Warning: This page contains spoilers for the December 15, 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 Higher Education) for Monday, December 15, 2025 (Season 42, Game 71):
Merrimack College is one of 2 Augustinian institutions of higher learning in the U.S.; in the news in 2025, this is the other
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Eugene Huang, a teacher from Paramus, New Jersey
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Erin Li, a psychiatrist from New York, New York
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Erik Nielsen, a voice actor from Hollywood, California
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
The road to the 33rd Tournament of Champions currently has 59 players with a chance of hoisting that crown in early February: 27 in the next three weeks of Second Chance, with three winners joining 12 in Champions Wildcard, with one winner joining the top 20 in the Tournament of Champions. Our first three Second Chance combatants are Erik Nielsen, Erin Li, and Eugene Huang; all of whom had a very strong performance their first time out on the Alex Trebek Stage.
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Some mid-afternoon news that I am choosing to include in this section as well, mostly because it felt obvious to everyone anyway: Michael Davies announced this afternoon on Inside Jeopardy! that Colin Jost was officially returning as host of Season 2 of Pop Culture Jeopardy!; taping of that will take place in January 2026.
(Content continues below)
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Correct response: What is Villanova University?
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.)
Philadelphia’s Villanova University made worldwide news in May 2025 as the alma mater of the newly elected Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV. The first Augustinian friar to ascend to the papacy graduated from Villanova in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics.
I think the show needed to make a more transparent reference to Pope Leo here to work well as a Final Jeopardy at this level, as I think it is much too easy to head down the path of some of 2025’s more negative news items.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Monday, December 15, 2025 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: A Landmark Event; Greek Alphabet Soup; Poetry Time; The Canadian Invasion; “Oy” To The World; A Bottle Of Red, A Bottle Of White)
It was Erik who got their Second Chance off to the best start, finding the Daily Double early and having a big lead after 15 clues. At the chat with Ken, the scores were Erik $5,000 Erin $1,200 Eugene $1,000.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Erik 7 correct 1 incorrect
Erin 4 correct 1 incorrect
Eugene 2 correct 0 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Eugene has a mutual board game friend with the player who beat him.
Erin gave birth to a daughter on Ken’s birthday.
Erik was on Community.
All 3 players played well; Erik still led after 30. By the end of the round, Eugene had gone 3/5 in landmarks, while Erin was 3/5 in Canadians and Erik was 3/5 in poetry, “oy”, and wine.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Erik 12 correct 2 incorrect
Erin 10 correct 1 incorrect
Eugene 6 correct 0 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Erik $7,600
Erin $4,400
Eugene $3,400
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: The World Is Changing; Rock & Roll Hall Of Famers; Science Nonfiction; Not To Be Confused; Relativity; I’m Thinking Of A James…)
Eugene found both Daily Doubles, only getting one of them incorrect; this meant Erik led going into Final, with Eugene going 3/5 in science and Erik going 3/5 in a category about people named James.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Erik 23 correct 3 incorrect
Eugene 17 correct 1 incorrect
Erin 16 correct 3 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 8 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Erik $18,800
Eugene $16,000
Erin $8,000
As anyone could have predicted, this Final Jeopardy turned out to be a Triple Stumper, proving still that it should have been saved for a few more weeks. Eugene made a small-enough bet and is a finalist!
Tonight’s results:
Erin $8,000 – $4,201 = $3,799 (What is ?)
Eugene $16,000 – $7,999 = $8,001 (What is St. Thomas Aquinas?) (Finalist)
Erik $18,800 – $13,201 = $5,599 (What is ____)
Chances to win Second Chance Week 1:
Eugene Huang: 27.228%
Dave Widmayer 15.157%
Evan Argyle 11.471%
Ivanna Lopez 10.789%
Pete Johnston 14.380%
Allison Willard 9.250%
Chris Turner-Neal 11.725%
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) POETRY TIME $800 (clue #2)
Erik 1000 +1000 (Erin 0 Eugene 0)
2) SCIENCE NONFICTION $1600 (clue #13)
Eugene 9400 +3000 (Erik 11200 Erin 6000)
3) THE WORLD IS CHANGING $2000 (clue #20, $8000 left on board)
Eugene 16000 -2000 (Erik 14000 Erin 6800)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 119
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Erik 5 4*
Erin
Eugene
DJ! Round:
Erik 4 3 4 3 5 2
Erin 3 5 2 2
Eugene 3 2 2 5 4 4* 5† 3 4 5*
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Eugene 3.70
Erik 3.75
Erin 3.00
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 8 (0.11 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Eugene $16,600 Coryat, 17 correct, 1 incorrect, 26.32% in first on buzzer (15/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Erik $18,600 Coryat, 23 correct, 3 incorrect, 43.86% in first on buzzer (25/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 1 rebound opportunity)
Erin $8,000 Coryat, 16 correct, 3 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 1/3 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $43,200
Lach Trash: $3,000 (on 3 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $7,800
Lead Changes: 7
Times Tied: 4
Player Statistics:
Erik Nielsen, career statistics:
41 correct, 8 incorrect
2/3 on rebound attempts (on 8 rebound opportunities)
36.84% in first on buzzer (42/114)
2/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $3,300)
0/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $15,300
Erin Li, career statistics:
35 correct, 6 incorrect
2/4 on rebound attempts (on 7 rebound opportunities)
29.82% in first on buzzer (34/114)
1/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $1,000)
0/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $11,000
Eugene Huang, career statistics:
37 correct, 4 incorrect
5/5 on rebound attempts (on 10 rebound opportunities)
27.19% in first on buzzer (31/114)
1/4 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$4,000)
1/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $16,100
Andy’s Thoughts:
- I do want to point out that Yvette Nicole Brown’s Celebrity appearance makes her another Greendale alum to appear on the show.
