Warning: This page contains spoilers for the December 25, 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 1:00 PM Eastern today in some U.S. television markets.
This site also has recaps for today’s three Pop Culture Jeopardy episodes. If you’re looking for those recaps instead: Episode 10 (Pasta La Vista, Andy Dick Tracy Morgan Freeman, The Bay Hive); Episode 11 (Triple D Dragons, For Queso The Cat, The Last Resort); Episode 12 (Running Up That Chili, The Anibrainiacs, Cozy Trivia Crew).
Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category U.S. Place Names) for Wednesday, December 25, 2024 (Season 41, Game 78):
A trio including Andrew Jackson founded this city with a name that evokes a great city of the ancient world
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Amber Gamrat, a software developer from Hudson, New Hampshire
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Mathieu Farhoud-Dionne, a musician from Montreal, Quebec, Canada
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Laura Faddah, a manager from Memphis, Tennessee (4-day total: $40,400)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Merry Christmas! After an improbable victory yesterday where she was the only player to get Final Jeopardy correct, Laura Faddah attempts today to become the 282nd player since 1984 to become a 5-time Jeopardy! champion. Her challengers are New Hampshire’s Amber Gamrat and Montreal’s Mathieu Farhoud-Dionne.
Thanks to basketball on ABC all day, you’re going to be pre-empted if your local Jeopardy! affiliate is an ABC station. Matt Carberry also has a Google Sheet detailing the pre-emptions nationwide. Certainly, with the first two airings of the program being pre-empted, we won’t be seeing results today until an hour later than usual.
(Content continues below)
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Correct response: What is Memphis, Tennessee?
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.)
This is such an important reminder that it is being emphasized in boldface today: categories and game material are selected randomly and independently of contestants. Furthermore, to change material specifically because it might be an advantage to a certain contestant would also generally be seen as verboten. So, yes, that means that sometimes a clue about the founding of a contestant’s hometown will come up in Final Jeopardy; it’s the luck of the draw, and there is nothing untoward about it.
On to the subject of the clue: While the city today stands on what was Chickasaw territory, Memphis, Tennessee was founded in 1819 by John Overton, James Winchester, and future President Andrew Jackson shortly after the land was purchased from the Chickasaw Nation. It was named Memphis after the ancient Egyptian capital city on the Nile.
I think there’s a 0 percent chance of this being a Triple Stumper today, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see this go 3-for-3.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Wednesday, December 25, 2024 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Islands & Archipelagos; The Novel Chapter; Triple Jeopardy!; I’m So Indicted; 5, 5; Foot Ball)
Laura was the only player in the black after 15 clues after Mathieu gave three incorrect responses (including the Daily Double) and Amber one. At the interviews, the scores were Laura $4,200 Amber -$200 Mathieu -$2,200.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Laura 6 correct 0 incorrect
Amber 1 correct 1 incorrect
Mathieu 2 correct 3 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Amber has a grandmother who will hang up the phone when J! comes on.
Mathieu wrote a song that became the Habs’ goal song.
Laura gave her sister a wreath—but it caused glue burns when crafting it.
Laura picked up another half-dozen correct responses, including three at the $1,000 level, to extend her lead after 30 clues.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Laura 12 correct 1 incorrect
Amber 4 correct 1 incorrect
Mathieu 6 correct 4 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Laura $8,800
Amber $600
Mathieu -$1,200
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Thinking About The Ottoman Empire; All Kinds Of Music; Mollusks; Let’s Go To The Park; Happy 100th, Rod Serling; “A”cronyms & “A”bbreviations)
Mathieu got on a roll early and pulled very close after converting a True Daily Double on clue 4. From there, it was a back-and-forth battle that broke Mathieu’s way after Laura gave an incorrect response on the last clue before the time’s up signal—giving Mathieu a $200 lead going into Final Jeopardy.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Mathieu 16 correct 5 incorrect
Laura 18 correct 4 incorrect
Amber 6 correct 1 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 23 (2 today).
Scores going into Final:
Mathieu $13,400
Laura $13,200
Amber $2,200
Laura was the only player correct in Final—and that makes her a 5-time champion! She’ll go for #6 on Boxing Day.
Tonight’s results:
Amber $2,200 – $0 = $2,200 (What is Alexandria?)
