Warning: This page contains spoilers for the January 16, 2025, 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 Trees) for Thursday, January 16, 2025 (Season 41, Game 94):
Order Arecales, this tree gets its name from Roman times; a leaf from one was placed in a victor’s hands after a contest was won
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Eamonn Campbell, a lawyer originally from Manchester, Vermont
|
Mehal Shah, a software engineer from Seattle, Washington
|
Joey DeSena, a development engineer from Raleigh, North Carolina
|
Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Day 4 of Champions Wildcard features Joey DeSena, Mehal Shah, and Eamonn Campbell. Coming in to this event, the prediction model felt that Mehal may be ToC-caliber whose original run on the show was unfortunately cut short too soon; until Drew Goins won Second Chance, Mehal was looking to be a favorite to take this tournament overall. Joey and Eamonn are also good players; I am thus looking forward to a spirited matchup today.
I’m also going to go as far as to predict that this tournament will be the last time we ever see wild cards in a Jeopardy tournament; I can’t see anyone in Culver City being happy that the general takeaway from yesterday’s game was essentially “Player Plays To Lose.”
(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.
Are you looking for information on how to stream Jeopardy! in 2024? Find out information here on how to stream from most places in North America!
Do you appreciate the work I do here on The Jeopardy! Fan? Would you like to make a one-time contribution to the site? You may do so here!
You can find game-by-game stats here at The Jeopardy! Fan of all 17 players, now including Adriana Harmeyer, that have won 10 or more games on Jeopardy!
You can now listen to Alex Trebek-hosted Jeopardy! episodes from TuneIn Radio without leaving The Jeopardy! Fan — listen now!
Correct response: What is the palm tree?
More information about Final Jeopardy:
(The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2025 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)
After a statue was a palm tree at Delphi was used as part of a victory monument built to commemorate the Battle of the Eurymdeon in the mid-400s BCE, the tree became associated with victory, and winners of Greek athletic contests would be awarded palm branches (or fronds). This practice eventually migrated into Rome, where the tree became associated with any victory, military or civilian.
One more thing that I would like to say is that taxonomic classification is not often used on Jeopardy! to unequivocally pin an answer like today’s Final Jeopardy is; Harry Eisenberg’s book, published in the 1990s, said that in early seasons of the show, that tactic would be often used, but it was phased out as it made for a worse viewing experience overall.
We have many new offerings at The Jeopardy! Fan Online Store! Here are our current featured items, including our new Masters Season 3 Player List T-shirt:
Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Thursday, January 16, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Dams; 10-Letter Vocab; Where’s The Beef?; History; Look At This Photograph; Every Time I Do It Makes Me Laugh)
All three players got off to a good start with everyone separated by just $800 after 15 clues. At the interviews, the scores were Mehal $3,400 Joey $3,000 Eamonn $2,600.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Mehal 5 correct 0 incorrect
Joey 6 correct 1 incorrect
Eamonn 4 correct 0 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Eamonn had a very noisy watch party where the NYPD got called.
Mehal has added a few birds to his birding list since he was last on.
Joey missed his viewing party because of taping Champions Wildcard.
Joey and Mehal got their correct response totals into double digits as they pulled away from Eamonn during the second segment.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Mehal 12 correct 0 incorrect
Joey 11 correct 1 incorrect
Eamonn 5 correct 0 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Mehal $6,600
Joey $6,200
Eamonn $2,800
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Short Stories; Common Bands; Travel USA; The Jeté Set; Make Mine Math; “More” Or “Less”)
In a marked difference to yesterday, Mehal and Joey found the Daily Doubles—and made extremely large bets. Both were in excellent positions going into Final Jeopardy.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Joey 20 correct 2 incorrect
Mehal 21 correct 2 incorrect
Eamonn 11 correct 1 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 26 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Joey $24,000
Mehal $19,600
Eamonn $9,600
All three of our players went for laurel; Eamonn went all in, while Mehan and Joey bet $0.
Tonight’s results:
Eamonn $9,600 – $9,600 = $0 (What is Laurel?)
Mehal $19,600 – $0 = $19,600 (What is a laurel?)
Joey $24,000 – $0 = $24,000 (What is a laurel? ❤️ to Lorelai) (Semi-Finalist)
Wild Card standings:
Monday: Will Yancey, $13,800
Tuesday: Evan Dorey, $20,600
Wednesday: Drew Goins, $23,400
Thursday: Joey DeSena, $24,000
Friday:
1. Mehal Shah, $19,600, 100% to advance
2. Jay Fisher, $15,400, 100% to advance
3. Jen Feldman, $8,200, 78.097% to advance
4. Paul Clauson, $8,000, 27.081% to advance
5. Stevie Ruiz, $5,199
6. Eamonn Campbell, $0 ($9,600)
7. Davey Morrison, $0 ($8,800)
8. Aiden Orzech, -$2,400
9.
10.
