Note: This page contains spoilers for the August 26, 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 27, 2024.
Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category Old Words) for Monday, August 26, 2024 (Season 40, Game 143):
First appearing in an English dictionary in 1623, mesonoxian means pertaining to this word
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Brandon Blackwell, a writer & TV personality originally from Jamaica, New York
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Jennifer Quail, a wine-tasting consultant from Dowagiac, Michigan
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Alex Jacob, an online trivia league host from Tulsa, Oklahoma
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Week 5 of six weeks of Encore Presentations begins tonight with quarterfinal #6 from the 2024 Jeopardy Invitational Tournament; today’s matchup featured Alex Jacob, Jennifer Quail, and Brandon Blackwell. Coming into this match back in March, I had taken a lot of heat within the community for my prediction model having uprated Jennifer and downrated Alex due to their respective Final Jeopardy performances. As things turned out in this one, that seemed particularly prescient!
(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.
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Correct response: What is midnight?
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.)
I wish there was more of a “cool story” that I could come up with for this Final Jeopardy clue, but this word, first seen in 1623 from lexicographer Henry Cockeram, is simply one of putting Greek and Latin roots together: the “meso” is Greek for middle, while “nox” is Latin for “night”. To be honest, I was hoping that I was going to find a more interesting story to tell than this, and I feel disappointed.
Do I think that our players will be able to come up a correct response to this in 30 seconds? I hope so!
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Monday, August 26, 2024 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Trending; Musical Instruments; Equine Words; Auto Parts 101; Cruise Lines; Ports Of Call)
It was “The Lightning Bolt” that got off to a lightning start in this one, picking up 7 correct and the Daily Double to jump out to an early lead with $5,000 to Alex’s $1,800 and Jennifer’s $1,400.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Brandon 7 correct 0 incorrect
Alex 3 correct 0 incorrect
Jennifer 2 correct 0 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Brandon was very surprised and very grateful to be invited to this event.
Jennifer got a pony with her winnings, and took her mom on a cruise.
Alex started an online trivia league about two years ago.
Alex had a good second segment, picking up 9 correct to take the lead over Brandon.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Alex 12 correct 0 incorrect
Brandon 11 correct 0 incorrect
Jennifer 3 correct 1 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Alex $6,600
Brandon $6,200
Jennifer $1,600
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: During James Buchanan’S Presidency; Architects; World Literature; Music Collabs; I’Ve Got A Bone To Pick With You; The 3 “R”S)
Jennifer used DD2 to propel herself back into contention, and then the search began for DD3. Brandon got to it, and a True Daily Double put him in the driver’s seat going into Final!
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Brandon 20 correct 1 incorrect
Alex 18 correct 1 incorrect
Jennifer 13 correct 5 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 0 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Brandon $23,600
Alex $14,200
Jennifer $11,000
Jennifer was the only player correct in Final…maybe the prediction model knows what it’s talking about? In any case, she came from behind to win this one, and is a semifinalist!
Tonight’s results:
Jennifer $11,000 + $11,000 = $22,000 (What midnight? (Hi Mom!)) (Semi-Finalist)
Alex $14,200 – $14,200 = $0 (What is I <3 U Sa)
Brandon $23,600 – $4,801 = $18,799 (What is asleep?)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS $1000 (clue #3)
Brandon 800 +1000 (Alex 800 Jennifer 0)
2) DURING JAMES BUCHANAN’S PRESIDENCY $1200 (clue #6)
Jennifer 5600 +5000 (Alex 6600 Brandon 6200)
3) WORLD LITERATURE $800 (clue #17, $12000 left on board)
Brandon 11400 +11400 (Alex 13400 Jennifer 9000)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 289
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Alex 4 4
Jennifer
Brandon 5*
DJ! Round:
Alex 4 4 5 5† 3 4
Jennifer 3 4 5 2 1 3* 3
Brandon 5 3 4† 2*
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Jennifer 3.00
Brandon 3.80
Alex 4.13
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:
Jennifer $7,200 Coryat, 13 correct, 5 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
Brandon $13,000 Coryat, 20 correct, 1 incorrect, 26.32% in first on buzzer (15/57), 3/4 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Alex $14,200 Coryat, 18 correct, 1 incorrect, 33.33% in first on buzzer (19/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $34,400
