woolf was cool on Joyce’s methods, Hogarth likely would have published the book anyway—the issue lay in the fact that every other printer in England believed that Ulysses was obscene enough such that publishing it would have risked prosecution; thus, nobody was willing to provide the help that Hogarth needed at that point. It took four years and a French publisher, Sylvia Beach’s Shakespeare and Company, for Ulysses to receive full publication.



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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:

Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Tuesday, August 20, 2024 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:

Jeopardy! Round:

(Categories: Historic Firsts; Characters In Book Series; Transportation; There Will Be A Test On This; The Cinema In 2023; 4-Letter Homophones)

It took all of 10 clues for Larissa’s score to pass the $10,000 mark in the opening to this one. While Leonard and Jason got in a few times before the interviews, this one was shaping up to be all Larissa.

Statistics at the first break (15 clues):

Larissa 9 correct 0 incorrect
Jason 2 correct 0 incorrect
Leonard 3 correct 1 incorrect

Today’s interviews:

Larissa enjoys being able to compete in something at such a high level.
Jason has a wife who won a LearnedLeague One-Day Special about parenting.
Leonard is in a Sci.D. program in Milwaukee.

While Jason had the best time after the interviews, he was only able to make small inroads into Larissa’s lead, as they were mostly low-valued clues he was getting in on.

Statistics after the Jeopardy round:

Larissa 12 correct 0 incorrect
Jason 9 correct 1 incorrect
Leonard 6 correct 2 incorrect

Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:

Larissa $12,000
Jason $4,200
Leonard $1,200

Double Jeopardy! Round:

(Categories: The Locals; In Your Element; Notable Names; On The Nose; Classic TV; Idioms & Expressions)

As has often happened recently when someone gets off to a big lead, the Daily Doubles give the opponents a chance to catch up—and that’s what happened here. Both Leonard and Jason converted True Daily Doubles, as Larissa needed some clutch gets down the stretch in order to lead going into Final!

Statistics after Double Jeopardy:

Larissa 25 correct 1 incorrect
Jason 16 correct 1 incorrect
Leonard 13 correct 2 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 0 (0 today).

Scores going into Final:

Larissa $25,200
Jason $19,600
Leonard $9,600

Both Leonard and Larissa got Final Jeopardy correct, as Ken did a great job of drawing out the suspense! That means Larissa has advanced to the semifinals.

Tonight’s results:

Leonard $9,600 + $4,700 = $14,300 (What is To the Li Ulysses)
Jason $19,600 – $6,000 = $13,600 (What is The Sound & the Fury)
Larissa $25,200 + $15,000 = $40,200 (What is Ulysses?) (Semi-Finalist)


Larissa Kelly, today's Jeopardy! winner (for the August 20, 2024 game.)


Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:

Daily Double locations:

1) THERE WILL BE A TEST ON THIS $800 (clue #8)
Larissa 4600 +4600 (Leonard -200 Jason 0)
2) IN YOUR ELEMENT $1600 (clue #3)
Leonard 2400 +2400 (Jason 5000 Larissa 12000)
3) NOTABLE NAMES $2000 (clue #11, $20400 left on board)
Jason 9400 +9400 (Leonard 6800 Larissa 15600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 300

Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:

J! Round:
Leonard 3 4
Jason
Larissa 4 5 5 3 3 4*

DJ! Round:
Leonard 2 4* 5† 4
Jason 3 4 5 2 5*
Larissa 3 2

† – selection in same category as Daily Double

Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:

Larissa 3.63
Leonard 3.67
Jason 3.80

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:

Larissa $21,400 Coryat, 25 correct, 1 incorrect, 42.11% in first on buzzer (24/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Leonard $8,800 Coryat, 13 correct, 2 incorrect, 24.56% in first on buzzer (14/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Jason $12,200 Coryat, 16 correct, 1 incorrect, 26.32% in first on buzzer (15/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $42,400
Lach Trash: $7,600 (on 6 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $4,000
Lead Changes: 4
Times Tied: 0

Player Statistics:

Leonard Cooper, career statistics:

111 correct, 21 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 11 rebound opportunities)
35.50% in first on buzzer (120/338)
3/4 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $18,900)
4/7 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $13,086

Jason Zuffranieri, career statistics:

633 correct, 51 incorrect
42/46 on rebound attempts (on 88 rebound opportunities)
45.28% in first on buzzer (571/1261)
35/44 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $105,705)
13/23 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $22,965

Larissa Kelly, career statistics:

347 correct, 26 incorrect
16/18 on rebound attempts (on 43 rebound opportunities)
40.03% in first on buzzer (319/797)
17/21 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $49,000)
13/15 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $19,640

Andy’s Thoughts:

  • I wasn’t a fan of Jason’s bet in Final Jeopardy. It’s too big to keep Leonard locked out, and too small to be useful defending against most of Larissa’s possible small-bet range. There are definitely better bets to make here.
  • Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.

Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:

(Scores: Larissa $25,200 Jason $19,600 Leonard $9,600)

Leonard: Bet at least $1,600—but you might as well go all in here. (Actual bet: $4,700)

Jason: I would probably just bet $399 or less here and keep Leonard locked out. If you really think Larissa is going to try something funny with her bet, go all in to force the cover. (Actual bet: $6,000)

Larissa: Standard cover bet over Jason is $14,001. If you want to play around with small wagering shenanigans (though I wouldn’t really recommend doing so), betting between $2,800 and $5,200 defends against anything that Jason might do on the smaller end. But you’re Larissa Kelly and you’ve generally been money in Final over the years. Bet on yourself to get this right and make the cover bet. (Actual bet: $15,000)


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2 Comments on "Today’s Final Jeopardy – Tuesday, August 20, 2024"

  1. Thanks to meme videos, I’m now able to associate run-on sentences and the like with Ulysses if a trivia situation calls for it. Don’t ask how. I don’t know, either.

    I’m glad you’re staying safe, Andy!

    Final Jeopardy Postseason Record: 16R – 1W

  2. Any idea when the encore presentations will be over?

Comments are closed.