Warning: This page contains spoilers for the September 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 Novels) for Wednesday, September 17, 2025 (Season 42, Game 8):
In April 2025 the Empire State Building was lit up in green to celebrate the 100th anniversary of this novel’s publication
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Laura Mixter, a director of impact management & measurement from Chicago, Illinois
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Max Miller, a college counselor from Astoria, New York
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Paolo Pasco, a puzzle writer originally from San Diego, California (5-day total: $134,516)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
How long will his run keep going? That’s the question on everybody’s mind after Paolo Pasco won his fifth game yesterday. Today, he faces off against Max Miller of Astoria, New York and Laura Mixter of Chicago in an attempt to win game number 6. Certainly, the Unified Prediction Model says right now that Paolo has about a two-thirds chance to win any single game, which means that at this point, Paolo, on average, will win somewhere around seven games in total.
(Content continues below)
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Correct response: What is The Great Gatsby?
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.)
On Friday, April 11, 2025, the Empire State Building was lit up in green in celebration of The Great Gatsby‘s 100th anniversary. (In fact, you can see why the building is lit up in specific colors on its website.) The color green is one of the most-used symbolic colors in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s work, including a green light often watched by Gatsby across the water.
Jeopardy! often likes to go to the F. Scott Fitzgerald/Great Gatsby well, so it’s probably a good idea to learn a few things about both before getting on the show. Knowing its publication year (1925) certainly would go a long way to picking up a correct response on this Final Jeopardy clue.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Wednesday, September 17, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Words For City Folk; I Wrote That For Children!; Triples; Early Roles; Beastly Endings; Hawai’i As It Was)
Paolo had the best start, picking up 7 correct before the break; at the interviews, the scores were Paolo $4,800 Max $3,200 Laura $1,200.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Paolo 7 correct 0 incorrect
Max 4 correct 0 incorrect
Laura 2 correct 0 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Laura went to Duke and camped out in line for nearly two months for Duke-UNC tickets.
Max got on the show thanks to the encouragement of his girlfriend Rebecca.
Paolo does quite well at Olivia Rodrigo Name That Tune.
The good news for Max: He found the Daily Double. The bad news for Max: an incorrect response dropped him to $0. Paolo still led after 30.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Paolo 12 correct 0 incorrect
Laura 5 correct 1 incorrect
Max 6 correct 1 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Paolo $6,600
Laura $2,200
Max $400
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Our Crusty Earth; Professors; Unusual Words; The 1975…; The Fall; Bands Bigger In Britain)
Max picked up $2,000 from DD2, then the hunt began for DD3. Immediately after a rebound, Laura found DD3, and while she bet for the lead, she did just bet the clue value of $2,000. That gave Paolo plenty of opportunity to retake the lead going into Final Jeopardy.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Paolo 24 correct 2 incorrect
Laura 13 correct 1 incorrect
Max 11 correct 1 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 0 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Paolo $16,600
Laura $13,800
Max $6,400
Everyone was correct in Final Jeopardy; that makes Paolo a 6-game champion! He’ll go for win #7 tomorrow!
Tonight’s results:
Max $6,400 + $795 = $7,195 (What is The Great Gatsby?)
