Warning: This page contains spoilers for the September 10, 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 Historic Phrases) for Wednesday, September 10, 2025 (Season 42, Game 3):
In 1914 Belgium’s queen gave this phrase a political meaning, saying one had descended between her & Germany
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Leslie Oakerson, a financial services manager from Red Bank, New Jersey
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Paolo Pasco, a puzzle writer originally from San Diego, California
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Ian Morrison, an airline ramp agent originally from Aurora, Colorado (1-day total: $22,009)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Day 3 of Season 42 of Jeopardy! sees Colorado’s Ian Morrison return as champion; in his title defense, he faces off against Leslie Oakerson of Red Bank, New Jersey, as well as a familiar name to crossword puzzle fans in Paolo Pasco. Paolo is a relatively well-known crossword solver and constructor, skills that have led to success on Jeopardy! in the past. Of course, that never means that victory is guaranteed.
(Content continues below)
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Correct response: What is “iron curtain”?
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.)
Although the political term “iron curtain” was used most famously by Winston Churchill to describe the divisions between West and East at the beginning of the Cold War, the term had political connotations before that. When Germany invaded Belgium in 1914 at the start of World War I, Elisabeth of Bavaria, then Queen of Belgium, said that an iron curtain had descended between the two countries, according to the BBC’s History Extra.
It’s hard to say how this Final Jeopardy clue will play, in my opinion. A lot of viewers and players might have an internal debate between “What else could it be?” and “But Churchill popularised it…”; I’ll guess we’ll see in a few hours how it plays!
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Got this off of a complete guess… but how you get there is how you get there, right?
In any case, this was my first correct Final Jeopardy of the season 🙂
I guessed correctly thinking this has to be wrong because Churchill used it in his speech in Fulton, MO years later – but I had nothing else. There is now a National Churchill Museum in Fulton, MO thanks to that speech.
Even if one initially thought that it was Churchill who has coined the phrase, as I did, the word “descended” helped to overcome the misconception.