Jeopardy! Masters continues tonight! My recaps of Game 1 (Victoria Groce, Yogesh Raut, Matt Amodio) and Game 2 (Juveria Zaheer, Roger Craig, Isaac Hirsch) are also available here at The Jeopardy! Fan.
Warning: This page contains spoilers for the May 21, 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 World News 2024) for Wednesday, May 21, 2025 (Season 41, Game 183):
Headlines read of the fall of Hama on December 5, Homs on December 7 & this city on December 8
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Sam Macken, an orchestral musician from Boulder, Colorado
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Romy Negrin, a graduate student from New York, New York
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Brendan Liaw, a recent graduate & stay-at-home son from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada (1-day total: $13,599)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Canadian Brendan Liaw, recent graduate and stay-at-home son, can also add Jeopardy! champion to his resume when he decides it is no longer necessary to be a stay-at-home son. Today’s challengers are graduate student Romy Negrin and orchestral musician Sam Macken.
Brendan was incredibly strong in Double Jeopardy, picking up a number of high-value correct responses; that should prove to work to his advantage in potentially having a longer run. That being said, a number of incorrect responses throughout the game definitely lowered his valuation in the Unified Prediction Model.
Also, Episode #5 of Jeopardy! Masters, with two more quarterfinals, airs tonight at 9:00 on ABC and CTV2.
(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.
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Correct response: What is Damascus?
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.)
Today’s Final Jeopardy clue is a reference to the fall of the Assad regime in Syria in late 2024, with opposition groups, chiefly Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, unseating the regime that had been running that country since a coup d’état in 1971, with Bashar al-Assad fleeing to Russia. Following the fall of the Assad regime, many countries lifted their sanctions against Syria.
I think this will be a relatively straightforward clue for anyone with knowledge of Middle Eastern geopolitics—provided that one doesn’t remember the 2016 election cycle and Gary Johnson’s “What is Aleppo?” gaffe.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Wednesday, May 21, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: America: A Look Back; Adjectives; Artificial Intelligence On Film; “J” Store; The Highest Population In The State; Seek & Ye Shall Find)
Sam struggled early with incorrect responses, including a third on the Daily Double. Two of those incorrect responses were rebounded by Brendan who had a big lead at the interviews. After 15 clues, the scores were Brendan $6,000 Romy $800 Sam -$1,200.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Brendan 8 correct 0 incorrect
Romy 1 correct 0 incorrect
Sam 3 correct 3 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Sam plays the bassoon and got to perform with Glenn Close.
Romy held a birthday party for Frederic from “Pirates of Penzance”.
Brendan got into trivia from rainy-day encyclopedia reading.
Brendan picked up another 7 correct after the break to continue leading after 30 clues.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Brendan 15 correct 1 incorrect
Romy 6 correct 2 incorrect
Sam 4 correct 3 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Brendan $8,400
Romy $1,800
Sam -$600
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Peoples Of The World; An Abundance Of Caution; Geologic Time Divisions As Friends Episode Titles; Facts About Authors; Midcentury Music; That’s “Super”)
Brendan finally found a Daily Double, picking up $4,400 from it. Sam had a chance to get back in contention on DD3, but went conservative and was outside of score contention going into Final. Romy, however, played very well—and was at exactly 50% of Brendan’s score going into Final Jeopardy.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Brendan 27 correct 2 incorrect
Romy 15 correct 2 incorrect
Sam 13 correct 3 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 30 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Brendan $25,200
Romy $12,600
Sam $10,600
This Final Jeopardy ended up as a Triple Stumper; Brendan is now a 2-day champion! He’ll go for win #3 tomorrow.
Tonight’s results:
Sam $10,600 – $10,599 = $1 (What is Ramallah?)
Romy $12,600 – $12,600 = $0 (What is Aleppo?)
