Warning: This page contains spoilers for the May 8, 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 Movie Directors) for Thursday, May 8, 2025 (Season 41, Game 174):
As of 2025 this director has made just 4 feature films; 3 were Oscar nominated for Best Picture
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Michael Mungin, a librarian from Kirkland, Washington
|
Christen Aragoni, a writer & editor from Washington, D.C.
|
Dan Moren, a writer & podcaster from Somerville, Massachusetts (1-day total: $17,200)
|
Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Dan Moren is your new Jeopardy! champion following a $0 wager in Final Jeopardy in yesterday’s game. Today’s challengers are Christen Aragoni and Michael Mungin. One thing that I think is important to point out is that there are some very interesting short-term and potentially even long-term strategic implications to Dan’s Final Jeopardy bet from yesterday. In the short term, the distinct possibility that Dan may not make a cover bet again should force any second-placed player to go all in in Final Jeopardy, in order to force Dan to make a cover bet against them. In the long term, this is more reason for future leaders to continue to make cover bets, as potential contestants will see what Dan did as a future possibility and make otherwise suboptimal bets from second place to defend against its possibility despite its relative rarity.
Much like I did last Thursday, I think I need to point out that ratings for Jeopardy! Masters last night are going to be struggling again, with the issues likely being compounded by the show airing against the season finale of The Masked Singer. While I still believe that the major issue is with scheduling—9:00 is still too late to be airing primetime Jeopardy!—I think people are also less excited about this year’s Masters because James Holzhauer isn’t competing. To put this into a sporting context: People don’t tune in to watch Fulham play Ipswich Town; people want to watch Liverpool play Manchester United. I also think that the best allocation of quizzing “resources” in the United States right now might be for The Chase to be rebooted with Yogesh Raut as the main Chaser and some sort of format change where contestants are guaranteed something if they make it back for the final Chase and then play for a larger jackpot in the final Chase. And I think that a lot of people would cheer for the contestants to win money against Yogesh.
(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.
Are you going on the show and looking for information about how to bet in Final Jeopardy? Check out my Betting Strategy 101 page. If you want to learn how to bet in two-day finals, check out Betting Strategy 102. In case the show uses a tournament with wild cards in the future, there is also a strategy page for betting in tournament quarterfinals.
Are you looking for information on how to stream Jeopardy! in 2024? Find out information here on how to stream from most places in North America!
Do you appreciate the work I do here on The Jeopardy! Fan? Would you like to make a one-time contribution to the site? You may do so here!
You can find game-by-game stats here at The Jeopardy! Fan of all 17 players, now including Adriana Harmeyer, that have won 10 or more games on Jeopardy!
You can now listen to Alex Trebek-hosted Jeopardy! episodes from TuneIn Radio without leaving The Jeopardy! Fan — listen now!
Correct response: Who is Greta Gerwig?
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.)
Greta Gerwig’s short directorial career to date has included three Best Picture nominees—2017’s Lady Bird, 2019’s Little Women, and 2023’s Barbie. She’s also directing 2026’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew; it would not surprise me if her batting average went to .800 after the release of that. Maybe more women should be given directorial roles—Greta seems to be pretty darned good at it!
I suspect that a common incorrect response to this one is probably going to be George Lucas—of course, his short-but-illustrious directorial filmography was the subject of a Final Jeopardy clue back in 2009.
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 Thursday, May 8, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Unofficial State Nicknames; How Do You Like Your Eggs?; Calendar Grooves; Breaking, The News; Women In The Bible; 4, 4)
Dan picked up 7 correct to lead after 15 clues; at the commercial break, your score was Dan $5,800 Michael $2,400 Christen $800.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Dan 7 correct 0 incorrect
Michael 4 correct 0 incorrect
Christen 1 correct 0 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Michael fell in love with the show when he got the Nintendo game as a birthday present.
Christen has synesthesia (seeing words as colors in one’s mind.)
Dan shared a stage with John Krasinski in an elementary school production of “Annie”.
Dan found the Daily Double, picking up $3,000 and ending the opening round in five figures.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Dan 14 correct 0 incorrect
Michael 7 correct 0 incorrect
Christen 4 correct 1 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Dan $10,800
Michael $3,800
Christen $1,600
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: May Days! May Days!; Empty Words; Eye On Asia; Initialed Writers; TV Characters; Old MacDonald Had A Wind Farm)
Dan found both Daily Doubles in this round, but got them both incorrect. However, he bet just $2,000 apiece on them, meaning that it didn’t cost him a runaway game.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Dan 29 correct 6 incorrect
Michael 10 correct 0 incorrect
Christen 7 correct 3 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 30 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Dan $18,800
Michael $7,400
Christen $800
This Final Jeopardy was a Triple Stumper; Dan is now a 2-day champion! He’ll go for #3 tomorrow.
