Warning: This page contains spoilers for the July 16, 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 U.S.A.) for Wednesday, July 16, 2025 (Season 41, Game 223):
Its creator imagined it as a place for young & old, offering “nostalgia of the past with exciting glimpses into the future”
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Dave Richelsoph, a program manager from Washington, D.C.
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Ivanna Lopez, a librarian originally from Tampa, Florida
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Scott Riccardi, an engineer from Somerville, New Jersey (9-day total: $233,501)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Scott Riccardi is making his way up the winnings board; he notched win #9 yesterday. Today, he goes for double digits against Ivanna Lopez and Dave Richelsoph; a win today would make him the 18th player to reach super-champion status. As I note in my own statistics section, the show decided that it wanted to use the term super-champion to refer to those who won 10 games in spite of the show’s fanbase deciding back in 2003 that the term should be used to refer to those who won six. However, similar to when Major League Baseball redefined no-hitters, I have chosen to accept this change and also now use that terminology here in my own writing.
That being said, I was supremely disappointed in TV Insider yesterday when I noticed that their usual Jeopardy! beat “writer” Brittany Sims plagiarized parts of my own write-up in hers, specifically the reference in my opening to it taking 220 episodes this season for a player to pass $200,000, as well as the multiple references to the “top 20” in regular play winnings. If TV Insider would like to pay me to write for them in Season 42, I’d consider it. Until then, though, I’d certainly appreciate it if their writers used their own original thoughts and not mine. And certainly, when there are people tracking statistics in this community who barely get by in terms of overall income, especially Bella Bliss, only for larger publications to steal work without paying for it, this overall culture of plagiarism is especially heinous. Do much better, TV Insider.
(Editorial note: The above paragraph was written and published prior to TV Insider choosing to apportion credit to this website. Thank you to TV Insider, but my thoughts above still stand.)
(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 Disneyland?
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.)
“Physically, Disneyland would be a small world in itself. Disneyland will be the essence of America as we know it: the nostalgia of the past with exciting glimpses into the future.” That was the vision of Walt Disney when creating Disneyland in California, as is still recorded on the website of the Walt Disney Family museum. The original Disneyland resort is now one of six Disney theme park attractions worldwide: there’s also Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Disneyland Paris, Shanghai Disney Resort, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, and Tokyo Disney Resort. A seventh, Disneyland Abu Dhabi, is in the planning stages.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Wednesday, July 16, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Military Bases; Picture The Grammy-Winning Band; The Tenth; Planes, No Trains But Some Automobiles; Name That Bible Book; Cockney Rhyming Slang)
Ivanna got off to a good start, picking up 6 correct responses in the first half of the round. At the 15-clue mark, your scores were Ivanna $4,000 Scott $3,600 Dave $1,400.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Ivanna 6 correct 0 incorrect
Scott 5 correct 0 incorrect
Dave 3 correct 0 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Dave spent 23 years as a U.S. diplomat.
Ivanna was a museum docent at the Cracker Country museum in Florida.
Scott got to calculate friction on a favorite roller coaster.
Scott found the Daily Double, but bet only half his score. He held a $1,200 lead after 30 clues.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Scott 12 correct 0 incorrect
Ivanna 10 correct 0 incorrect
Dave 7 correct 1 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Scott $7,800
Ivanna $6,600
Dave $3,400
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Egyptian History; One Word On The Theater Marquee; Scientists; 3 Consonants In A Row; Public Television; American Families)
Scott found DD2, gaining $8,000 from it. When Dave found DD3, that took away Ivanna’s best chance to catch up—and, unfortunately, Ivanna blanking on the penultimate clue of the round led to Scott barely having a runaway going into Final Jeopardy.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Scott 23 correct 0 incorrect
Ivanna 19 correct 2 incorrect
Dave 13 correct 3 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 40 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Scott $28,600
Ivanna $13,800
Dave $8,600
Dave and Scott were both correct in Final Jeopardy—that makes Scott a superchampion and puts him over the quarter-million mark! He’ll go for win #11 tomorrow.
Tonight’s results:
Dave $8,600 + $5,201 = $13,801 (What is Disneyland? Love you Rebecca + Rosie!)
Ivanna $13,800 – $3,800 = $10,000 (What is Epcot?)
