Warning: This page contains spoilers for the December 16, 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 Geography) for Monday, December 16, 2024 (Season 41, Game 71):
Jebel Musa in Morocco & Mount Hacho near Ceuta are candidates for the southern half of this pair
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Matt Grossman, a law student from New York, New York
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Henry Barbaro, a college student from Evanston, Illinois
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Ashley Chan, a publicist from Lewisville, Texas (2-day total: $29,100)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Today begins Week 15 of Season 41 of Jeopardy! with Ashley Chan returning as a 2-day champion. She won on Friday after failing to make a cover bet in Final Jeopardy; back on September 23, I had harsh words for the show after it chose to mention that Jen Feldman hadn’t made a cover bet in Final the previous week. With this episode taping five weeks after my comments, I am very interested in seeing if the show chooses to make the same comments off the top of the show. I hope they don’t, as one of the significant advantages of not making a cover bet is that the surprise factor effectively resets itself at the start of each tape day. In my opinion, making such comments about a leader’s strategy is a matter of the show interfering in strategy where it probably shouldn’t.
Today’s challengers are Illinois college student Henry Barbaro and New York law student Matt Grossman.
I should also note that this is a week that contains many pre-emptions throughout the country, especially if the show airs on ABC for you at 7:30 on Monday or 8:00 or later on ABC on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. Matt Carberry has once again compiled a Google Sheet detailing how the show is affected. Check your local listings!
(Content continues below)
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Correct response: What are the Pillars of Hercules?
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 Strait of Gibraltar, which connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Mediterranean Sea and separates southern Spain (and Gibraltar) from northern Africa, has been flanked by what has been known historically as the Pillars of Hercules: the northern one is the Rock of Gibraltar; however, there is no single prominent peak in north Africa, with the two most likely candidates for the southern half of the historical duo being mentioned in today’s clue.
This is a clue where I’m not entirely sure how straightforward it is, owing to my strengths in geography. (Often, people who are strong in a subject matter don’t have a good idea of what plays more easily or is more difficult in that subject, as more things feel easy to them.)
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Monday, December 16, 2024 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: All Over The World; Man-Agrams; 3 Consecutive Vowels; Communication; State Holidays; Songwriting With Lin-Manuel Miranda)
Ashley found the Daily Double; unfortunately, an incorrect response wiped out her early correct responses. After 15 clues, Matt led with $2,000 to Ashley’s $800 and Henry’s $0.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Matt 4 correct 0 incorrect
Ashley 5 correct 1 incorrect
Henry 1 correct 1 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Matt is prone to being attacked by birds—a goose and a seagull.
Henry has a 115-pound Great Dane—that tore its ACL last summer.
Ashley volunteers for Big Brothers Big Sisters.
Ashley picked up the bottom three clues in MAN-AGRAMS to jump back into the lead after 30 clues.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Ashley 12 correct 1 incorrect
Matt 7 correct 0 incorrect
Henry 4 correct 1 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Ashley $4,600
Matt $4,000
Henry $800
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: The 100 Best Books Of The 21st Century; Outdoor Cats; Starts With “H”; World War I; TV Foursomes; Kaboom!)
Matt got to both Daily Doubles. He got the first one incorrect, but gave himself a chance with a correct True Daily Double on DD3. Ashley, however, had some very impressive correct responses on high-valued clues late in the round to cement a runaway game.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Ashley 24 correct 2 incorrect
Matt 11 correct 2 incorrect
Henry 9 correct 2 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 17 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Ashley $17,400
Matt $7,200
Henry $2,000
This Final Jeopardy was a Triple Stumper; Ashley’s now a 3-day champion on the strength of her runaway. She’ll go for win #4 tomorrow.