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) HISTORY $600 (clue #1)
Joey 0 +1000 (Mehal 0 Eamonn 0)
2) TRAVEL USA $1600 (clue #2)
Mehal 7800 +7800 (Joey 6200 Eamonn 2800)
3) “MORE” OR “LESS” $800 (clue #22, $5200 left on board)
Joey 11800 +11000 (Mehal 18800 Eamonn 9200)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 293
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Joey 3*
Mehal
Eamonn
DJ! Round:
Joey 5† 3 3 4 5 3 4 2† 2*
Mehal 4* 4 3 3 4 2 5
Eamonn 3 5 2 4 5 2
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Joey 3.40
Mehal 3.57
Eamonn 3.50
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 26 (0.28 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Joey $13,400 Coryat, 20 correct, 2 incorrect, 35.09% in first on buzzer (20/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Mehal $13,400 Coryat, 21 correct, 2 incorrect, 38.60% in first on buzzer (22/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Eamonn $9,600 Coryat, 11 correct, 1 incorrect, 15.79% in first on buzzer (9/57), 2/3 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $36,400
Lach Trash: $11,600 (on 8 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $6,000
Lead Changes: 8
Times Tied: 3
Player Statistics:
Joey DeSena, career statistics:
73 correct, 18 incorrect
2/4 on rebound attempts (on 13 rebound opportunities)
33.77% in first on buzzer (77/228)
6/6 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $23,200)
1/4 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $11,950
Mehal Shah, career statistics:
93 correct, 15 incorrect
4/4 on rebound attempts (on 10 rebound opportunities)
41.15% in first on buzzer (93/226)
5/7 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $28,600)
0/4 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $15,850
Eamonn Campbell, career statistics:
65 correct, 12 incorrect
6/7 on rebound attempts (on 17 rebound opportunities)
28.07% in first on buzzer (64/228)
1/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$400)
2/4 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $11,900
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Your reminder that the players have been sequestered and don’t know what the wild card scores are at this point.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Become a Supporter now! Make a monthly contribution to the site on Patreon!
Contestant photo credit: jeopardy.com
When commenting, please note that all comments on The Jeopardy! Fan must be in compliance with the Site Comment Policy.
If you are going to quote any information from this page or this website, attribution is required.
Have you had a chance to listen to our podcast game show, Complete The List, yet? Check it out! It's also available on Apple Podcasts.
lucky guess on my part. thinking victor and Europe and tree leaf, I thought of palme d’or, so having no other reasonable guess, went with palm thinking maybe palm being given to victors had a long history.
Great thinking! [I know of palme d’or, but it never would have occurred to me EVEN AFTER finding out the correct FJ response!] I wonder if the Bible story behind ‘Palm Sunday’ has ANY relationship to prior meanings of presenting palm leaves. I’d always assumed it just had to do with deference by keeping down the dust, maybe an ancient version of rolling out the red carpet.
A colleague who I regularly discuss Final Jeopardy responses with noted the following, in response to this clue:
“Okay, when I was studying Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, the crowd laid down palm tree leaves (Palm Sunday). I learned that was a sign of victory. So I will guess Palm Tree”
So it does seem clear that there is likely some connection to that as well.
Another sad miss for me. A rarely heard name of a plant order (!) should have hinted at monocots, precluding responses like laurel or olive. Alas.
Not knowing any implications of the plant order, I did guess olive tree.
I can understand not liking the wildcards or thinking they make certain games less exciting. But I figured I could offer my perspective as someone glad to see the wildcards back. I think that with wildcards, the approach to Final Jeopardy wagering is different from normal play, but no less strategic. Players are not playing to lose, but rather to advance. It’s no different than when a Championship final is two games: the first game you’re not just playing to win, you’re playing to have a competitive score going into Game II.
The benefit of wildcards is it allows strong players to advance even if they had an unlucky tournament draw. Had there been wildcards, we might have seen a very strong player like Jonathan Fisher return more, but unfortunately he left the ToC early simply because he was put in a game with Andrew He. Jay played well enough to deserve a spot in the Semifinals. So I think wildcards were brought back to allow for the best players to actually get further along, which I think is an overall good choice for the show. Yesterday’s game may have been anticlimactic, but we’ve seen plenty of anticlimactic runaway games before. That’s a part of the show.
I preface my rebuttal by saying that I come from this as a person who has a literal interest in keeping wild cards around, because this very website contains what are probably the most understandable statistics when it comes to wild card cutoffs.
Fans who are used to wildcards understand them and are fine with them. But the issue is that this format is unintuitive to the more casual viewer—and it really does not mesh with any sort of 21st century marketing efforts. Seeing two players come in with scores over $19,000—and both then betting $0—is simply not marketable because there is no time to give the requisite context to make things exciting. (Other sports—especially auto racing—often have had a similar marketing issue; motorsport content creator Ash Vandelay has brought this up on numerous occasions, that you just don’t have the time to create context for what would otherwise be exciting moments.)
Not knowing what the taxomonic name refered to, I went with what seemed logical,the Laurel. Unfortunately that logic didn’t work today.
Ken’s thought of a palm leaf being like a haand, also seemed logical-in hindsight.
“Placed in a victor’s hand,” made me picture a leaf being placed in the palm of one’s hand. The palm of a hand made me think “Oh, a palm tree.” Also, had some recollection that “Arecales” includes palms and their relatives.
On a personal note, thanks to all those who sent best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Laurel seemed to obvious, I went with olive. Not!
I also said “laurel” and completely agree with Andy’s comment about pinning clues using taxonomic classifiers.
I went with fig tree! And I have palm trees outside my apartment! Doh!
I will go on record as saying I like the Wild Card aspect of the tournament. While FJ may not be as exciting as it otherwise would be, the DD wagers may be more exciting than they otherwise would be, as contestants hope to achieve a high-enough score to qualify for Wild Card, even if they aren’t going to win that day’s game.