Warning: This page contains spoilers for the September 23, 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 Children’s Books) for Tuesday, September 23, 2025 (Season 42, Game 12):
Realizing he couldn’t draw horses, the man behind this 1963 book drew the title characters purely from his imagination
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Justin Ames, an employment attorney from Jersey City, New Jersey
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Hester Bass, a writer from Santa Fe, New Mexico
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Steven Olson, a band director from Princeton, Illinois (2-day total: $46,406)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Steven Olson enters today’s game as a 2-day champion and winnings of $46,406. While he undoubtedly has qualified for Champions Wildcard at this point, I’m sure Steven would rather gain direct entry into the Tournament of Champions, and he’ll need at least one, if not two more victories at this point to get into the ToC. However, as always, there are two challengers trying to stop him; today’s debutants on the Alex Trebek Stage are Jersey City’s Justin Ames and Santa Fe’s Hester Bass.
(Content continues below)
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Correct response: What is Where The Wild Things Are?
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.)
In interviews, Maurice Sendak, author of Where The Wild Things Are, claimed that his inability to draw horses was what changed “horses” to “things” in his Caldecott-winning children’s classic. Interestingly, though, Kate Capshaw and Cora Lynn Deibler of the University of Connecticut, in 2019, posited that it was more that Sendak likely just didn’t think horses were right for the story, pointing out that Sendak had illustrated Charlotte and The White Horse in 1955.
For me, this was a relatively straightforward clue, being able to associate the year 1963 with Sendak’s famous work.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Tuesday, September 23, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: The Answer Is 42!; ____Ing Book Titles; “G” To “G”; The Pre-Fame Celebrity At Work; Around Alabama; Navy SEALs)
Hester and Steven got off to a good battle to start this one; however, Steven broke it slightly open with a True Daily Double just before the commercial break. After 15 clues, the scores were Steven $7,200 Hester $3,400 Justin $1,600.
Statistics at the first break (14 clues):
Steven 7 correct 0 incorrect
Hester 4 correct 0 incorrect
Justin 3 correct 0 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Justin brought his 98-year-old grandmother to watch in the audience.
Hester is a former singing telegram messenger.
Steven is trying to visit all 50 states with his wife; they’re at 35.
Steven picked up 9 more correct responses after the break to extend his lead.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Steven 16 correct 0 incorrect
Hester 6 correct 1 incorrect
Justin 6 correct 2 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Steven $11,200
Hester $3,600
Justin $2,400
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Ancient History; Composers; Ew, David!; 9-Letter Words; Discovery; A Song On Your Lips)
Steven found both Daily Doubles within the first seven clues of the round, picking up $9,000 between them and cruising to a runaway.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Steven 27 correct 3 incorrect
Justin 10 correct 4 incorrect
Hester 9 correct 3 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 3 (3 today).
Scores going into Final:
Steven $27,800
Justin $4,000
Hester $3,200
This Final Jeopardy turned out to be a Triple Stumper; Steven went for a big bet but is still a 3-day champion. He’ll be back for game #4 tomorrow!
Tonight’s results:
Hester $3,200 – $2,500 = $700 (What is Harold and the Purple Crayon? Thanks everyone!!)
Justin $4,000 – $2,401 = $1,599 (What is Black Beauty?)
Steven $27,800 – $17,117 = $10,683 (What is…My Little Pony???) (3-day total: $57,089)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) THE ANSWER IS 42! $1000 (clue #14)
Steven 3600 +3600 (Hester 3400 Justin 1600)
2) COMPOSERS $2000 (clue #4)
Steven 12400 +8000 (Hester 5200 Justin 3600)
3) DISCOVERY $1600 (clue #7, $25600 left on board)
Steven 22000 +1000 (Hester 4000 Justin 3600)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 169
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Steven 4 5 3 3 4 5 5*
Hester 2 5 2 1
Justin 4 3 2
DJ! Round:
Steven 5* 3 4 4*
Hester 3
Justin 3 4
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Steven 4.09
Justin 3.20
Hester 2.60
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: COMPOSERS $400 DISCOVERY $400 A SONG ON YOUR LIPS $400
Total Left On Board: $1,200
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 3 (0.25 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Steven $19,800 Coryat, 27 correct, 3 incorrect, 48.15% in first on buzzer (26/54), 0/1 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Justin $4,000 Coryat, 10 correct, 4 incorrect, 22.22% in first on buzzer (12/54), 1/2 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Hester $3,200 Coryat, 9 correct, 3 incorrect, 18.52% in first on buzzer (10/54), 2/2 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $27,000
Lach Trash: $15,800 (on 11 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $10,000
Lead Changes: 2
Times Tied: 0
Player Statistics:
Steven Olson, career statistics:
86 correct, 13 incorrect
2/5 on rebound attempts (on 12 rebound opportunities)
48.81% in first on buzzer (82/168)
8/9 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $19,200)
2/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $19,200
Hester Bass, career statistics:
9 correct, 4 incorrect
2/2 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
18.52% in first on buzzer (10/54)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $3,200
Justin Ames, career statistics:
10 correct, 5 incorrect
1/2 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
22.22% in first on buzzer (12/54)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $4,000
Steven Olson, to win:
4 games: 68.891%
5: 47.460%
6: 32.695%
7: 22.524%
8: 15.517%
Avg. streak: 5.215 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Considering that this is first time we’ve seen unplayed clues this season and we’ve had an uptick of celebrity-delivered clues, I think the show is doing a good job of balancing things timing-wise.
