Warning: This page contains spoilers for the November 3, 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 The Western Hemisphere) for Monday, November 3, 2025 (Season 42, Game 41):
Officially getting an international border in 1848, this area of land is up to 150 miles wide & has about 2,000 miles of coastline
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Joyelle McSweeney, a poet & English professor from South Bend, Indiana
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W.A. Robison, a retired educator from Natchitoches, Louisiana
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Christopher Tillman, a pastor from Plover, Wisconsin (2-day total: $25,600)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Christopher Tillman is 0-for-6 at finding Daily Doubles, but 2-for-2 at finding victories on Jeopardy!. Today, he goes for an important third victory—one he’ll likely need in order to qualify for postseason play at this point, judging by his stats off his first two games—against W.A. Robison of Louisiana and Joyelle McSweeney of Indiana.
As far as today’s game goes, if you take into account that there appears to be a Good Morning America video category, I think we have a much larger chance than usual of seeing unplayed clues in today’s game. That said, this is Week 9 of the season, and we’ve only had six unplayed clues over the first eight weeks. If you told me 5 years ago that this would be the case in 2025, I would be a very happy Jeopardy! fan. (In 2020, we had 105 unplayed clues through the first eight weeks of episodes.)
(Content continues below)
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Correct response: What is Baja California?
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.)
According to Britannica, the Mexican peninsula of Baja California is “approximately 760 miles long and 25 to 150 miles wide” and “has 2,038 miles of coastline”. It officially got an international border in 1848 after the 1846–48 Mexican War with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, when California proper was given to the United States and Baja California was given to Mexico.
Remember that Final Jeopardy correct responses need to fit all aspects of the clue, though I can certainly sympathize with anyone who fell for the negbait of Hispaniola on this one–also about 150 miles wide with about 2,000 miles of coastline. Unfortunately, the island of Hispaniola did not get an international border in 1848. Overall, between that and any mention of coastline length, due to the coastline paradox, I don’t particularly like this Final Jeopardy clue, even though it is pinned to an authoritative source like Britannica. Basically, the length of any coastline is dependent on the method used to measure it, due to the fractal-like properties that a coastline has; the shorter the measurement unit, the closer the coastline length approaches infinity. (A similar problem occurs when measuring river length.)
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Monday, November 3, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Sports That Don’t Involve Running; What’s The Name?; Going The Extra Mile; Compound Words; To Earn The Scouting Merit Badge…; Good Morning America: 50 Years Of News)
Christopher finally found a Daily Double; unfortunately, an incorrect response dropped him back to $0. After 15 clues, the scores were Joyelle $2,600 W.A. $2,600 Christoper $200.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Joyelle 6 correct 1 incorrect
W.A. 3 correct 0 incorrect
Christopher 5 correct 1 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Joyelle has a dog with a really long name—Ziggy is his nickname.
W.A. was a district supervisor for quiz bowl.
Christopher flipped his own house.
Joyelle continued her strong play to continue to lead after 30 clues.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Joyelle 12 correct 3 incorrect
W.A. 6 correct 1 incorrect
Christopher 8 correct 2 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Joyelle $4,800
W.A. $3,600
Christopher $400
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: 17th Century Happenings; “M.W.”; American Authors; Martial Arts; Great Songs; The Animal Kingdom)
W.A. and Christopher both got Daily Doubles incorrect—Christopher’s was a second True Daily Double—as Joyelle had a runaway entering Final Jeopardy.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Joyelle 23 correct 5 incorrect
W.A. 11 correct 2 incorrect
Christopher 16 correct 3 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 6 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Joyelle $17,600
W.A. $4,800
Christopher $2,800
Joyelle was correct in Final, getting credit for her response and picking up $100 more. She’ll return tomorrow to defend her title.
Tonight’s results:
Christopher $2,800 – $2,001 = $799 (What is New Zealand?)