- Today’s J!6 clues can be found at the monthly archive.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Erik $18,800 Eugene $16,000 Erin $8,000)
Erik: Standard cover bet today is $13,201. If you really think Eugene will make a small bet, a bet between $2 and $2,798 defends against that. (Actual bet: $13,201)
Erin: Your two best chances of winning comes with bets of either $8,000 (if you think Eugene will bet very small) or $2,400 exactly (this will pass Eugene if he makes a four-fifths bet against Erik and is incorrect and also keeps you ahead of Erik’s total if he covers and is incorrect.) (Actual bet: $4,201)
Eugene: Standard cover bet over Erin is $1. I would actually make this bet as it forces Erin to go all in to pass you. (Actual bet: $7,999)
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Went down the rabbit hole of schools like Harvard, Columbia, UCLA, etc., for schools in the news in 2025. Didn’t know Pope Leo XIV went to Villanova, anyway.
Since Robert Prevost, Pope Leo XIV, was born a Chicagoan, I should’ve remembered that he got his undergraduate degree from Villanova. At the time of his election, Pope Leo XIV biography was featured fare in both major Chicago newspapers.
When Johnny Gilbert announced Erik’s occupation as an Voice Actor, I checked his credits on IMDB. Discovered he also has a few as a “live” actor, appearing on the Office.
This one was easy for me, only because I went to Notre Dame and am therefore more up on this sort of thing. In general, however, this is a tough FJ clue. Like Leo, I was also a math major, although I’ve never been pope.
If you were to become Pope, you would be Pope Gregory XVII as there have been 16 Popes named Gregory to date.
Believe it or not, if you were to become pope, you’d actually be Pope Robert I; though Leo XIV was born Robert Prevost, none of the 267 popes throughout history have had Pope Robert as their official name!
Now, hopefully I would be Pope MasterDoge I, or there are some serious problems with the naming conventions in the Vatican… that, or one of my high school friends got to the papacy before I did and that’s their idea of a practical joke. 🙂
Didn’t get it. Pope Leo lived not too far from me the one year he lived in St. Louis, MO.
Georgetown grad here. So, Jesuits versus Augustinians. Similar-ish. But I did get it anyway.
Hard to believe it’s been over 40 years since Villanova beat Georgetown in the NCAA finals.
And now these rivals are both members of the Big East.
First season of the 64 team format
Is it just me or does Paolo Pasco feel like he could be a dark horse to upset Scott Riccardi and win the 2026 TOC? I was really impressed with him in his 7 game run.
I think Paolo is the player to fear, actually. He writes crossword clues for a living, and he was ridiculous on the wordplay categories in his games.
Kind of crazy to think that if Eugene makes that third Daily Double, he probably loses that game to Erik.
not surprised final was a triple stumper, also I’m 1 for 1 on predictions so that’s nice
Was it by design or serendipity that all three contestants’ first names begin with E?
Serendipity.
Something to look at on Thursday:
How will Eugene seeing his Final Jeopardy as a clue above everyone’s knowledge level affect his betting on the Day 1 Final Jeopardy? If the three players have different ideas of the difficulty level of Final, it could impact the result of the game in a way that it wouldn’t if clues are consistent.
Or maybe all five Finals this week are hard, who knows?
The elements of the clue all pointed me to “the alma mater of the Pope”, but I did not know which school that was, unfortunately. Schools that came to mind, like Boston College (Jesuit) and Notre Dame (Marian), didn’t fit the Augustinian part of the clue.
Not to nitpick, but the priests at Notre Dame are Holy Cross fathers (CSC).
Sad to see Erik go as I love his work, but a well-played game by all!
As a follower of NCAA Basketball (including the Big East), I was aware that Villanova was an Augustinian college and that the new Pope had been a student there. So easy for some but not so much for most.
As a Villanova grad, this was extremely easy for me. Also something that’s funny here is that Eugene’s interview mentions having a mutual friend of Josh Weikert. Josh has a degree from & taught at Villanova
I went to Boston College, a Jesuit school, for undergrad. So, like others here who went to Georgetown, Notre Dame, etc., this one came easy. But, yeah, for those without a similar connection, I would think this would be a tough one.
Augustinian-trained here, so this was easy for me; also the fact that I live half an hour outside Philadelphia helps.
Just returned to Jeopardy. Lost track for awhile after Alex died., figuring it would never be the same.But I have to say Ken Jennings does a fine job, very good
100% and welcome back! 🙂