- Today’s J!6 clues can be found at the monthly archive.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Steven $27,800 Justin $4,000 Hester $3,200)
Steven: Bet no more than $19,799. (Actual bet: $17,117)
Hester: In the battle for second, bet no more than $1,600 and hope that Justin is incorrect. (Actual bet: $2,500)
Justin: Cover bet over Hester is $2,401. (Actual bet: $2,401)
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Makes sense upon reading the clue, I got stuck on Dr. Seuss books such as The Sneeches or How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Unlucky but still batting .500 for the week so far 🙂
When Final Jeopardy is Children’s Literature you can predictably count on it having something to do with Where the Wild Things Are. Someone on the Clue Crew must really love that book.
In Jeopardy parlance, “The Clue Crew” was the travelling clue presenters on the location and the role hasn’t existed for years. Please don’t use that term to refer to the writing staff.
Someone on the writing staff must really love that book. There, fixed it. 🙂
Oops. I always thought Clue Crew was a catchy name but I’ll refrain from using it again.
Got this FJ right on a lucky guess, but I wonder: would just “Where The Wild Things Are” be considered a valid question?
Nope, not a valid question. To be in the form of a question the title would have to be “Where Are The Wild Things?” As it is, the title is a statement of where the wild things are, not questioning where they are. No offense intended to you, Gregory, just clarifying for anyone who may be confused by the title grammatically since you asked.
I’d say “No”. It is not ‘Where Are the Wild Things?’
Sorry, Robert, my computer had frozen and when it “thawed”, I didn’t think to reload in case there were any new comments.
Got this, though had to read the clue twice to confirm it was the book title, not the author, that was the correct response. That’s on me, as the clue was clearly written.
I think that was an easy and understandable error to make, Mark. “Realizing he…,” and “the man…” could easily focus one’s thinking on the author. Even though the clue may have been clearly written, I could understand someone having to read it more than once to get that they were looking for the book itself. Always pays to give a clue a second read through, imo.
On first reading I also thought it was asking about the author. I immediately thought of Shel Silverstein (due to the cover drawings) and ran out of time to re-read the clue while I was trying to think of a specific book most likely to fit.
I guess that sounds like I was correctly trying to give a book title as my response, but without reading the clue a second time, I was just trying (with a specific book) to convince myself that I might have a viable author in mind.
“Title characters purely from his imagination,” immediately made me think of Sendak and “Where The Wild Things Are.” Having read this to my kids many times many years ago, I was very familiar with this book. I also saw an interview with Sendak somewhere on television which came to mind and made this final easy to get. I was actually a bit surprised that not even one of the contestants got it. They seem to have focused on the horse part of the clue rather than the characters being from someone’s imagination.
I didn’t get this right in studio and I didn’t get it right tonight!
Will get a 4 game winner in Steven tomorrow? I’m not going to say, as it’s the final game I saw taped when there on August 8.
Tomorrow I will have something funny to mention about something that happened in the taping for tomorrow’s show. 🙂
It’s not that Kate Capshaw.
“Maurice Sendak couldn’t draw horses” was just one of those factoids I happened to remember which led me to getting it right. I have somehow made it this long without ever having read the book in question.
I only remembered that I have read or have heard something somewhere about an author who couldn’t draw horses, but I could not recall neither his name nor the name of the book.