W.A. $4,800 – $801 = $3,999 (What is the Canal Z)
Joyelle $17,600 + $100 = $17,700 (What is The Baja Penninsula?) (1-day total: $17,700)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) SPORTS THAT DON’T INVOLVE RUNNING $600 (clue #10)
Christopher 2400 -2400 (W.A. 1600 Joyelle 1000)
2) THE ANIMAL KINGDOM $1200 (clue #18)
W.A. 6800 -2000 (Christopher 4000 Joyelle 10000)
3) MARTIAL ARTS $1600 (clue #23, $10400 left on board)
Christopher 5200 -5200 (W.A. 4800 Joyelle 12800)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -229
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Christopher 1 3 5 4 3*
W.A. 2 2
Joyelle 1 5 4
DJ! Round:
Christopher 2 5 4 3 1 5 4 3 4*
W.A. 3 1 3 2 3* 4†
Joyelle 2 1 4 5 1 1 2† 1†
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Joyelle 2.45
W.A. 2.50
Christopher 3.36
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 6 (0.15 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Joyelle $17,600 Coryat, 23 correct, 5 incorrect, 49.12% in first on buzzer (28/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
W.A. $6,800 Coryat, 11 correct, 2 incorrect, 19.30% in first on buzzer (11/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Christopher $10,400 Coryat, 16 correct, 3 incorrect, 26.32% in first on buzzer (15/57), 1/2 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $34,800
Lach Trash: $9,200 (on 7 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $10,000
Lead Changes: 3
Times Tied: 2
Player Statistics:
Christopher Tillman, career statistics:
48 correct, 9 incorrect
3/4 on rebound attempts (on 19 rebound opportunities)
28.07% in first on buzzer (48/171)
0/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$7,600)
1/3 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $9,733
W.A. Robison, career statistics:
11 correct, 3 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
19.30% in first on buzzer (11/57)
0/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$2,000)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $6,800
Joyelle McSweeney, career statistics:
24 correct, 5 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
49.12% in first on buzzer (28/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $17,600
Joyelle McSweeney, to win:
2 games: 51.065%
3: 26.076%
4: 13.316%
5: 6.800%
6: 3.472%
Avg. streak: 2.044 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- I’m concerned that Joyelle’s clue selection strategy might cause her to lose an otherwise winnable game; with 23 correct, she certainly have the knowledge base to be a multi-day champion.
- Today’s J!6 clues can be found at the monthly archive.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Joyelle $17,600 W.A. $4,800 Christopher $2,800)
Christopher: Bet at least $1,201 to have a chance at second place. (Actual bet: $2,001)
W.A.: Standard cover bet over Christopher is $801. (Actual bet: $801)
Joyelle: Bet no more than $7,999. (Actual bet: $100)
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Western Hemisphere + Long and Narrow = I guessed Chile…
I should’ve known “area of land” wasn’t referring to a specific nation,
but a portion thereof.
me, too….it seemed ‘so obvious’ 🙂
I got this one right. A lot of times I make an educated guess and it is correct and then there are the times when I just know the answer. The brain just holds so much information that sometimes it’s hard to retrieve it in 30 seconds.
Guessed it and got lucky. Baja seemed to fit the clue.
I went with “Isthmus of Panama”, which was still a part of Colombia in 1848, but may have gained a border with Costa Rica at that point. But 1848 should have stood out as the end of the Mexican-American War, and it just didn’t click with me, so I went with Isthmus of Panama despite my reservations.
I guessed the Alaska Panhandle, the border being between Russia and the UK.
I also considered this one, but thought its border with Canada/UK was established much earlier than that (and I was correct). I briefly considered the Florida Panhandle, but was sure it would have been more likely to have LOST an international border around then. But I very quickly thought of Baja California and “went with it”.
This was a “get” for me-sort of. Listening and reading the clue answer, especially the part of area where it was 150 miles wide. That lead me to thinking that the correct response would be either Baja or Chile. But even if I had decided that Baja was my “final answer” (borrowing from another Micheal Davis show,) would just saying that been acceptable? Joyelle said the Baja Penninsula which is more of an identifier than just saying Baja.
“and Baja California was given to Mexico.” Given? By whom? From whom? As though it weren’t already a part of Mexico?
The USA had essentially conquered Mexico, including the Baja. These conquered lands were returned to Mexico as part of the settlement treaty.
I was happy to see that Joyelle came up with “The Baja Peninsula” as that matched my response. “Baja California” did not occur to me in the same way that “Baja Peninsula” did so I would have wondered if that would have been acceptable. The year being 1848 and it’s association with the end of the Mexican-American War helped seal the response in order to eliminate any other long, narrow land areas. It also helped that I drove a good bit of the Baja Peninsula in 1982, over 43 years ago.
Joyelle was on fire today, though I felt bad for Chris not having got a single DD right in his three appearances. Best of luck to Joyelle tomorrow
I wonder if such a treaty would’ve worked out if gold was discovered in California 1-2 years earlier. The war may have dragged on.
I was way off and should have known my neighbor to the south!