Tonight’s results:
Henry $2,000 – $2,000 = $0 (What is I had fun)
Matt $7,200 – $2,000 = $5,200 (What are Straits of Gibraltar)
Ashley $17,400 – $0 = $17,400 (What are Everest + K2?) (3-day total: $46,500)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) ALL OVER THE WORLD $1000 (clue #7)
Ashley 2000 -2000 (Henry 0 Matt 1200)
2) OUTDOOR CATS $1600 (clue #5)
Matt 5600 -2000 (Ashley 6600 Henry 800)
3) WORLD WAR I $1600 (clue #13, $20000 left on board)
Matt 4400 +4400 (Ashley 12200 Henry 800)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -36
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Ashley 3 2 4 5*
Henry 4
Matt 3 2
DJ! Round:
Ashley 3 4 5 2 1 1
Henry 3 2
Matt 4* 4 3 4 4*
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Ashley 3.00
Matt 3.43
Henry 3.00
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 17 (0.24 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Ashley $19,400 Coryat, 24 correct, 2 incorrect, 43.86% in first on buzzer (25/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Matt $6,400 Coryat, 11 correct, 2 incorrect, 17.54% in first on buzzer (10/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Henry $2,000 Coryat, 9 correct, 2 incorrect, 17.54% in first on buzzer (10/57), 0/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $27,800
Lach Trash: $17,600 (on 14 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $8,600
Lead Changes: 2
Times Tied: 3
Player Statistics:
Ashley Chan, career statistics:
64 correct, 8 incorrect
1/2 on rebound attempts (on 11 rebound opportunities)
36.84% in first on buzzer (63/171)
3/4 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $3,500)
0/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $16,533
Henry Barbaro, career statistics:
9 correct, 3 incorrect
0/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
17.54% in first on buzzer (10/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $2,000
Matt Grossman, career statistics:
11 correct, 3 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
17.54% in first on buzzer (10/57)
1/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $2,400)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $6,400
Ashley Chan, to win:
4 games: 50.609%
5: 25.613%
6: 12.962%
7: 6.560%
8: 3.320%
Avg. streak: 4.025 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- From a production perspective, I think it’s important for the show to use the Chyron to display the anagram and its correct response, and am disappointed that it did not happen today.
- Yes, Ken did make a reference to Ashley’s wager on Friday; I am glad that Ashley’s runaway made it a moot point—but it could still put contestants on alert the rest of the week.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
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Andy, like you I have a strength in Geography (I should, I have an MA in the subject!), and I rolled my eyes after reading the clue because it’s beyond trivial to me. But I also know that for my Dad, who studied business and doesn’t have a great deal of general knowledge outside of that field, this may end up being a difficult one. But for me, it is quite elementary, to the point that I will often think of the Strait in terms of the Pillars.
Wouldn’t have gotten this ever, Katerina. I cringe whenever I see “Geography” as a category.
To me, there wasn’t anything in today’s Final Jeopardy answer-clue to even begin to make a response. I THINK I’ve heard of the “Pillars of Hercules”. That extremely limited knowledge wouldn’t have lead me to the correct response, because I had the vague idea when the “Pillars of Herclues” was revealed as the correct response, I hada vague notion that they had something to do with Gibralter.
Like Bill here and Matt on the show, I too thought it had something to do with Gibraltar (but could not have said why I did), but like Ashley I thought the clue was looking for two things in the response [one paired with Jebel Musa and one with Mount Hacho, like maybe a couple of mountains had had a connection prior to some tectonic shift].
For those without a particular strength in geography, I’d say this is not straightforward at all. Whatever hints there are in the clue did not really help for non-geography experts. The closest I could come was something to do with Gibraltar but that did not yield a correct response. 🙁
Am I remembering wrong that as several games are taped on the same day the contestants-in-waiting get to observe the games as they occur? If so, then an announcement at the beginning of a “first game of the day” concerning the prior winner’s final wager would just put those two new contestants on the same footing as the subsequent ones will be. That seems fair to me.
However, if fresh contestants have NOT been allowed to watch prior game tapings, then I agree with Andy about the inappropriateness of Ken mentioning specifics concerning the final wager in the prior game by the current champion. If that is the case, then couldn’t the show compromise by recording Ken making this pronouncement as more of a promo without the contestants in place [not showing that they are not there] and only include it in the aired version?
I was there the day this weeks shows were filmed (I’m a contestant on Wednesday) and we do get to watch the games from the green room.
Side note: it was so cool seeing people I now know on tv! Can’t wait until Wednesday when it’s me!!
I had no clue on Final, but it sure looked like all three contestants were in “stand and stare” mode for at least the first half of the think music so I didn’t feel so bad.
I was thinking about Scylla and Charybdis first, but switched to the Pillars of Hercules (based on “South”) in time.