Warning: This page contains spoilers for the July 17, 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 American Novels) for Thursday, July 17, 2025 (Season 41, Game 224):
A critic described this novel as “A man from down South sitting in a manhole up North…& signifying about how he got there”
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Marisa Cohen, a magazine writer & editor from New York, New York
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Chad Biele, a public relations professional from Atlanta, Georgia
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Scott Riccardi, an engineer from Somerville, New Jersey (10-day total: $262,101)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Scott Riccardi joined the ranks of the superchampions yesterday with his 10th victory, becoming the 18th player to do so. Today, he faces off against Chad Biele and Marisa Cohen in an attempt to go for win #11.
Interestingly, none of the previous 10-time champions have lost in their 11th game. (Friendly reminder that this an interesting historical curio but not statistically meaningful in any way. And yes, this is a deliberate callback to a Ken Jennings tweet of February 5, 2019.)
I would like to applaud the show for one thing that it did on their website and social media yesterday: on what would have been Cindy Stowell’s 50th birthday, they put out a piece on their website honoring the late 6-time champion—certainly, it’s an excellent thing to have done, especially for the sake of potentially newer fans that wouldn’t have remembered Cindy’s run back in December 2016.
One random editorial housekeeping item this morning: I would also like to point out that the name of this publication is The Jeopardy! Fan, not Jeopardy! Fan, and it is acceptable to abbreviate things to TJF or TJ!F—I do endeavor to ask that I am referred to properly, and I also hope that others cease using either of those abbreviations to refer to other entities in the Jeopardy! space, in order to reduce reader confusion.
(Content continues below)
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Correct response: What is Invisible Man? (by Ralph Ellison)
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.)
These words describing Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man were penned by Albert Murray, who wrote, “Invisible Man was par excellence the literary extension of the blues. It was as if Ellison had taken an everyday twelve-bar blues tune (by a man from down South sitting in a manhole up North singing and signifying about how he got there) and scored it for full orchestra.” The book itself details its narrator, an unnamed Black man, reflecting upon the various ways in which he has experienced social invisibility during his life, detailing his story from his teenage years into adulthood. It won the 1953 National Book Award for Fiction.
This Final Jeopardy clue could also provide an interesting insight into the show’s rulebook—much like I mentioned above in my editorial about how the leading The is important in the title of this website, the existence of the H.G. Wells novel The Invisible Man means that this is a rare case where the usual leading article rule does not apply—and the title must be exactly correct. Hopefully, none of our contestants today get tripped up by this.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Thursday, July 17, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Auntie Defamation League; Movie Titles In Italiano; Oh Dear, They Died; Nothing Compares 2 U; There’s Always A Time; When You Must Stand For Something)
Scott got off to an amazing start, doubling up through the Daily Double and giving 11 correct responses. At the interviews, the scores were Scott $9,400 Chad $1,400 Marisa -$400.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Scott 11 correct 1 incorrect
Chad 2 correct 0 incorrect
Marisa 0 correct 1 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Marisa is a Broadway superfan.
Chad is an ultramarathoner, training for the Leadville 100.
Scott connected with his future boss over Jeopardy during his interview.
Scott brought his correct response total to 19 while Marisa also had a good segment to sit second at halftime.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Scott 19 correct 1 incorrect
Marisa 6 correct 1 incorrect
Chad 3 correct 0 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Scott $12,800
Marisa $2,400
Chad $1,800
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: A Hotel Most Unusual; Britishisms; Opera Characters; Fabrics & Materials; A Dose Of Math; “N”tertainment)
Chad found DD2 immediately, but fell back to $0 after an incorrect response. The rest of the round belonged to Scott, who got $4,000 from DD3, all six $2,000 level clues, and got to $40,000—a season high—going into Final Jeopardy.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Scott 39 correct 2 incorrect
Marisa 10 correct 2 incorrect
Chad 4 correct 3 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 40 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Scott $40,000
Marisa $5,200
Chad -$2,000
Neither player got Final Jeopardy correct; unfortunately for Scott, he ventured $20,000, but he’s still an 11-day champion. He’ll go for win #12 tomorrow!
Tonight’s results:
Chad -$2,000 (By rule, did not participate in Final Jeopardy)
Marisa $5,200 – $712 = $4,488 (What is On the Road?)
