Warning: This page contains spoilers for the September 30, 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 Biblical Places) for Monday, September 30, 2024 (Season 41, Game 16):
The name of this, actually a not very tall hill, became a symbol of Jewish national aspiration & was used in spirituals & reggae
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Ryan Manton, a systems administrator from Columbus, Ohio
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Alison Prelusky, a copywriter from Lindenhurst, New York
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Kate Roesch, a data visualization developer from Indianapolis, Indiana (1-day total: $28,200)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Kate Roesch emerged on Friday as the victor in a very well-played matchup that saw two players clear $20,000 before Final Jeopardy. Today, in this final day of September, she faces off against New York’s Alison Prelusky and Ohio’s Ryan Manton.
(Content continues below)
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Correct response: What is Mount Zion?
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.)
Mount Zion is a 2,510-foot-tall hill, located in Jerusalem, whose name has turned into a metonym for all of Israel, specifically in the context of Jewish nationalism.
I would say that the best-known popular reference in song today to Zion would be Psalm 137, later adapted into the reggae song “Rivers of Babylon”; the psalm opens “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion”.
I’m not sure I would have greenlit this clue if I were in charge at Jeopardy!; to me, it feels tone-deaf of the show to use this as the topic of Final Jeopardy in light of current world events, and seeing what I see amongst Gen Z, I worry that the show will find itself falling out of favor with Gen Z if this continues.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Monday, September 30, 2024 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Central Americana; Let’s Play Some Music; Hot Cross Bunnies; Venture Bros.; Hit The Track; Starts With Silent “K”)
Ryan got off to a hot start, but a $5,000 True Daily Double miss zeroed out his score. At the interviews, Kate had $2,800 to Alison’s $1,600 and Ryan’s $0.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Kate 5 correct 1 incorrect
Alison 2 correct 0 incorrect
Ryan 6 correct 1 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Ryan proposed to his wife the day before her Jeopardy tape date.
Alison has traveled to three eclipses, but two were cloud-covered.
Kate made Orioles-themed cupcakes to win a baking contest.
Ryan rebounded well from his Daily Double miss to retake the lead by the end of the round (proving, once again, that It really is okay to go all-in in Ryan’s position early.)
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Ryan 14 correct 1 incorrect
Alison 7 correct 0 incorrect
Kate 6 correct 2 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Ryan $3,400
Alison $3,200
Kate $2,600
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Pennsylvania Literary History; Women On TV; It Happened On September 30; Up, Up & Away; Put Some Respect On My Name; 7-Syllable Words)
Ryan was the only player to give a correct response over the first 12 clues of the round, which very much helped him both find both DDs and easily survive a miss on DD3. He cruised to a runaway victory on the strength of 29 correct, a $26,800 Coryat, and no unforced errors.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Ryan 29 correct 2 incorrect
Kate 11 correct 5 incorrect
Alison 8 correct 0 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 0 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Ryan $22,200
Kate $4,200
Alison $4,000
Kate and Alison picked up correct responses in Final Jeopardy, while Ryan went for a shoutout to his wife Lauren. Ryan is your champion, though, and he’ll return tomorrow to defend.
Tonight’s results:
Alison $4,000 + $4,000 = $8,000 (What is Zion?)
Kate $4,200 + $4,000 = $8,200 (What is Mount Zion?)
Ryan $22,200 – $22 = $22,178 (What is I Love You Lauren) (1-day total: $22,178)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) HOT CROSS BUNNIES $1000 (clue #14)
Ryan 5000 -5000 (Kate 2800 Alison 600)
2) 7-SYLLABLE WORDS $1600 (clue #4)
Ryan 7000 +7000 (Kate 600 Alison 3200)
3) PENNSYLVANIA LITERARY HISTORY $1200 (clue #13, $13200 left on board)
Ryan 22800 -5000 (Kate 600 Alison 3200)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -22
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Kate 3 5 3 3 3 4
Alison 4
Ryan 5 4 5 4 4 5 5*
DJ! Round:
Kate 4
Alison
Ryan 5 5 4* 5 4 5 4 5 5 4 4 3*
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Ryan 4.47
Kate 3.57
Alison 4.00
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:
Ryan $26,800 Coryat, 29 correct, 2 incorrect, 43.86% in first on buzzer (25/57), 3/3 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Kate $4,200 Coryat, 11 correct, 5 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 0 rebound opportunities)
Alison $4,000 Coryat, 8 correct, 0 incorrect, 14.04% in first on buzzer (8/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $35,000
Lach Trash: $12,600 (on 10 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $6,400
Lead Changes: 3
Times Tied: 2
Player Statistics:
Kate Roesch, career statistics:
32 correct, 12 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 0 rebound opportunities)
35.09% in first on buzzer (40/114)
2/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $9,200)
2/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $8,700
Alison Prelusky, career statistics:
9 correct, 0 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
14.04% in first on buzzer (8/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $4,000
Ryan Manton, career statistics:
29 correct, 3 incorrect
3/3 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
43.86% in first on buzzer (25/57)
1/3 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$3,000)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $26,800
Ryan Manton, to win:
2 games: 59.040%
3: 34.857%
4: 20.580%
5: 12.150%
6: 7.174%
Avg. streak: 2.441 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Ryan $22,200 Kate $4,200 Alison $4,000)
Kate: Standard cover bet over Alison for second is $3,801. (Actual bet: $4,000)
Alison: In the battle for second, bet no more than $3,600. (Actual bet: $4,000)
Ryan: Bet no more than $13,799 and enjoy your victory! (Actual bet: $22)
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I went with Mt Sinai. oh, well.