Lach Trash: $12,000 (on 9 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $7,600
Lead Changes: 6
Times Tied: 5
Player Statistics:
Alex Jacob, career statistics:
354 correct, 40 incorrect
16/18 on rebound attempts (on 56 rebound opportunities)
43.55% in first on buzzer (341/783)
17/23 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $70,500)
2/12 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $19,557
Jennifer Quail, career statistics:
354 correct, 42 incorrect
20/26 on rebound attempts (on 53 rebound opportunities)
42.53% in first on buzzer (336/790)
19/20 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $40,700)
13/14 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $18,757
Brandon Blackwell, career statistics:
52 correct, 5 incorrect
4/5 on rebound attempts (on 17 rebound opportunities)
25.73% in first on buzzer (44/171)
2/5 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $3,400)
2/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $12,533
Andy’s Thoughts:
- If you think a player failed to respond in the form of a question: you’re probably wrong. Viewers should also note a couple of things: firstly, the show has ability to isolate contestant audio, regardles of whether or not it makes it into the final edit; secondly, in the opening round, it’s a warning offense if it happens, not a penalty; thirdly, such complaints here on the site are against the Site Comment Policy.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Brandon $23,600 Alex $14,200 Jennifer $11,000)
Alex: You can only win if you’re right and Brandon isn’t. You might as well go all in. (Actual bet: $14,200)
Jennifer: You can only win if you’re right and Brandon isn’t. You might as well go all in. (Actual bet: $11,000)
Brandon: Standard cover bet over Alex is $4,801. (Actual bet: $4,801)
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The first day of my senior year of high school was today, and given how my brain is roughly equivalent in appearance to that of scrambled eggs, have some completely disorganized thoughts!
1) The reason I missed this Final Jeopardy clue when watching in the studio is because my brain connected “nox” to mean “poison” and got stuck on “pandemic”. Thankfully, I didn’t make that mistake again, bringing my Final Jeopardy gets this postseason cycle up to 20. 🙂
2) Not only was the reaction to Jennifer being rated so highly really silly (in my opinion), but I don’t know how the people who reacted how they did were surprised, at least if they were regular readers of the site. For those who weren’t around for the 2021 ToC, I’m going to copy and paste, word for word, Andy’s thoughts on the third quarterfinal.
“While Jason is slightly stronger in terms of game material in the first two rounds, Jennifer’s going 8-for-9 in Final Jeopardy! makes her the tournament favorite in the eyes of the prediction model.”
Jennifer’s odds of winning the tournament were set at 28%. (As a reference, Jason Zuffranieri and Andy Wood were given an 11% chance – the latter’s odds likely due to his then-perfect track record in Final Jeopardy – and Ryan Hemmel and MacKenzie Jones were each given 10% – again, likely due to their excellent track records in Final Jeopardy.) Final Jeopardy is likely one of the most heavily-weighted numbers in the prediction model, and the prediction model probably doesn’t know that Alex deliberately punted a fair few of the clues he faced; it can likely only look at Jennifer’s 12/13 and Alex’s 2/11 and go off of that.
3) The fact that Brandon (arguably one of the strongest quizzers in the world) has still yet to win a game of Jeopardy is kind of interesting to me.
Final Jeopardy Postseason Record: 20R – 1W
MasterDoge!
Much congrats on reaching this milestone from a recently retired educator of four decades!!!
MD, do you also do Thrice? I was a shoo-in for one 3-pointer because my son attended his high school prom “in” the answer (to the 2-point question, but I’d recognized it from the 3-point question). [Not that that was the only one that I got 3 or 2 points for, just the only one with a connection.]
Are new regular episodes of Jeopardy! supposed to start airing on 9/9? I only ask because on the website for getting audience tickets, they just listed the first dates today for 9/16. The stage/crew has been busy taping Pop Culture Jeopardy through this Wednesday.
Yes. The first five weeks of Season 41 were taped before the recent break.
After I posted this, I found information online that stated they taped the beginning of the new season back in June.
Andy, I am wondering if the reason they tape the first five weeks of a new season before the summer break is to have some “in the can” in case of an unforeseen problem or if it is so all through the summer the last champion is [probably] not who everyone thinks it is, thus people who know them (or at least would know how to contact them) won’t be bugging a person for whom that might matter because they do still have to play again. If neither of those reasons, I’d be interested in hearing what the real reason is, but “it’s complicated” would be sufficient 🙂