Are you looking for today’s Celebrity Jeopardy! recap? Find that here!
Warning: This page contains spoilers for the March 12, 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 Authors’ Other Works) for Wednesday, March 12, 2025 (Season 41, Game 133):
In an 1833 story by her, an alchemist’s assistant drinks a potion giving eternal life but ends up seeing all he loves die
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Brian Nieves, a substitute teacher from Gambrills, Maryland
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Kristen VanBlargan, a writer from Brooklyn, New York
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James Corson, a nuclear engineer from Frederick, Maryland (1-day total: $42,000)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
The strong contestants just keep on coming on Jeopardy!; after James Corson took out Harvey Silikovitz—a player who many fans thought was primed to go on a lengthy run—in yesterday’s game, he faces off today against Kristen VanBlargan and Brian Nieves, a pair of players well-known in American quizzing circles. Both have extensive OQL experience and I am expecting to see a well-contested game today. Additionally, my former partner, when I was producing Complete the List in earnest back in 2018, thought that Brian was her favorite contestant on that show.
A more pressing issue for James, I think, is winning today’s game: unless the show chooses to expand its postseason, the mean average cutoff for Champions Wildcard right now (given 161 games of regular play, 18 regular players in the Tournament of Champions, and 13 more in Champions Wildcard) will be 2 wins and $42,563, while the mean average Tournament of Champions cutoff will be 3 wins and $50,513.
The final quarterfinal of Season 3 of Celebrity Jeopardy! airs tonight at 9:00 (8:00 Central) on ABC and CTV2. This week’s contestants are actor Omar Dorsey (The Blind Side, Django Unchained, Queen Sugar), NFL analyst Mina Kimes, and Fortune Feimster (Colette on The Mindy Project).
(Content continues below)
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Correct response: Who is Mary Shelley?
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.)
This work by Mary Shelley—much more known for Frankenstein—is a short story titled “The Mortal Immortal”, in which a man named Winzy drinks an elixir that grants him immortality, at the expense of the psychological torture of having to watch everything he loves around him die.
This is definitely a case where—especially at the regular play level—the show doesn’t actually expect viewers at home to have heard of “The Mortal Immortal”, instead expecting people to take the “who else could it be, given a year and the use of the pronoun “her” in the clue?” approach to landing on a correct response to this clue.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Wednesday, March 12, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Water Everywhere; Bestselling Fiction; Eat Like A Brit; Movie Title Roles; U.S. Festivals; It’s From The Greek For…)
Kristen got the Daily Double correct, but a pair of incorrect responses later dropped her to third. At the interviews, the scores were James $3,200 Brian $3,000 Kristen $1,000.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
James 5 correct 1 incorrect
Brian 4 correct 0 incorrect
Kristen 3 correct 2 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Brian met Phil Keoghan in Glasgow, Scotland.
Kristen saved someone when swimming at a reservoir in North Carolina.
James has Alex Trebek forever stamps ready to mail on his Christmas cards this year.
Brian picked up 6 correct to James’s 5 to take the lead through 30 clues.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Brian 10 correct 0 incorrect
James 10 correct 2 incorrect
Kristen 6 correct 3 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Brian $5,000
James $4,600
Kristen $1,200
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Revolutionaries; Historic Actors & Actresses; A Myth Buster; Tech Of The Time; As Seen On TV; Big “W”)
Brian dropped to third after losing $6,000 on DD2, while James jumped into the lead by doubling up through DD3 and led going into Final.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
James 20 correct 2 incorrect
Kristen 16 correct 3 incorrect
Brian 18 correct 3 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 30 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
James $18,800
Kristen $14,000
Brian $6,600
Everyone got this Final Jeopardy correct, and that makes James a 2-day champion; he’ll go for win #3 tomorrow!
Tonight’s results:
Brian $6,600 + $4,600 = $11,200 (Who Shelley?)
Kristen $14,000 + $4,801 = $18,801 (Who is Mary Shelley?)