Brendan $25,200 – $1 = $25,199 (What is Kharkiv?) (2-day total: $38,798)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) THE HIGHEST POPULATION IN THE STATE $600 (clue #6)
Sam -1200 -1000 (Brendan 3800 Romy 0)
2) PEOPLES OF THE WORLD $1200 (clue #8)
Brendan 14400 +4400 (Romy 6600 Sam -600)
3) GEOLOGIC TIME DIVISIONS AS FRIENDS EPISODE TITLES $1600 (clue #15, $14000 left on board)
Sam 5800 +2000 (Brendan 20800 Romy 6600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -35
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Brendan 5 5 4 5 4
Romy
Sam 3*
DJ! Round:
Brendan 4 5 3 3* 3 3 3
Romy 4 5 2
Sam 4 5 2 5 4*
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Brendan 3.92
Sam 3.83
Romy 3.67
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 30 (0.16 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Brendan $22,000 Coryat, 27 correct, 2 incorrect, 43.86% in first on buzzer (25/57), 2/3 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Sam $11,200 Coryat, 13 correct, 3 incorrect, 24.56% in first on buzzer (14/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Romy $12,600 Coryat, 15 correct, 2 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $45,800
Lach Trash: $2,200 (on 4 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $6,000
Lead Changes: 0
Times Tied: 0
Player Statistics:
Brendan Liaw, career statistics:
50 correct, 10 incorrect
2/3 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
47.37% in first on buzzer (54/114)
1/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $4,400)
0/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $20,600
Romy Negrin, career statistics:
15 correct, 3 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $12,600
Sam Macken, career statistics:
13 correct, 4 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
24.56% in first on buzzer (14/57)
1/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $1,000)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $11,200
Brendan Liaw, to win:
3 games: 61.391%
4: 37.689%
5: 23.137%
6: 14.204%
7: 8.720%
Avg. streak: 3.590 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- This is your reminder that contestants often give their phrasing on clues as Ken is calling on them, and if the judges (or Ken) feel that the phrasing is missing, they will let us know.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Brendan $25,200 Romy $12,600 Sam $10,600)
Brendan: The math still hasn’t changed since 2016. You should bet exactly $1 here. (Actual bet: $1)
Romy: You have to go all in to have the best chance of winning. (Actual bet: $12,600)
Sam: Just in case Romy makes a sub-optimal bet here and holds back $1, I’d hold back $2. (Actual bet: $10,599)
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I couldn’t remember the capitol, so I did have to go with Aleppo
Flubbed this one by trying to think of a city in Gaza. In my defense, I was very busy in December and had almost no time for the news; I still have to remind myself Syria’s under new management every time I see the green in their flag.
Hey Saunders, don’t bury the lede here: we had 30 correct answers in Double Jeopardy! WOW!
This was so recent that it was mostly just a memory test for me. My memory is still functioning (at least, to some extent) as I was able to come up with Damascus. Just don’t ask me what I had for breakfast yesterday. 🙂
Brendan should not have bet $1 he should have bet 0. If he bet $1 he could have lost if Romy doubled and got it correct. If he bet 0 at least he survives for the overtime tie breaker clue.
You are aware that both losing in regulation and losing in overtime is still a loss, and that there is functionally no difference between them, right? Because your comment assumes that it is somehow better for Brendan to lose in overtime, when it’s not.
With the $1 bet Brendan is better off in the scenario where both he and Romy are correct in FJ, and worse if in the scenario where Romy is right and Brendan is wrong. There’s likely to be a large degree of correlation between Brendan and Romy’s outcomes in FJ, and hence $1 is the superior bet.
Can someone explain why Brendan should bet 1$? When he has exactly double the next person?
A tiebreaker rule was implemented in 2014. Since then, your overall chances of winning have been highest when betting $1 instead of betting $0.
I would love to see “For Scansion Purposes” as a category in which the response must have a nonstandard stress.
For FJ I immediately threw out Damascus, but was worried about the Aleppo possibility. But stayed with my gut and immediate answer, which was a good thing. 3rd time this month I’ve gotten FJ right on a Triple Stumper.
Great game played by all 3 players!
See if Brendan can get win #3 tomorrow night! 🙂
Hey Jeff!
In a post recently you mentioned you keep a track of runaway matches. I am fascinated by this.
In response, I asked if you keep track of this in situations other regular play such as during tournaments, by player, or some other criteria.
Any comment?
Hi there Rick!
I don’t keep track of # of Runaway games in tournaments. Little various other things there, which is mainly game play.
In addition to Runaway/No Runaway, I keep track of # of Champions each regular season and how many of them are Multi-Day and 1 Day. 60 so far this season in 135 regular season games. We have 181 regular season games this season, so we’re on pace for 80 regular season champs. That would be 20 new champs before the season ends on the last Friday of July.
I also keep track of money won by the champs, not counting any 2nd or 3rd place monies. In 135 regular season games, Jeopardy has paid out $2,660,440 to the champs for an average of $19,706.96 per winning game. 🙂
I’m a numbers nerd!
Of the 60 champs this season, 32 are Multi-Day and 28 are 1 Day.
Forgot to mention that! Doh!
Don’t know if anyone will see this a day later, but why is “Scott” accepted as an answer for Ridley (when it could have been Tony), but later in Masters they asked “be more specific” for Rodman when it was obviously Trinity and not Dennis?
Thx,
Jay!