Same MarkO!
I went with Mount of Olives. Yum.
I know people who’ve been buried on Mount of Olives – it’s not cheap.
Trying to link spirituals and reggae with the rest of the clue, all I could come up with was Babylon, as in Bob Marley’s Babylon By Bus album.
Looking at the September 30th category, I’m guessing there will be a James Dean clue. It’s been 69 years.
unlike two of today’s players, I didn’t think of the name Zion. I should’ve. You hear the phrase Zionist often enough when talking about the area known as Palestine, and, as the “answer” said in spirituals. But until today, I didn;t know there was a specific place named Zion.
Nor that it was a hill.
“A not very tall hill” confused me. Not knowing any spirituals or reggae music, I was thinking Tel Aviv (where “Tel” is derived from the Arabic تَلّ (tall) meaning “mound” or “hillock”. Variant spellings include tall, tel, til and tal)
One of those occasions when one is hindered by knowing too much 😉. [That was not the case for me, though, I was more like Bill.] All I could come up with was Calvary because paintings of The Crucifixion make it look like it was on the top of a hill. I also remembered that Calvary was also called Golgotha, but I felt that name would be less apt to fit well in songs.
I’d like to know from Andy what he meant by, “…and no unforced errors.” How do you distinguish between “unforced errors” and any other errors in Jeopardy!? Seems to me getting two DD’s incorrect would be considered unforced errors as no one caused him to get them incorrect but I’m not sure how Andy is using the term.
Because of the term “Zionist,” I went directly to Mount Zion for today’s final.
Someone else please correct me if I am wrong, but I am pretty sure that “forced errors” ARE DDs because if one lands on them one MUST give correct responses or be incorrect even if no response is given at all, whereas unforced errors are the non-DDs which you choose to buzz in on thinking you have a correct response, but you don’t.
Lisa, you are correct. An unforced error is one where you ring in incorrectly after knowing the clue.
Thank you for the clarification, Lisa and MarkO. I’m familiar with the term in tennis but wasn’t sure how it applied in Jeopardy!
I agree with the author of the blog questioning the appropriateness of the clue, even more so, and for different reasons. (It reminds me of the broohaha a few years ago when a contestant was ruled incorrect when she placed Bethlehem (quite properly) in “Palestine”.) In this case, the clue writer was, well, clueless.
Really, the biblical “Zion” is much more an idea, a concept, than a specific geographical location. There are places where Zion clearly refers of the place of the Temple, i.e., the Temple Mount. In other places, it has been broadened out into more an idealized way of referring to Jerusalem itself. BUT… look at a modern map of Jerusalem and you’ll see that Mt. Zion/Sion is an elevation at the southwest corner of the Old City, outside the present city walls (with, frankly, little interest for Jews). The transmutation of the name Zion/Sion through history makes for an interesting study, but the point remains the same: it’s totally inappropriate as a Jeopardy clue and answer.
I went with Mount Sinai like MarkO did. I went to Israel on my 12th birthday in 1980 and should have known this perhaps. Now 3 for 16 on the Season.
With a substantial delay between taping and airing, it would make sense for the production team to think of adding an overlay text “This episode was taped before the recent events” more often. I remember it being done once, with regard to the war between Russia and Ukraine. If it has not been done Monday, that’s an oversight.
Though the current “troubles” in Israel date back to October 7, 2023 so the writers and producers had plenty of time to reconsider, even BEFORE the episode was taped.
I felt certain the clue was referring to Masada. And I was certainly wrong.