Warning: This page contains spoilers for the May 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 UNESCO World Heritage Sites) for Monday, May 26, 2025 (Season 41, Game 186):
The first 12 sites added to the list 1978 included Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado & this site 500 miles to the north
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Miles Tepper, a graduate student from Pacific Grove, California
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Judith Friedman, a software engineer from Los Angeles, California
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Jim Carpenter, a retired music professor & conductor from Charlotte, Vermont (1-day total: $25,601)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
A new week of Jeopardy! begins today with a game between east and west: our defending champion, Vermont’s Jim Carpenter, takes on a pair of Californian challengers in Judith Friedman and Miles Tepper.
This week of play also features a pair of Masters games, with the quarterfinal round finishing tomorrow and the semifinals beginning on Wednesday.
(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 Yellowstone National Park?
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.)
Of the original 12 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 2 were American and 2 were Canadian: the Canadian ones were Nahanni National Park Reserve in the Northwest Territories and L’Anse Aux Meadows National Historic Site in Newfoundland and Labrador, and the American ones were Mesa Verde National Park and Yellowstone National Park, with Yellowstone being given the nominal status of being America’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site (in addition to being America’s first National Park.)
This one will be slightly more straightforward for the home viewer who would have remembered that Devils Tower was a recent Final Jeopardy, taking at least one of the potential incorrect responses to this Final Jeopardy out of play.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Monday, May 26, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: In The Stars; Name Changers; You Get A P+; Culture, In The Popular Sense; Sound; Advice)
Judith rebounded well from an early Daily Double miss to retake the lead within two clues. After 15, the scores were Judith $4,400 Jim $3,400 Miles $400.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Judith 8 correct 1 incorrect
Jim 5 correct 0 incorrect
Miles 1 correct 0 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Miles read clues from his late grandmother’s win on J! at her funeral.
Judith took a birthday trip to Buenos Aires to tango.
Jim sailed on a 90-foot racing yacht in Auckland—in the pouring rain.
Jim picked up another 5 correct to hop into the lead after 30 clues.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Jim 10 correct 0 incorrect
Judith 13 correct 2 incorrect
Miles 6 correct 1 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Jim $6,600
Judith $5,000
Miles $2,800
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: It Happened One Leap Year; German Nobel Literature Laureates; One Vowel, 3 Times; You Seem Distant; From The Movie Soundtrack; Guys Named Richard)
Judith found the Daily Doubles on consecutive clues, her score going from $9,400 to $19,400 on a pair of correct responses. Miles picked up 11 correct responses in the round, though to ensure that Judith didn’t have a runaway going into Final Jeopardy.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Judith 22 correct 2 incorrect
Miles 17 correct 1 incorrect
Jim 15 correct 0 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 30 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Judith $23,000
Miles $16,000
Jim $13,000
Jim and Judith were correct in Final Jeopardy, making Judith your new champion! She’ll be back tomorrow to defend.
Tonight’s results:
Jim $13,000 + $12,000 = $25,000 (What is Yellowstone?)
