Warning: This page contains spoilers for the September 26, 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 Scientists) for Friday, September 26, 2025 (Season 42, Game 15):
Joseph Lister said there was not “an individual to whom medical science owes more than to” this man, feted at the Sorbonne in 1892
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Prasad Patil, an assistant professor of biostatistics from Burlington, Massachusetts
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Yasmine Mitchell, a software engineer from Sunnyvale, California
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Vickie Talvola, a quantitative trader from Jersey City, New Jersey (1-day total: $26,407)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
We have a new Jeopardy! champion in Vickie Talvola, who picked up $26,407 yesterday as she unseated 4-day champion Steven Olson, crediting Discord for her aggressive Daily Double betting strategy. Certainly, it was a strategy befitting her professional expertise as a quantitative trader (as opposed to the lack of strategy demonstrated on Monday by a futures trader). Today, Vickie represents Team Glasses against Yasmine Mitchell and Prasad Patil.
In other news, Variety reported the syndicated premiere week ratings earlier this week; noteworthy is that Jeopardy! is still the #1 show in syndication, with year-over-year ratings increasing by 4%. The fact that Jeopardy!‘s ratings are up despite the constant drop-off in viewers in linear TV shows that things are going right in Culver City. (Not that any recent rumours from the National Enquirer should be believed, anyway. Because, well, National Enquirer.)
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Correct response: Who is Louis Pasteur?
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.)
Louis Pasteur’s 70th birthday was celebrated at the famed Sorbonne in Paris, in honor of a man whose research in chemistry led to developing vaccines for cholera and rabies, among others, as well as both fermentation theory and how mild heat, enough to kill pathogens, can extend the shelf life of certain foods (such as milk), a process now named after him. His research into germ theory still influences parts of modern medicine.
Especially if one remembers that Joseph Lister is the namesake of the product Listerine, this should be a straightforward clue, with “Sorbonne” and 1892 gives the “19th-century Frenchman” clue and Lister should point people towards germ reduction.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Friday, September 26, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: The Western Hemisphere; Worn On The Street; Movie Role In Common; Which -Verse Are We In?; History; 1-“S”yllable Words)
Just before the commercial break, Vickie broke a close game open by picking up $3,600 on a True Daily Double. At the break, the scores were Vickie $7,800 Prasad $2,000 Yasmine $1,800.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Vickie 7 correct 0 incorrect
Prasad 3 correct 1 incorrect
Yasmine 3 correct 0 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Prasad did a food-related “triple double” during March Madness.
Yasmine has a boba obsession.
Vickie has a cat named Seven who is very demanding of Vickie’s attention.
Vickie picked up another 6 correct after the break to extend her lead.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Vickie 13 correct 1 incorrect
Prasad 7 correct 2 incorrect
Yasmine 7 correct 1 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Vickie $9,800
Prasad $4,000
Yasmine $3,200
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Archaeologist’s Glossary; TV Shows By Family; Cover Me; Alliteration; Lonely Island; I’m On A Boat)
A back-and-forth Double Jeopardy round saw the lead change hands six times; Vickie got $6,000 on DD2, while Prasad got $10,000 on DD3 after Vickie accidentally went back to the same category as DD2; this set up a nervy last 8 clues, where Vickie took a $200 lead going into Final on the last clue of the round.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Vickie 25 correct 2 incorrect
Prasad 17 correct 3 incorrect
Yasmine 11 correct 1 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 3 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Vickie $25,800
Prasad $25,600
Yasmine $7,600
All three players were correct today in Final Jeopardy. Unfortunately for Vickie, she bet hoping that Final Jeopardy would be a difficult one for Prasad…and her small wager means Prasad is your new Jeopardy! Champion. He’ll be back on Monday to defend his title.
Tonight’s results:
Yasmine $7,600 + $5,000 = $12,600 (Who is Pasteur?)