Scott $28,600 + $0 = $28,600 (What is Disneyland?) (10-day total: $262,101)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) MILITARY BASES $800 (clue #17)
Scott 4000 +2000 (Ivanna 4000 Dave 1400)
2) SCIENTISTS $1600 (clue #9)
Scott 13400 +8000 (Ivanna 9800 Dave 1400)
3) AMERICAN FAMILIES $2000 (clue #19, $8800 left on board)
Dave 3800 +3600 (Scott 23000 Ivanna 12200)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 204
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Scott 3 3 3 4 5 3 4*
Ivanna 4 5 2 2 5 1 2
Dave 3 4 3
DJ! Round:
Scott 3 4 5 3 4* 4 5
Ivanna 3 2 3 2 4 5 2 4
Dave 3 3 4 5*
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Scott 3.79
Dave 3.57
Ivanna 3.07
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 40 (0.18 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Scott $21,000 Coryat, 23 correct, 0 incorrect, 33.33% in first on buzzer (19/57), 2/2 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Dave $7,000 Coryat, 13 correct, 3 incorrect, 22.81% in first on buzzer (13/57), 2/2 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Ivanna $13,800 Coryat, 19 correct, 2 incorrect, 36.84% in first on buzzer (21/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $41,800
Lach Trash: $6,600 (on 5 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $5,600
Lead Changes: 5
Times Tied: 2
Player Statistics:
Scott Riccardi, career statistics:
253 correct, 19 incorrect
15/15 on rebound attempts (on 41 rebound opportunities)
40.35% in first on buzzer (230/570)
11/17 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $23,600)
8/10 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $20,880
Ivanna Lopez, career statistics:
19 correct, 3 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
36.84% in first on buzzer (21/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $13,800
Dave Richelsoph, career statistics:
14 correct, 3 incorrect
2/2 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
22.81% in first on buzzer (13/57)
1/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $3,600)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $7,000
Scott Riccardi, to win:
11 games: 70.188%
12: 49.264%
13: 34.577%
14: 24.269%
15: 17.034%
Avg. streak: 12.354 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- One thing I like about Ken hosting is that he makes the viewing audience aware during Final Jeopardy when a small wager happens because a player barely has a runaway game. Alex Trebek would always act disappointed that a player didn’t attempt a Clavin.
- I had a feeling we were going to see a superchampion by the end of the season—someone posted on Reddit a couple of months back saying that they had been in the audience and were very interested in seeing the previous games.
- No wagering suggestions will be posted due to today’s runaway game.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
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I guessed EPCOT – Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. I guess that doesn’t cover the nostalgia part of the clue.
Original hunch was Disneyland, but as soon as I saw “future”, I pivoted to EPCOT as well.
Disneyland had a Futureland
The big key here is that Disneyland itself was the only one to open during Walt’s lifetime. Orlando was still in the “get all the land and hope nobody notices” stage when he died.
And, uh, is it fair to say Disneyland succeeded? Seems like just about everyone who’s gone there has had a wonderful time.
I don’t “get” your question. The tone seems to be argumentative, but I don’t recall anyone even just implying that it hadn’t succeeded.
Also, I agree that Walt was more likely to have said that about the first park instead of a later one, thus helping one decide which park to guess, but I have read and re-read the clue and I cannot see that it HAD TO have been about the park opened while he was still alive because for either of them it could have been said in the planning stages. Even while trying to limit awareness of the coming second park, he could have said this to family or to a private board meeting rather than publicly. [I mean in terms of thinking about the clue to pick a response, not disagreeing with the correct response or why it was correct.]
I have been to Disneyland a number of times, but I’m 57 now and haven’t been since summer 1987. Just after I graduated from High School. I know lots has changed since I last went.
I will be going to Disneyland in August for one day, as I’m going to California for my cousin’s Bar Mitzvah.
Mazel Tov to your cousin.
Jon, The temp will probably be close to 90…so at the hottest time of day, grab a Dole Whip and cool off at the Tiki Room. So refreshing!
I knew about Walt Disney’s vision years ago, as I am a little older than Disneyland. The park is into its’ 70th year, and that is my age, only 6 months older than the park. The last time I was in Disneyland was in 1995, when the cost to enter was around $65. I have heard that the cost is over $100 to enter now. Geez!!!
I do hope that Scott gets his 10th win. He is a very educated man.
Easy get for me. I’ve never been to Disneyland but I’ve been to the Florida parks many times, so I knew what was being described. As Disneyland came before Disneyworld, I guessed it was the park referenced in the quote.