Miles $16,000 – $10,001 = $5,999 (What is)
Judith $23,000 + $9,001 = $32,001 (What is Yellowstone?) (1-day total: $32,001)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) NAME CHANGERS $800 (clue #4)
Judith 1600 -1600 (Jim 800 Miles 0)
2) YOU SEEM DISTANT $800 (clue #14)
Judith 9400 +5000 (Jim 6600 Miles 9600)
3) IT HAPPENED ONE LEAP YEAR $1600 (clue #15, $16800 left on board)
Judith 14400 +5000 (Jim 6600 Miles 9600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -12
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Jim 4 5
Judith 3 4*
Miles
DJ! Round:
Jim
Judith 3 2 2 3 2* 4*
Miles 3 2 4 5 2 3 4 4 5
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Judith 2.88
Jim 4.50
Miles 3.56
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:
Judith $17,000 Coryat, 22 correct, 2 incorrect, 36.84% in first on buzzer (21/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
Jim $13,000 Coryat, 15 correct, 0 incorrect, 22.81% in first on buzzer (13/57), 2/2 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Miles $16,000 Coryat, 17 correct, 1 incorrect, 31.58% in first on buzzer (18/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
Combined Coryat Score: $46,000
Lach Trash: $6,000 (on 5 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $2,000
Lead Changes: 9
Times Tied: 2
Player Statistics:
Jim Carpenter, career statistics:
33 correct, 1 incorrect
3/3 on rebound attempts (on 9 rebound opportunities)
24.56% in first on buzzer (28/114)
1/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $1,000)
2/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $13,200
Judith Friedman, career statistics:
23 correct, 2 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
36.84% in first on buzzer (21/57)
2/3 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $8,400)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $17,000
Miles Tepper, career statistics:
17 correct, 2 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
31.58% in first on buzzer (18/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $16,000
Judith Friedman, to win:
2 games: 63.683%
3: 40.555%
4: 25.827%
5: 16.447%
6: 10.474%
Avg. streak: 2.754 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Normally, I’d like Judith’s chances of winning more (see above), but one of tomorrow’s challengers has already posted a “Watch me on the show” deal on Reddit…posting on various forums has generally been a strong sign of a good performance for the last 20 years.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Judith $23,000 Miles $16,000 Jim $13,000)
Jim: You have to be correct to win. You should therefore go all in (or close to it) to force a cover bet out of Miles. (Actual bet: $12,000)
Judith: Standard cover bet is $9,001. (Actual bet: $9,001)
Miles: You can’t both cover Jim and win a Triple Stumper, so you have to pick one to play for. Either bet $2,000 or less, or at least $10,001. (Actual bet: $10,001)
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Took a shot in the dark, and it ended up landing – always nice to start the week with a get 🙂
From the clue thought the correct response would probably be a “natural wonder,” or, something of cultural signifigance. Thought of the Grand Canon, but if my geography is right that isn’t north of Colorado. Also thought of the Pueblos, but that also is in the wrong direction geographically. Sadly, Yellowstone didn’t even remotely come to mind,
Yellowstone is what immediately came to my mind but I am not good with spatial relationships so I was thinking that Yellowstone was not that far from Colorado, with my main error being in thinking it was in southwest Wyoming when it is actually in northwest Wyoming. Even though I don’t personally think Mount Rushmore should be a UNESCO World Heritage site, I thought it might be one and that it might fit the 500 mile distance, so that was my guess. It turns out that UNESCO agrees with me about it not being World-Heritage-worthy (and I was right about the 500 miles from Colorado).
Five hundred miles north of Colorado and a UNESCO World Heritage site, Yellowstone sort of jumps out at you. What’s more likely for a UNESCO World Heritage site than America’s first National Park? Also, Yellowstone was Wyoming’s entry in the National Parks quarter series being the second one in that series in 2010. It came to me so quickly, I really thought it would be a Triple Get (almost anyway).
Yellowstone is at least 650 miles north of Mesa Verde. The final clue was very misleading. Not common for Jeopardy!
Maybe if you’re driving, but as the crow flies, it’s 500 miles. The clue was correct and if you were misled, that’s on you.
Source: I just looked it up myself.
I love calculating things as the crow flies. My brother-in-law lives 49.1 miles from me as the crow flies, but it takes me over 70 miles to get there because I can’t get anywhere close to where the crow flies. 🙂
I immediately said Yellowstone, that place where Old Faithful’s at. Lately my FJ get percentage has been way higher than usual in these regular Jeopardy games. Not good at all in Masters.
Great, great game by all 3 of our players! Miles has a chance at Second Chance as well. I could see what Andy mentioned last week being true and that we see 3 weeks of Second Chance next season, as we’ve had some really great non-winners at this point.
Hey there Lisa! How about us getting a Leap Year category today! 🙂
It’s “coincidences” like that which make me suspect the writers will be working on making a category and it makes them think of a clue they think would make a good FJ!
Sounds right to me!