Warning: This page contains spoilers for the May 19, 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 Drama) for Monday, May 19, 2025 (Season 41, Game 181):
The first time a woman played a role on the professional stage in England, it was as this wife of a soldier in a play 50-some years old
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Catherine Carnovale, a professor & creative producer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Micah Green, a chemical engineer from College Station, Texas
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Mitch Loflin, a set decoration coordinator from Long Beach, California (1-day total: $8,400)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Mitch Loflin is your new Jeopardy! champion after picking up $8,400 on Friday, following a Triple Stumper in Final Jeopardy. Today, he defends for the first time against Texan Micah Green and Canadian Catherine Carnovale.
This week also sees Jeopardy! Masters move to twice a week with the beginning of the quarterfinals; the first two quarterfinal round episodes are airing on Tuesday and Wednesday this week on ABC at 9:00 PM Eastern (8:00 Central).
Now, I want to touch on something that Erin Hoard has been cited in the tabloids for saying about her game on Friday against Mitch: she’d mentioned, presumably in response to her being from Vegas, that Mitch said he wasn’t into gambling, and that she should have used that as a read into Mitch’s potential Final Jeopardy strategy. I would disagree that someone’s propensity to gamble provides as much insight as Erin thinks, and that Erin is trying to find some sort of explanation in hindsight for why she did not win on Friday. (Which is absolutely a valid reaction—contestants for years have been looking for these explanations in hindsight to explain their defeat on the show.) That being said: I would say that if Mitch had said the opposite to what he said to Erin, that it would be a sign that Mitch is more likely to play “game theory optimal”, and that not having a propensity to gamble is more of a sign that Mitch will simply bet a random number in Final Jeopardy—in which case, the best defense is a cover bet, the exact bet that Erin made on Friday. In other words, Erin played the correct way on Friday, in my opinion, for the knowledge that she had—even the knowledge that Mitch didn’t like to gamble.
(Content continues below)
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Correct response: Who is Desdemona?
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.)
In Elizabethan and Jacobean England, the English stage generally would have men playing male roles and boys playing female roles. However, Restoration-era English theatre saw a marked change from past norms, most prominently that women actors were introduced onto the stage, with the first role being Desdemona from Shakespeare’s Othello. That being said, historians have not definitively been able to determine who played Desdemona in that first performance on December 8, 1660; the most likely candidates are Margaret Hughes or Anne Marshall.
Another interesting point here is that this is the first time where Jeopardy! has described the title Moor as “a soldier” and, likewise, the first time Desdemona has been described as “the wife of a soldier”.
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 Monday, May 19, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: This Generation Is So Booked; Common Bonds; Canadian History; The Hollywood Scene; “S” To “P”; Americana)
Catherine’s clue selection early on very likely cost her the chance at a Daily Double in what would have been an incredibly favorable (or favourable?) category for her; she picked a pair of $200 clues, while Micah doubled up through a pick of the $800 clue in Canadian History. After 15 clues, the scores were Micah $2,400 Mitch $2,200 Catherine $2,200.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Micah 3 correct 0 incorrect
Catherine 4 correct 1 incorrect
Mitch 4 correct 0 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Catherine once won a set of bagpipes as a door prize.
Micah has an aunt who was a 4-day champion in 1969 with Art Fleming.
Mitch has tortoises on his shirt, as he has seven tortoises.
Micah and Catherine kept their close battle going; Micah still led by just $200 after 30 clues.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Micah 8 correct 2 incorrect
Catherine 8 correct 1 incorrect
Mitch 7 correct 3 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Micah $4,800
Catherine $4,600
Mitch $2,800
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: All The Kings’ Menus; Potpourri; Name The 5-Letter Song; Our Chemistry Is Palpable; Country Names; Grammar Police)
This round belonged to Mitch; he picked up 14 correct responses, with the 14th coming after the break on a judge’s reversal of the Daily Double, giving him a runaway going into Final Jeopardy.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Mitch 21 correct 4 incorrect
Catherine 14 correct 1 incorrect
Micah 13 correct 3 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 30 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Mitch $25,300
Catherine $11,400
Micah $6,800
Mitch put the exclamation point on this one with a correct response; he’s now a 2-day champion. He goes for #3 tomorrow.
Tonight’s results:
Micah $6,800 – $4,601 = $2,199 (Who was Lucilla?)
Catherine $11,400 – $2,201 = $9,199 (Who is Lady Macbeth?)