Broke a massive losing streak for me. Thought of Tomorrowland and then expanded out to Disneyland.
I thought of Epcot, then reverse-engineered [reverse-imagineered?] to Tomorrowland, then dropped that line of thought because the non-tomorrow part seemed to be more fantasy-oriented than “nostalgia of the past” (forgetting about “Hall of Presidents”). So I tried “What is the Smithsonian Institution?”. BTW, I have been to The Smithsonian but have never been to Disneyland nor Disney World.
Three of us have watched Jeopardy for 15++ years. Our daughter plays, her mom keeps score and I hope to get maybe 8-10 correct on a good day! Final Jeopardy 1/10? I probably don’t even belong on this same page as your regulars who probably nail 75%! So to at least keep it interesting for me I came up with a Predictor model for our daughters FJ. She is in the 38-40 correct range and @50% FJ.
Each morning I visit your site and if 1/3 contestants gets FJ that’s 33%, 2-67%, all 3 100%. I add her “wheelhouse” bonus to each for 40, 75 and 105% probability
she will get it. If the “big dummy” gets it correct I add 100% to that. (If I can get it anyone can)
If none of the contestants get it, she only gets 10% based on her wheelhouse.
If your usual suspects also don’t get it and all say “I had no clue”, then it becomes the “blind squirrel” 1%, as even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while!
So far the model is correct 80-90% of the time as sometimes she surprises me by either getting or not getting it as the case may be.
Does that make me correct in FJ 80-90%? Didn’t think so!!
P.S. Your regular contributors are very knowledgeable and express themselves quite well. I always enjoy reading their comments.
I love your comment!
It looks like Scott remembered he wagered $15800 on Final a couple of games ago when he had a runaway game and lost it.
In fairness, he also had a LOT more room to wager (he could’ve bet up to $26,999 without losing his runaway) on Monday than he did today!
No offense, Ted, but wagering in Final when you have a runaway is dictated by how much leeway you have in not jeopardizing that runaway. It would be foolish to wager more than necessary to maintain the lead if you happened to respond incorrectly. Scott’s wager today had nothing to do with remembering what he wagered in a past game when he could afford to take a bigger risk.
No offense taken at all. My issue is wagering tons of money (to me) and taking the chance I might not get the correct response, thereby losing the money that was safely in my pocket. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, as the saying goes.
The words in today’s Final clue are so familiar, I can still hear Walt’s voice saying them. I was of an age in 1955 that I can well remember Opening Day of Disneyland. Years later, my son did a couple of College Internships at Walt Disney World in Orlando covering a span of 1 and a half years so I have visited the Florida resort many times. All of that, at first, made me think there could be no other response than Disneyland but then I realized one might think the words referred to Walt Disney World, EPCOT (as many have mentioned), Tomorrow Land, and, perhaps, others. Nice that Scott didn’t fall for any of those possible traps and was able to keep his streak going. Congratulations to Scott on becoming a Super Champion, hope to see you continue. By the way, tomorrow, July 17 is the 70th anniversary of when Disneyland opened so this was a really timely Final.
RE: your noting of today’s being a timely Final . . .
Did you notice what I commented yesterday about why I would have “guessed” that FJ response correctly even if I had not known the correct response already?
Hi, Lisa. Yes, I saw your comment and I agree that this is sort of a similar situation. A clue in July where the correct response is August is somewhat akin to a clue that deals with an anniversary the next day or otherwise close to the show’s air date. I wonder to what extent contestants try to figure out when their show will air and what might be a relevant date or event at that time. It’s interesting to conjecture if contestants take that into consideration as a sort of extra clue.
Most of the time, it’s announced when your show will air just before the start of the game. Though one time that I went it was TBD because the wildfires here caused JIT to be taped after regular Jeopardy, but JIT was to air on TV first. I was at the taping for the return to regular Jeopardy when Laura Faddah won her 8th game.
Well, when seeing the category as U.S.A., I wasn’t sure about this. Pretty broad category. But then Ken read the clue and I immediately blurted out Disneyland and thought of nothing else. Good way to end a pretty long losing streak!
Retro congrats to Scott winning #10 and becoming a Super-Champion!!!
Boo to someone going on Reddit and basically spoiling things! The show tells us to keep things to ourselves when we are in the audience!!! Jimmy the stage man is serious about that!
On to tomorrow to see if Scott can get win #11. 🙂