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Warning: This page contains spoilers for the March 26, 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 Seafaring Brits) for Wednesday, March 26, 2025 (Season 41, Game 143):
In 1804 an officer of HMS Warrior formally charged this captain with “calling me rascal, scoundrel & shaking his fist in my face”
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Melanie Hirsch, a lawyer from Silver Spring, Maryland
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John Rindone, a policy advisor from Brooklyn, New York
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Josh Weikert, a politics professor from Collegeville, Pennsylvania (3-day total: $54,001)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Josh Weikert took a big victory in last night’s game that moved him squarely onto the bubble for the 33rd Tournament of Champions; the updated-daily Tournament of Champions Tracker puts Josh’s chances of qualifying for the ToC at 49.06% right now. (This, of course, assumes a postseason of similar composition to the recently-completed 32nd Tournament of Champions.)
Today’s game features challengers John Rindone and Melanie Hirsch (no relation to Isaac); as was posted online by her earlier this week, Melanie works at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Normally, I’d be more suspicious of a big post online—for the last 20-plus years, it’s definitely been noted many times that contestants are more likely to publicize their appearance in the show’s discussion spaces if they’ve done well—but I think Melanie was also trying to tie things into her employer, currently very much in the news regarding its potential shutdown.
For those of you who watch the show on CBS at 7:00 PM Eastern or later, the third and fourth rounds of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament will cause preemptions on tomorrow and Friday. Matt Carberry has prepared his usual Google sheet of affected airtimes. Check your local listings!
(Content continues below)
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Correct response: Who is William Bligh?
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.)
Much more famous for his beleaguered captainship of the HMS Bounty, William Bligh’s later naval career saw him spend a year captaining the HMS Warrior. His difficulties continued as Bligh and second lieutenant John Frazier “took turns court-martialing one another,” where Bligh was reprimanded for his actions (Frazier was acquitted.)
I’m guessing most home viewers would be less familiar with Bligh’s later naval career, but it should be straightforward enough to “name a beleaguered British naval captain from the late 18th-early 19th century”—as long as you don’t get stuck in the Napoleonic Wars.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Wednesday, March 26, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: From Their New York Times Obituary; Kid Lit; Double Talk; Be My TV Show Guest; Hat Tricks; Can I Get An Amendment?)
Thanks to an incorrect True Daily Double from Josh, Melanie was the only player with money after 15 clues; at the break, she had $4,200, while Josh and John both had $0.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Melanie 5 correct 0 incorrect
John 2 correct 1 incorrect
Josh 3 correct 2 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Melanie took part in a musical while in law school.
John has also been affected by pancreatic cancer; members of his family have had it.
Josh is also in the U.S. Army Reserve.
Both Melanie and Josh had 7 correct responses apiece after the break to continue to lead after 30 clues.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Melanie 12 correct 0 incorrect
Josh 9 correct 2 incorrect
John 3 correct 1 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Melanie $6,800
Josh $2,400
John $200
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: “I” On The Map; Big Screen Baseball Briefly; Fossil Fueled; Lion Around; Famous Pro-Semites; Compound Words)
Losing $6,000 on the two Daily Doubles didn’t prevent Melanie from losing the lead, but it certainly made things interesting; an incorrect response on the last clue of Double Jeopardy handed Melanie a $400 lead going into Final Jeopardy.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Melanie 23 correct 3 incorrect
Josh 19 correct 3 incorrect
John 5 correct 2 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 30 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Melanie $12,000
Josh $11,600
John $2,600
Dropping to second worked out for Josh, as all three players went for Nelson, meaning that he’s now a 4-day champion after a perfect Final Jeopardy wager (and a standard cover bet from Melanie.)
Tonight’s results:
John $2,600 – $1,600 = $1,000 (Who is Nelson? (Thank you everyone!))
