Warning: This page contains spoilers for the October 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 20th Century Science) for Friday, October 17, 2025 (Season 42, Game 30):
Calling it “a particle that cannot be detected”, physicist Wolfgang Pauli 1st proposed this in 1930; it was detected in 1956
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Dargan Ware, an attorney & writer from Bessemer, Alabama
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Sondra Venable, a standardized patient from New Orleans, Louisiana
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Cindy del Rosario, a hospice & palliative care nurse from Denver, Colorado (1-day total: $23,201)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Denver’s Cindy del Rosario is your new Jeopardy! champion after her victory yesterday. Today, she faces off against a couple of Southerners in Sondra Venable from Louisiana and Dargan Ware from Alabama. Dargan is a very well-known quantity in the trivia world; based on that alone, it would not surprise me if he did go on a bit of a run; however, there’s also a lot of variance on this program, and it’s certainly at least just as likely if he does not.
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(Content continues below)
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Correct response: What is the neutrino?
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 attempting to explain how beta decay could still conserve energy, momentum, and spin, Wolfgang Pauli hypothesized an undetected particle; he called this a “neutron”, but the terminology was changed to “neutrino” a couple of years later, after the word “neutron” became used to describe the heavier neutral particle discovered by James Chadwick. It took more than 25 years to detect, with Clyde Cowan, Frederick Raines, and others detecting it through the Cowan—Reines neutrino experiment. (Reines received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1995 for his career in neutrino work.)
Science clues have always seemed to play harder on Jeopardy!; it’ll be interesting to see how today’s Final Jeopardy plays.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Friday, October 17, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: How’s Your Gulf Game?; A Brief History Of Time; Don’t Tell Me To Calm Down; This Is What We Trained For!; Movie Improvisations; Daddy, Is There Really A…)
Cindy found the Daily Double, but found her score falling back to $0 after an incorrect response. After 15 clues, the scores were Dargan $3,200 Sondra $2,800 Cindy $1,000.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Dargan 5 correct 0 incorrect
Sondra 4 correct 0 incorrect
Cindy 4 correct 1 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Dargan is president of the Alabama state poetry society.
Sondra works as a practice patient at a medical school.
Cindy mountain bikes and skateboards.
Everyone was playing well in the second half of the round as Dargan continued to lead after 30 clues.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Dargan 10 correct 1 incorrect
Sondra 7 correct 0 incorrect
Cindy 9 correct 1 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Dargan $5,200
Sondra $4,200
Cindy $3,000
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: History; TV Personalities; Sold! To The Highest Bidder; Philosophy ABCs; Cat Of 5 Tales; “Pass”words)
Dargan picked up $10,400 on both Daily Doubles within the first 6 clues of the round, dominating the round and cruising to a runaway.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Dargan 28 correct 1 incorrect
Cindy 17 correct 1 incorrect
Sondra 10 correct 0 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 6 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Dargan $35,600
Cindy $11,400
Sondra $7,400
Cindy was the only player correct in Final Jeopardy, which made Dargan’s runaway very important. He’s your new Jeopardy! Champion and he’ll be back Monday to defend.
Tonight’s results:
Sondra $7,400 – $4,001 = $3,399 (What is a quark?)
Cindy $11,400 + $3,401 = $14,801 (What is a neutrino?)
Dargan $35,600 – $9,400 = $26,200 (What is Quark? WPS! UTCIAD!) (1-day total: $26,200)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) DON’T TELL ME TO CALM DOWN $600 (clue #10)
Cindy 2600 -2600 (Sondra 1200 Dargan 2600)
2) HISTORY $1600 (clue #2)
Dargan 6400 +6400 (Cindy 3000 Sondra 4200)
3) PHILOSOPHY ABCs $1600 (clue #6, $27200 left on board)
Dargan 16000 +4000 (Cindy 4200 Sondra 4200)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 25
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Cindy 3 3 3 3*
Sondra 3 2
Dargan 4 5 4 5
DJ! Round:
Cindy 3 3
Sondra
Dargan 4* 5† 3 4*
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Dargan 4.25
Cindy 3.00
Sondra 2.50
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 6 (0.20 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Dargan $28,400 Coryat, 28 correct, 1 incorrect, 47.37% in first on buzzer (27/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 0 rebound opportunities)
Cindy $14,000 Coryat, 17 correct, 1 incorrect, 29.82% in first on buzzer (17/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
Sondra $7,400 Coryat, 10 correct, 0 incorrect, 15.79% in first on buzzer (9/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
Combined Coryat Score: $49,800
Lach Trash: $3,400 (on 4 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $800
Lead Changes: 4
Times Tied: 2
Player Statistics:
Cindy del Rosario, career statistics:
38 correct, 2 incorrect
2/2 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
29.82% in first on buzzer (34/114)
1/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $1,400)
2/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $13,700
Sondra Venable, career statistics:
10 correct, 1 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
15.79% in first on buzzer (9/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $7,400
Dargan Ware, career statistics:
28 correct, 2 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 0 rebound opportunities)
47.37% in first on buzzer (27/57)
2/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $10,400)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $28,400
Dargan Ware, to win:
2 games: 70.334%
3: 49.469%
4: 34.793%
5: 24.472%
6: 17.212%
Avg. streak: 3.371 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Dargan’s get rate on LearnedLeague history questions are north of 90% in both American and World History—it is no surprise to me that he ran that category and went all in on that category’s Daily Double.
- Today’s J!6 clues can be found at the monthly archive.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Dargan $35,600 Cindy $11,400 Sondra $7,400)
Cindy: Standard cover bet over Sondra is $3,401. (Actual bet: $3,401)
Sondra: Bet at least $600 for any chance of finishing second. (Actual bet: $4,001)
Dargan: Bet no more than $12,799. (Actual bet: $9,400)
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Well, so much for a perfect week. I zigged where I should have zagged on Pauli and said positron.
My first thought was antimatter, then “particle” made me think of neutrino and positron. Flipped a coin..got neutrino.
Having no idea at all what these subatomic particles are, I ended up guessing the Higgs Boson.
The years helped me to choose between neutron and neutrino correctly. I remembered that neutron was actually discovered around 1930.
Dargan here – My first thought was actually Higgs Boson and then I looked at the date again, and thought Gell-Mann could have come up with Quark in 1956 (turned out it was 1964). Don’t think I was ever gonna pull the correct.