Laura $13,800 + $600 = $14,400 (What is The Great Gatsby)
Paolo $16,600 + $11,001 = $27,601 (What is The Great Gatsby?) (6-day total: $162,117)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) WORDS FOR CITY FOLK $400 (clue #21)
Max 3800 -3800 (Paolo 4800 Laura 1800)
2) UNUSUAL WORDS $1600 (clue #3)
Max 400 +2000 (Paolo 6600 Laura 2200)
3) THE 1975… $2000 (clue #17, $13200 left on board)
Laura 10600 +2000 (Paolo 11000 Max 3200)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 19
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Paolo 3 3 4 5 4 3 4 4 5 5
Max 3 5 4 4 3 2*
Laura 2 2 2 2 3
DJ! Round:
Paolo 3 3 4 4 2 5 4
Max 4 3 4* 3 5
Laura 2 4 1 1 5*
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Paolo 3.82
Laura 2.40
Max 3.64
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 0 (0.00 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Paolo $16,600 Coryat, 24 correct, 2 incorrect, 45.61% in first on buzzer (26/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
Laura $13,800 Coryat, 13 correct, 1 incorrect, 21.05% in first on buzzer (12/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Max $9,800 Coryat, 11 correct, 1 incorrect, 15.79% in first on buzzer (9/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $40,200
Lach Trash: $10,600 (on 11 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $3,200
Lead Changes: 2
Times Tied: 2
Player Statistics:
Paolo Pasco, career statistics:
154 correct, 10 incorrect
6/6 on rebound attempts (on 19 rebound opportunities)
41.23% in first on buzzer (141/342)
9/11 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $20,500)
4/6 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $21,133
Max Miller, career statistics:
12 correct, 1 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
15.79% in first on buzzer (9/57)
1/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$1,800)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $9,800
Laura Mixter, career statistics:
14 correct, 1 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
21.05% in first on buzzer (12/57)
1/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $2,000)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $13,800
Paolo Pasco, to win:
7 games: 65.393%
8: 42.762%
9: 27.964%
10: 18.286%
11: 11.958%
Avg. streak: 7.890 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Max absolutely made the right decision by going all-in on a $400 Daily Double in the opening round, despite it not working out for him.
- Regarding Laura’s wager on the last Daily Double: Would I have played it differently? Yes. Does that automatically make Laura’s choice wrong, though? Absolutely not! It was a $2,000 Daily Double; those are traditionally the harder end of the Daily Double spectrum. I would say that Laura’s FJ wager showed that she absolutely did give some thought to game strategy overall. I’m sure she probably wants that wager back after seeing how the rest of the game played out, but there’s absolutely an alternate universe where the $2,000 bet turned out to be the right call.
- Today’s J!6 clues can be found at the monthly archive.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Paolo $16,600 Laura $13,800 Max $6,400)
Paolo: Standard cover bet is $11,001. If you are really certain that Laura is going to bet to keep Max locked out, you can defend against it with a bet between $2 and $1,799—but your read would need to be perfect. (Actual bet: $11,001)
Max: The most likely path to victory for you is a Triple Stumper and an overbet from Laura. Bet no more than $800 to take advantage of that. (Actual bet: $795)
Laura: If you bet between $0 and $999, you’ll keep Max locked out for second and can win if Paolo is incorrect and makes the cover bet. (Actual bet: $600)
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Total coincidence that this airs 1 day after Robert Redford’s passing (the game was recorded in early August). My first experience to The Great Gatsby was as a kid in the 1974 movie.
My mind went to Oz. Emerald city, etc. Googled it…Wonderful Wizard of Oz published in 1900.
I knew that ‘Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ was published in 1900 but the only other possibility I could think of was ‘Soylent Green’ and I sincerely doubted that it tracked back to 1925 (or that it would get anniversary recognition by the Empire State Building).
All I could think of tied in with the color green was How The Grinch Stole Christmas, which isn’t 100 years old and would probably not be considered a novel. Major oops.
This was the easiest get in recent memory for me. It is my favorite novel to teach students each year; so between the location in the clue, the color that is mentioned, and I knew Gatsby precipitated the Depression, it couldn’t be anything else.
My seemingly logical guess of Ulysses was only 3 years off! Oops.
The lighting of the Empire State Building in green in April was recent enough that it was just a matter of remembering it in order to get today’s final. Pretty easy final so no surprise that it was a triple get.
Great six-game run by Paolo so far. I’m enjoying seeing his success and hoping it continues for a while. Congratulations to Paolo “Papa So Cool” Pasco.
Took me about 5 to 7 seconds into Think and then I thought of it. I think I remember hearing about this recently (well 5 months ago) and that’s probably the only reason that I got it right. I’ll take any FJ win lately, as this is my 1st of the season.
Paolo’s had some decent scares this week, but has survived. We’ll see if he can get win # lucky 7 tomorrow! 🙂