Josh $11,600 – $6,399 = $5,201 (Who is Nelson? Go Mighty Macs!) (4-day total: $59,202)
Melanie $12,000 – $11,201 = $799 (Who is Nelson)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) FROM THEIR NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARY $1000 (clue #13)
Josh 1800 -1800 (John -600 Melanie 4200)
2) FOSSIL FUELED $1600 (clue #9)
Melanie 11200 -3500 (Josh 5200 John 1000)
3) LION AROUND $1600 (clue #12, $19600 left on board)
Melanie 10100 -2500 (Josh 5200 John 1000)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -156
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Josh 5 4 2 5*
John 5 4
Melanie 4 3 5 4 3 5 3
DJ! Round:
Josh 5 2
John 4 1
Melanie 3 3 4 5 4* 3† 3 4*
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Josh 3.83
John 3.50
Melanie 3.73
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 30 (0.21 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Josh $13,400 Coryat, 19 correct, 3 incorrect, 36.84% in first on buzzer (21/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
John $2,600 Coryat, 5 correct, 2 incorrect, 12.28% in first on buzzer (7/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Melanie $18,000 Coryat, 23 correct, 3 incorrect, 40.35% in first on buzzer (23/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $34,000
Lach Trash: $11,400 (on 10 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $8,600
Lead Changes: 4
Times Tied: 1
Player Statistics:
Josh Weikert, career statistics:
90 correct, 12 incorrect
4/4 on rebound attempts (on 14 rebound opportunities)
39.04% in first on buzzer (89/228)
4/5 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $7,600)
2/4 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $16,900
John Rindone, career statistics:
5 correct, 3 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
12.28% in first on buzzer (7/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $2,600
Melanie Hirsch, career statistics:
23 correct, 4 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
40.35% in first on buzzer (23/57)
0/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$6,000)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $18,000
Josh Weikert, to win:
5 games: 51.877%
6: 26.912%
7: 13.961%
8: 7.243%
9: 3.757%
Avg. streak: 5.078 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Josh is now 92.35% to qualify for the Tournament of Champions.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Melanie $12,000 Josh $11,600 John $2,600)
Josh: Bet no more than $6,399 to keep John locked out. (Actual bet: $6,399)
John: Bet no more than $1,800 to stay ahead of Melanie if she bets to cover. (Actual bet: $1,600)
Melanie: Standard cover bet is $11,201. (Actual bet: $11,201)
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What a whiplash going from yesterday which was an instant get for me to today where I could not, if my life depended on it, get this one.
The only possibilities, based on the year, would be Bligh or Nelson. I went with Bligh, since Nelson would have already been an admiral by this time. Also, I vaguely remembered that Bligh returned to service following the Bounty incident.
I have been obsessed with reading about early seafaring voyages recently, and Bligh featured prominently in several.
Who else but Bligh, I thought, but scrolled down with hesitation.
Yes. Avid follower of the Bounty’s history. Guessed right away.
Thoughts on $6000 being a rational wager for 1st place? If you think Josh will wager rationally to keep 2nd a lock, that minimizes the amount you need to wager to cover. Since it ended up a triple stumper, that would have given her the win. Obviously hindsight is 20/20 here, but I’m curious what you all think
To be fair, that strategy even has a name–Shore’s Conjecture.
Of course it would have won in this case. But you need to be absolutely certain of what number Josh will do to even justify trying it, and I don’t think anyone can be that certain at this level. Maybe in a ToC/JIT final or Masters situation where the penalty for losing isn’t quite as harsh, but in a “winner goes on, loser goes home” situation, it would be quite a risk, especially as historically the strategy has lost about as much as it’s won.
If I am ever on Jeopardy, one thing that I’ve promised myself is that I’m not going to be in first place going into Final Jeopardy, get Final Jeopardy correct, and still lose the game. I think most feel the same way. I’m betting to cover every time (unless maybe the category is Greek mythology)
I agree with this for the first game. I might change for any subsequent games though. It also might depend on the category.
When this Final Jeopardy answer clue was revealed, I said “Who is the Captain of the (HMS) Bounty? I thought the name was Bligh, but doubt set in. Further doubt that describing Bligh as the (former) captain of the HMS Bounty would be enough to be considered the correct response.
Whenever I think of Captains that are being accused of something or charged with something around the time of the early 1800’s, my first and only thought is always Bligh. If it hadn’t been Bligh, I would not have had another choice. Bligh it was for me and Bligh it was for the correct response. Really thought it would be a Triple Get until I saw that Nelson (never occurred to me) could have been a reasonable guess.
Bligh was the obvious answer, to me. Nelson was a great heroic figure, unlike Bligh who seemed to be a schlemiel.
I had no idea on FJ, but I guessed Cook.
Retro congrats to Josh on win #4! We’ll see if he can lock down that TOC spot tomorrow!
Got this one mainly because when I was a kid people still used “aye, aye, Captain Bligh” as a sarcastic response to a ridiculous order, and because it seems like the writers really love to ask more obscure questions about Bligh.
Is this the first time contestants were 0 for 6 on the DDs and FJ?