Laura $13,200 + $4,800 = $18,000 (What is Memphis?) (5-day total: $58,400)
Mathieu $13,400 – $13,001 = $399 (What is Carthage? YaYa)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) THE NOVEL CHAPTER $600 (clue #8)
Mathieu -1200 -1000 (Laura 2800 Amber -400)
2) ALL KINDS OF MUSIC $1200 (clue #6)
Mathieu 4000 +4000 (Laura 8800 Amber 600)
3) LET’S GO TO THE PARK $1200 (clue #16, $15200 left on board)
Mathieu 11600 -3000 (Laura 10800 Amber 600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -26
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Laura 1 4 3 2 1 2
Mathieu 5 3*
Amber
DJ! Round:
Laura 4 1 1 2
Mathieu 3 4 5 5 4 3* 3 4 3 5 2 3*
Amber
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Laura 2.10
Amber 0.00
Mathieu 3.71
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: MOLLUSKS $400 $800
Total Left On Board: $1,200
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 23 (0.29 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Laura $13,200 Coryat, 18 correct, 4 incorrect, 32.73% in first on buzzer (18/55), 4/4 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Amber $2,200 Coryat, 6 correct, 1 incorrect, 10.91% in first on buzzer (6/55), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
Mathieu $14,600 Coryat, 16 correct, 5 incorrect, 32.73% in first on buzzer (18/55), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $30,000
Lach Trash: $15,200 (on 16 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $7,600
Lead Changes: 7
Times Tied: 2
Player Statistics:
Laura Faddah, career statistics:
84 correct, 16 incorrect
8/8 on rebound attempts (on 22 rebound opportunities)
29.75% in first on buzzer (83/279)
3/4 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $2,400)
2/5 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $11,880
Mathieu Farhoud-Dionne, career statistics:
16 correct, 6 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
32.73% in first on buzzer (18/55)
1/3 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $0)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $14,600
Amber Gamrat, career statistics:
6 correct, 2 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
10.91% in first on buzzer (6/55)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $2,200
Laura Faddah, to win:
6 games: 40.197%
7: 16.158%
8: 6.495%
9: 2.611%
10: 1.049%
Avg. streak: 5.672 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Mathieu $13,400 Laura $13,200 Amber $2,200)
Laura: Bet no more than $8,799 to keep Amber locked out. (Actual bet: $4,800)
Mathieu: Standard cover bet over Laura is $13,001. (Actual bet: $13,001)
Amber: Limit your bet to $1,799 and less and hope for a big bet from Laura and a miss/cover from Mathieu. (Actual bet: $0)
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You jinxed the challengers.
Andy, as small a chance of a triple stumper was today (with a challenger from said city), the actuary side of me is going to have to call you on saying there was a zero chance.
Congratulations with Laura being a 5-day champion on Christmas. Also this was almost a triple stumper, be if for Laura living in said city.
Being that I am in Clovis, CA, the ABC station airing Jeopardy!, will air tonight at 10 pm!!!
10 pm here in Reno, too. Thanks, NBA.
6 pm in Denver on Fox 31.
2 a.m. early in the morning on December 26, here in Rockville, MD. outside of D.C.
I guessed Athens, GA.
me, too, and not the first time I’ve guessed Athens when the answer was Memphis.
So did I. If I knew that there had been a Memphis in ancient Greece, it didn’t come forward to my memory. While it was “luck of the draw” that a Final Jeopardy concerning Laura’s hometown was selected for this game, it was also lucky for Laura that knew that story about the founding of Memphis.
The Christmas Day Jeopardy aired about 2:30 AM in Chicago
Thank goodness Laura got this one, or — the shame!
Easy one for me, but I always emphasize “for me”. We all have differing backgrounds and experiences which informs our responses.
I did not notice Laura’s hometown until after my guess, which relieves me of the fear that I was unconsciously clued.
Kind of a “gimme” for Laura “Muddah” Faddah, but that’s how things go sometimes. Memphis was my first guess, but Carthage was a reasonable guess too.
Neither Alexandria nor Carthage were bad guesses since both are small towns in Tennessee less that 50 miles from Andrew Jackson’s home! I wonder if either of them thought it could not be Memphis because of it being Laura’s hometown? I really doubt it because surely someone who makes it to being a contestant knows what Andy repeated today about clues [I knew and I’ve never been a contestant], but if so, they both must have known a lot of relevant facts to come up with those two guesses — or [probably] it was just an amazing coincidence for great ancient cities.
BTW, I have been in the homes of John Overton, James Winchester, and Andrew Jackson AND they ALL lived within 50 miles of Alexandria, TN and Carthage, TN!
Also, I am a little surprised that they did not require the correct response to say “Memphis, Tennessee” since there are about a dozen cities named Memphis in the United States and one is in Mississippi where Andrew Jackson was the great hero of ‘The Battle of New Orleans’.
Also BTW, there is an Athens in Tennessee, too, but it is over 150 miles from where those three gentlemen lived.
I like the reference to “Night of the Meek’ with Art Carney in the Rod Serling category- I watch it every Christmas Eve, or Nittel Nacht as we call it. I highly recommend if you’ve never seen it. It’s only 25 minutes long.
I took you up on your recommendation to watch “The Night of the Meek” and just finished watching it. I really enjoyed it.