Mitch $25,300 + $2,000 = $27,300 (Who is Desdemona?) (2-day total: $35,700)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) CANADIAN HISTORY $800 (clue #11)
Micah 1200 +1200 (Mitch 1200 Catherine 600)
2) ALL THE KINGS’ MENUS $1600 (clue #15)
Mitch 5600 +3500 (Micah 6400 Catherine 9000)
3) GRAMMAR POLICE $2000 (clue #22, $9600 left on board)
Mitch 13100 +5000 (Micah 6400 Catherine 9400)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 201
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Mitch 3 3 5
Micah 3 4 5 4 4*
Catherine 2 1 1
DJ! Round:
Mitch 3 3 5 4* 3 4 1 2 5*
Micah 3 4 5 1 3 3 4
Catherine 2 2 2 4 2 1
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Mitch 3.42
Catherine 1.89
Micah 3.58
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 30 (0.17 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Mitch $20,400 Coryat, 21 correct, 4 incorrect, 36.84% in first on buzzer (21/57), 1/2 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Catherine $11,400 Coryat, 14 correct, 1 incorrect, 24.56% in first on buzzer (14/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Micah $6,400 Coryat, 13 correct, 3 incorrect, 22.81% in first on buzzer (13/57), 2/2 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $38,200
Lach Trash: $9,800 (on 12 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $6,000
Lead Changes: 8
Times Tied: 3
Player Statistics:
Mitch Loflin, career statistics:
40 correct, 6 incorrect
3/4 on rebound attempts (on 9 rebound opportunities)
33.33% in first on buzzer (38/114)
2/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $8,500)
1/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $17,100
Micah Green, career statistics:
13 correct, 4 incorrect
2/2 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
22.81% in first on buzzer (13/57)
1/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $1,200)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $6,400
Catherine Carnovale, career statistics:
14 correct, 2 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
24.56% in first on buzzer (14/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $11,400
Mitch Loflin, to win:
3 games: 59.187%
4: 35.031%
5: 20.734%
6: 12.272%
7: 7.263%
Avg. streak: 3.450 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- While Final Jeopardy’s results means this was ultimately immaterial as to the end result, I do think Catherine’s clue choices did cost her from being able to prevernt Mitch from having a runaway going into Final Jeopardy.
- Prediction: The tabloids will have a field day quoting whiny netizens after today’s score reversal.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
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Yeah, I figured it had to be Desdemona. Anyone who has actually seen the play would know that Othello was a general and therefore a soldier. Although I’ve been critical of clues that describe Prince Albert as Victoria’s cousin rather than her husband, describing Othello as a Moor would have been a total giveaway.
Knew it had to be Shakespeare, but the soldier part had me focused on one of those history plays, so I wouldn’t have gotten it in time. Oh well!
Ditto for me, Calvin. Knew it had to be Shakespeare but the soldier part was troubling for me. “Soldier” doesn’t say “General” for me even though Generals certainly are soldiers; it makes me think of rank and file instead. Would have taken me way more than the allotted 30 seconds to come up with a General as a soldier.
As a set decoration designer, I think of Mitch as a “theater kid” like one of my sons. Happy to see the theater kid be the only one to get this one right. Congratulations to Mitch on his second win.
I said Lady Macbeth. Oh well. It must be Monday.
The soldier’s wife hint had me considering Ceasar’s wife Calpurnia but I went with Desdemona.
Marc Anthony was a soldier so I went to Cleo
At least I had the correct playwright!
That’s all I had as well. I suspected that the author of the play was Shakespeare, but as to what specific work of his, the thing I was sre of is that it wasn’t Romeo and Juliet.
I was surprised to see my favorite song as a $2,000 clue. [It also seemed to me to be just as likely to be known as Adele’s $400 “Hello”, though I also got that one.]
Remind what that answer was again Lisa! I also knew Hello and some others and can’t remember what the $2000 clue was. 🙂
Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”
Ah yes, I totally should have gotten that. But the player that got it was so quick that I didn’t have enough time to get it right.
That’s why I would prefer watching on a streaming service, so I can pause while Ken is still reading the clue (but it is on the TV screen so I can read it, too). All the starting and stopping would probably give me a bit more time than contestants would get to answer after buzzing in, bit I already know I’m rarely faster than them, I just want to find out if I know the correct response myself or not.
I had no idea on FJ!
I have a chart where I track “Runaway” or “No Runaway.” I had already had this as a 6th straight No Runaway and then we came back from commercial and much to my surprise, I had to change my chart! LOL
Retro congrats to Mitch on win #2! See if he can get win #3 tomorrow night. And after that, 90 minutes later will be Jeopardy Masters! 🙂
Hey Jeff! Hope you are well.
That is an interesting statistic to track.
Any findings of note – a streak of either ‘Runaway’ or ‘No Runaway’ for a season or player [or something else].
Hello there Rick!
Doing well here and hope that you are too! I could easily track streaks on those, but don’t. What I do track though is how many we’ve had in the season. This only consists of regular Jeopardy play. After the game from Monday, May 19, there had been 132 games played and 49 had been won in Runaway fashion. 37.12%. 🙂
Hey..
Did anyone notice the mistake on the hollywood questions in round one?
The answer should have been the godfather part two.
Instead mitch gave the answer the godfather. They are two separate movies and the quote in the answer was from part two.
This seems to say it’s from 1, not 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYnRBX2Trtk
Thanks I stand corrected
How could they neg Mitch on the Daily Double? It’s right there in the lyrics from “Conjunction Junction”:
“And”:
That’s an additive, like “this and that”