Scott $40,000 – $20,000 = $20,000 (What is ?) (11-day total: $282,101)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) THERE’S ALWAYS A TIME $800 (clue #5)
Scott 2400 +2400 (Chad 0 Marisa 0)
2) BRITISHISMS $1600 (clue #1)
Chad 1800 -1800 (Scott 12800 Marisa 2400)
3) OPERA CHARACTERS $1600 (clue #5, $29600 left on board)
Scott 13600 +4000 (Chad 0 Marisa 3600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 39
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Scott 3 4 5 3 4*
Chad
Marisa
DJ! Round:
Scott 3 4*
Chad 4* 3
Marisa 2
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Scott 3.71
Marisa 2.00
Chad 3.50
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 $36,000 Coryat, 39 correct, 2 incorrect, 63.16% in first on buzzer (36/57), 3/3 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Marisa $5,200 Coryat, 10 correct, 2 incorrect, 19.30% in first on buzzer (11/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Chad -$200 Coryat, 4 correct, 3 incorrect, 8.77% in first on buzzer (5/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $41,000
Lach Trash: $6,400 (on 6 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $6,600
Lead Changes: 0
Times Tied: 0
Player Statistics:
Scott Riccardi, career statistics:
292 correct, 22 incorrect
18/18 on rebound attempts (on 45 rebound opportunities)
42.42% in first on buzzer (266/627)
13/19 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $30,000)
8/11 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $22,255
Chad Biele, career statistics:
4 correct, 3 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
8.77% in first on buzzer (5/57)
0/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$1,800)
0/0 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: -$200
Marisa Cohen, career statistics:
10 correct, 3 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
19.30% in first on buzzer (11/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $5,200
Scott Riccardi, to win:
12 games: 72.398%
13: 52.415%
14: 37.947%
15: 27.473%
16: 19.890%
Avg. streak: 13.623 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- This is a reminder that in the opening round, failing to phrase in the form of a question is a warning offense, and is only a penalty in Double Jeopardy. Comments claiming the judges missed phrasing will not be accepted this evening.
- A $36,000 Coryat is tied for the 18th-best single-game Coryat score of all time.
- No wagering suggestions are posted due to today’s runaway game.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
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Ugh. I fell into the “The” trap. Bad me.
Not sure I’m a fan of this FJ. It’s like describing Fight Club as a man being held at gunpoint by a terrorist in an empty building. Yes, technically, that’s what happens in the story, but by only describing the framing device you’re missing the whole of everything. I do think that if you’ve read the book, you can get it, but I was only familiar with the main notes of the story and thus didn’t.
Same for me. Is a quote that is not from within the actual novel as obscure as it seems to me? If I had recognized what novel it was about I am sure that I would not have added a ‘The’, but then I mistook manhole for foxhole and guessed The Red Badge of Courage. [in which north and south would have been the opposite of in the clue, but it has been too long since I had to read that book in Junior High]
Good FJ. Especially after the “gimme” from yesterday.
I guess we will never know, definitively, if the J! team would have counted “Invisible Man” incorrect.
Oh, Bruce, they definitely would have counted “Invisible Man” as correct as that is what they were going for. I think you meant to include the article in front of that based on the way you worded your comment.
Much like today’s contestants, I whiffed on today’s Final. Even if I had gotten most of it, I probably would have added “The” and been ruled incorrect. Good to see that Scott continued the statistical anomaly of all contestants to get 10 wins also made it to 11 wins. This is much like with coins flips where we know the odds are 50/50. If you make enough flips, there will be times when you might get 11 (or even 18) heads in a row or 11 (or even 18) tails in a row. Each flip is independent of the others so the odds remain 50/50, no matter what the previous results were. In other words, it’s a low probability but not impossible and it is an occurrence that stands out from what might be expected from random chance. It’s kind of a fun fact that all 10-game winners have won their 11th game. Now, what has been the record when going for 12 games in a row?
To answer the question at the end of your comment, nearly all of them have; only two players – Arthur Chu and Jonathan Fisher – have lost in their attempt to get win #12.
Considering just how thoroughly Scott’s devastation of today’s game was, I’d be surprised if the record moved to 3/18 tomorrow… but nothing is ever guaranteed when it comes to Jeopardy runs!
Just how thorough* I think I was typing something that made the use of “thoroughly” grammatically correct, only to delete and re-phrase that without changing “thoroughly” to “thorough”. Whoops! 🙃
Thanks for your response, MasterDoge. I agree with you that Scott thoroughly dominated today’s game. As you wrote, though, anything can happen in a Jeopardy! run. Even James H. lost a game as did all others once they eliminated the cap on streaks. As for the “thorough” versus “thoroughly” confusion, I’ve done that a few times myself where you start to phrase something one way and, then, change it to another but leave something unchanged. Not a problem, we get what you meant. Just want to add, you are a wealth of “Jeopardy!” knowledge. Thanks.
I find I do that far too often! Many times it will leave the result confusing or meaningless rather than just grammatically incorrect, so at least you made sense!
I had no idea on today’s FJ. I just guessed Crocodile Dundee, just to have something. Ha!
Utter dominance tonight be Scott! Hopefully he gets win #12 tomorrow to close out the week.