Prasad $25,600 + $10,000 = $35,600 (Who is Pasteur?) (1-day total: $35,600)
Vickie $25,800 + $150 = $25,950 (Who is Pasteur?)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) WHICH -VERSE ARE WE IN? $800 (clue #14)
Vickie 3600 +3600 (Yasmine 1800 Prasad 2600)
2) LONELY ISLAND $2000 (clue #13)
Vickie 15000 +6000 (Yasmine 7200 Prasad 12000)
3) COVER ME $800 (clue #22, $4000 left on board)
Prasad 14800 +10000 (Vickie 24200 Yasmine 7200)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 208
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Vickie 5 4 3 4 5 3 4 4*
Yasmine 3 2 4
Prasad 4 5 3
DJ! Round:
Vickie 4 4 5 5* 4 5 3 5 4 5 2†
Yasmine 3 3 4 3
Prasad 4 5 3 2 3 2 2*
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Prasad 3.30
Vickie 4.11
Yasmine 3.14
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 3 (0.20 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Prasad $16,400 Coryat, 17 correct, 3 incorrect, 33.33% in first on buzzer (19/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Vickie $19,000 Coryat, 25 correct, 2 incorrect, 38.60% in first on buzzer (22/57), 2/3 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Yasmine $7,600 Coryat, 11 correct, 1 incorrect, 21.05% in first on buzzer (12/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $43,000
Lach Trash: $7,000 (on 7 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $4,000
Lead Changes: 10
Times Tied: 1
Player Statistics:
Vickie Talvola, career statistics:
49 correct, 2 incorrect
5/6 on rebound attempts (on 13 rebound opportunities)
35.09% in first on buzzer (40/114)
3/3 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $19,000)
2/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $18,600
Yasmine Mitchell, career statistics:
12 correct, 1 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
21.05% in first on buzzer (12/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $7,600
Prasad Patil, career statistics:
18 correct, 3 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
33.33% in first on buzzer (19/57)
1/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $10,000)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $16,400
Prasad Patil, to win:
2 games: 62.460%
3: 39.013%
4: 24.367%
5: 15.220%
6: 9.506%
Avg. streak: 2.664 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- I mean, if you’re betting on second place to get Final Jeopardy incorrect, Vickie made a reasonable and defensible wager, and there would be people praising her wagering acumen if today’s Final Jeopardy turned out to be difficult. That doesn’t make today’s result any less heartbreaking, though.
- Today’s J!6 clues can be found at the monthly archive.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Vickie $25,800 Prasad $25,600 Yasmine $7,600)
Vickie: Standard cover bet today is $25,401. (Actual bet: $150)
Yasmine: Bet no more than $7,200 (in case Vickie covers.) (Actual bet: $5,000)
Prasad: Bet between $401 (in case Vickie bets small) and $10,399 (keeping Yasmine locked out). (Actual bet: $10,000)
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Thinking French doctors of that era, and I came up blank. Doh!
Seeing the name Lister, I immediately thought of Semmelweis, Sorbonne notwithstanding. Fetes can be posthumous, can they?
This seemed like a fairly easy FJ, and I am not surprised by the Triple Get. Vickie should have bet big, even if she disliked the category, since Prasad is a scientist of sorts and therefore more likely to get this right than not. Bet big, and hope that you’ll know the answer.
I’m not sure that counting on an assistant professor of Biostatistics to get a wrong answer in “Scientists” was great strategy on Vickie’s part, but that’s just my opinion and I certainly wasn’t the one under the bright lights and game pressure to make the judgement.
Finally broke .500 on FJ answers for the current season after an 0-for-4 start to the season. My reasoning to get to the right answer tonight was the same as you outlined above; knowing who Lister is, and his work with infection and germs, and that we were looking for a French scientist who worked in the medical field in the 19th century, probably with an emphasis on germs and infection. That would come down to one name for me, and that was Pasteur.
Would Vickie qualify for the second-chance tournament? I felt like her gameplay in the two games she appeared was very good and, like you said, it’s unfortunate that a calculated risk backfired. I imagine that if she were given another chance, she could be a post-season force.
Traditionally Second Chance is for non-winners and I thought Prasad would be invited had he lost.
Vickie will need to get into Champions Wildcard and not sure if she’ll qualify. Andy would know much more about that than I would.
French scientist from the 19th Century just screams Louis Pasteur unless you’re going for the more obscure Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac or Claude Bernard. The others that come to mind just seem too obscure to be the final response in regular play. Those others might be more appropriate for ToC or other champions type play.
So sorry/sad to see Vickie leaving so soon. I really thought she’d be going on an extended run after beating Steven and playing so well in the first two rounds today. Have to say that the quantitative trader’s strategy doesn’t look so good now, does it. When you have the lead going into final, the cover bet means you’re betting on yourself and the small wager shows a lack of confidence in yourself as your betting that the other players will get it wrong. This was such a contrast to how Vickie was wagering on Daily Doubles. Always bet on yourself.
I’m really disappointed (even heartbroken as Andy alluded to) to lose such a good player as Vickie so soon as she really seemed to know her stuff and played so well up until that final point. 🙁
You and me both Robert. I was envisioning a long run by Vickie. Definitely heartbreaking. 🙁
Vickie seemed very good. After her aggressive DD bets, my wife and I were shocked when she went “small” on the FJ wager tonight. Anyway, it was a heck of a game.
This FJ just hit me right away. And when all 3 contestants got it, that explains why it hit me right away. I’m not so good at FJ.
Great game tonight by all 3 players and retro congrats to Prasad on the win.
It was heartbreaking to see that bet by Vickie. I could have envisioned a long run by her. 🙁