Tonight’s results:
Christen $800 – $0 = $800 (Who is ?)
Michael $7,400 – $2,600 = $4,800 (Who is Damien Chazelle?)
Dan $18,800 – $2,500 = $16,300 (Who is Chloe Zhao?) (2-day total: $33,500)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) UNOFFICIAL STATE NICKNAMES $1000 (clue #19)
Dan 6400 +3000 (Christen 1000 Michael 2400)
2) MAY DAYS! MAY DAYS! $1600 (clue #18)
Dan 20000 -2000 (Christen 1600 Michael 6600)
3) EYE ON ASIA $1600 (clue #24, $4400 left on board)
Dan 18400 -2000 (Christen 400 Michael 6600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 26
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Dan 3 4 5 2 3 3 4 3 4 3 5 4 5*
Christen 4 3
Michael 2 4 5 5
DJ! Round:
Dan 4 5 2 1 4 3 2 3 2 4* 5† 3 4 5 3 4*
Christen 3 2 2 3 4 5
Michael 5 1
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Dan 3.52
Michael 3.67
Christen 3.25
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:
Dan $20,800 Coryat, 29 correct, 6 incorrect, 54.39% in first on buzzer (31/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Michael $7,400 Coryat, 10 correct, 0 incorrect, 15.79% in first on buzzer (9/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
Christen $800 Coryat, 7 correct, 3 incorrect, 15.79% in first on buzzer (9/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $29,000
Lach Trash: $13,400 (on 12 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $11,600
Lead Changes: 0
Times Tied: 1
Player Statistics:
Dan Moren, career statistics:
47 correct, 10 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 8 rebound opportunities)
43.86% in first on buzzer (50/114)
2/4 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $2,000)
0/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $17,900
Christen Aragoni, career statistics:
7 correct, 4 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
15.79% in first on buzzer (9/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $800
Michael Mungin, career statistics:
10 correct, 1 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
15.79% in first on buzzer (9/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $7,400
Dan Moren, to win:
3 games: 51.698%
4: 26.727%
5: 13.817%
6: 7.143%
7: 3.693%
Avg. streak: 3.070 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- No wagering suggestions are posted due to today’s runaway game.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Become a Supporter now! Make a monthly contribution to the site on Patreon!
Contestant photo credit: jeopardy.com
When commenting, please note that all comments on The Jeopardy! Fan must be in compliance with the Site Comment Policy.
If you are going to quote any information from this page or this website, attribution is required.
Have you had a chance to listen to our podcast game show, Complete The List, yet? Check it out! It's also available on Apple Podcasts.
Gerwig is definitely on her way to a big career the way she’s going. TIL!
It just so happens that I have seen all of these movies that Greta has directed. Very well done movies.
I was on the right path guessing a woman. I went with Sofia Coppola.
I would have guaranteed that Bennett Miller was the answer
He’s made 4 feature films. Two of them, MONEYBALL and CAPOTE, were nominated for Best Picture. FOXCATCHER was nominated for several Oscars including Best Director but (incredibly, IMO) was not nominated for Best Picture
I instantly knew the director but was frustrated that I could not recall the name.
And then found out I was completely wrong.
This is an all-time great comment.
It was a tricky question. With the nominees for best picture doubling to 10 ( from 5) in recent years just made it harder, even knowing it had to be a woman. I went with Bigelow for Hurt Locker because she actually won
How did you know it had to be a woman?
I don’t know a lot of directors by name but Greta Gerwig’s amount of recent success has certainly made me remember her name. That made it easy to get today’s final just because I don’t know a lot of other directors by name which helps hers to stand out in my mind.
Have to agree with Andy’s comments regarding the absence of James Holzhauer as one of the reasons that there is less excitement about this year’s Masters, especially, since that is something I wrote here at the start of the Tournament.
Also, I have to agree with all of Andy’s comments regarding a reboot of “The Chase.” I, especially, like the changes that Andy suggested. Just imagine “The Chase” with Victoria, Yogesh, James and a few others. I’d watch that.
p.s. I was a little surprised that no one got today’s final. The names that were chosen instead were not ones that I was even familiar with. I would not have come up with them if they had been the correct response.
My guess was Jordan Peele. That was way off. I also considered Bong Joon Ho which was even further off.
I was in the Jordan Peele movement with you Lisa.