James $18,800 + $10,000 = $28,800 (Who is Mary Shelley?) (2-day total: $70,800)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) BESTSELLING FICTION $800 (clue #4)
Kristen 600 +1000 (James 1000 Brian 600)
2) REVOLUTIONARIES $1200 (clue #2)
Brian 6600 -6000 (James 4600 Kristen 1200)
3) BIG “W” $1200 (clue #10, $21600 left on board)
James 5800 +5800 (Kristen 6400 Brian 1400)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 109
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
James 3 3
Kristen 4*
Brian 5
DJ! Round:
James 3*
Kristen 4 4 3 2
Brian 3* 5† 5 4 3
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
James 3.00
Kristen 3.40
Brian 4.17
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 30 (0.23 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
James $14,200 Coryat, 20 correct, 2 incorrect, 36.84% in first on buzzer (21/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Kristen $13,800 Coryat, 16 correct, 3 incorrect, 26.32% in first on buzzer (15/57), 1/3 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Brian $12,600 Coryat, 18 correct, 3 incorrect, 31.58% in first on buzzer (18/57), 2/2 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $40,600
Lach Trash: $5,400 (on 6 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $8,000
Lead Changes: 10
Times Tied: 5
Player Statistics:
James Corson, career statistics:
45 correct, 3 incorrect
2/2 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
35.96% in first on buzzer (41/114)
3/3 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $17,200)
2/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $17,200
Kristen VanBlargan, career statistics:
17 correct, 3 incorrect
1/3 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
26.32% in first on buzzer (15/57)
1/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $1,000)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $13,800
Brian Nieves, career statistics:
19 correct, 3 incorrect
2/2 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
31.58% in first on buzzer (18/57)
0/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$6,000)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $12,600
James Corson, to win:
3 games: 64.855%
4: 42.062%
5: 27.279%
6: 17.692%
7: 11.474%
Avg. streak: 3.845 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Kristen’s bet choice today showed why it’s important for someone in James’s position to do the math and bet no more than you have to in order to cement the game on a correct response in Final Jeopardy. James’s bet of $10,000, while it seemed okay on its surface, would have let Kristen get away with an overbet herself.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: James $18,800 Kristen $14,000 Brian $6,600)
James: Standard cover bet over Kristen is $9,201. If you think Kristen is going to bet small, then you could improve (or even potentially guarantee) your win chances with a bet between $2 and $398. (Actual bet: $10,000)
Kristen: Bet no more than $799 to keep Brian locked out. While I don’t advise doing this, a bet of up to $4,399 stays ahead of James’s cover range. (Actual bet: $4,801)
Brian: You have to be correct to even have a chance of passing James. Bet at least $3,000, but all in is fine here. (Actual bet: $4,600)
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It appears to me that the level of contestants after the break for tournament play, is infinitely higher than those just prior to the break. Is there a reason for this, or am I wrong in my assessment?
I guessed Mary Shelley and I am usually incorrect on FJ.
There’s always been an ebb and flow in such things; I wouldn’t put too much thought into it.
As Andy suggested, using the clues, it was fairly easy to come up with the correct answer today. Now that the tournaments are over, I hope to get more of the FJs correct. I have two this week so that bodes well.
I didn’t know the year Frankenstein was published, but using everything else in the answer clue, I almost immediately said “Who is Mary Shelley? I mean like Andy said, the use of the word her, and, the synopsis of the work, which sounded like an alternative Frankenstein to me, who else could it be? (Whhich is always a danger, in Final Jeopardy, things that seem to poiint one way, can actually point another way.)
I felt that going on plot similarities could lead to guessing the author of ‘Jekyll & Hyde’ and I had no idea of date ranges for any of the three books, but I knew that Robert Louis Stevenson wrote ‘J & H’ and I knew it wasn’t a pen name for a woman, so I went with Mary Shelley as well.
Guessed correctly given the time frame, woman author, and the ‘sci-fi’ aspect of the story.
Agree with Andy’s analysis of today’s clue. I had no clue what the story was, but I’m curating a curriculum for a highschool Sci-Fi class and was able to piece the time period with Mary Shelly paving the way for the genre.
Two players from Maryland today.
Yay.
I also lived in Maryland for seven years and D.C. for four. I’m on the way to Columbia to watch tonight’s episode with my old pub trivia team!
Delved into Mary Shelley’s works years ago after reading “Frankenstein” and happened to read “The Mortal Immortal.” That made today’s final a no-brainer for me. Always thought this could easily have been an episode of the “Twilight Zone,” or, maybe, it was. Sure seems like it could have been.
Outliving loves and families is a running theme in Vampire stories.
FJ and I didn’t get along today. I’m not terribly good at authors and especially those from 1833.
Very competitive game today. I remember seeing Brian when I was at my tapings, but I missed seeing him play by 1 game. I don’t remember seeing Kristen.
Retro congrats to James on win #2 and will we see win #3 tomorrow? Can’t wait to see!
I think Kristen is guaranteed a slot in the Second Chance Tournament as a result of her playing caliber and interview story.
Her playing caliber was really good and her interview story was great in that they saved someone….just not a standard way to do so.