Warning: This page contains spoilers for the January 20, 2026, 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 Scientific Words) for Tuesday, January 20, 2026 (Season 42, Game 97):
A Nobel laureate coined this word “to avoid the repetition of the rather cumbersome phrase ‘mould broth filtrate'”
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Allegra Kuney, a Ph.D. candidate from New Brunswick, New Jersey
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Brendan Liaw, a law student & away-from-home son from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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Andrew Hayes, a judicial law clerk originally from Tupelo, Mississippi
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
After all of the announcements yesterday, you could be excused for forgetting that there was in fact a game played yesterday on Jeopardy! as Tom Devlin became the first semifinalist in the 33rd Tournament of Champions. Today’s quarterfinalists are Andrew Hayes, Brendan Liaw, and Allegra Kuney. Playing off the fact that he was introduced as a “stay-at-home son” in his regular games, Brendan has elected to include “away-from-home son” in his introduction for this tournament.
In terms of those announcements: the 18-player field for the next Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament, airing after this Tournament of Champions, was announced. Furthermore, the judges decided to revisit the Daily Double ruling against Stella Trout in the Champions Wildcard final, giving her a spot in the 2027 Tournament of Champions.
(Content continues below)
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Are you going on the show and looking for information about how to bet in Final Jeopardy? Check out my Betting Strategy 101 page. If you want to learn how to bet in two-day finals, check out Betting Strategy 102. In case the show uses a tournament with wild cards in the future, there is also a strategy page for betting in tournament quarterfinals.
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Correct response: What is penicillin?
More information about Final Jeopardy:
(The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2026 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)
Alexander Fleming, who shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his 1928 discovery of penicillin, the world’s first broadly effective antibiotic; in that year, he observed that the contamination of a culture of Staphylococcus aureus bacteria with Penicillium rubens killed the bacteria. However, due to the difficulty of being able to produce enough penicillin for general use, it took until World War II—and the importance of saving soliders’ lives—for mass production techniques to be perfected.
I thought this was a relatively straightforward Final Jeopardy clue, especially for the Tournament of Champions. I personally have known that penicillin comes from mold (and was discovered by a Nobel-winning scientist) since my days competing in high school—it would not surprise me whatsoever if this Final Jeopardy played 3/3 today.
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Game Recap:
Allegra Kuney picked up a dozen correct responses in Double Jeopardy as she took the lead for good on the last Daily Double. The $15,200 she picked up on the second board was enough to cement a runaway entering Final Jeopardy.
Unlike what some people so confidently predicted online earlier today, this Final Jeopardy was decidedly not a Triple Stumper—both Andrew and Brendan were correct. However, Allegra is a semifinalist thank to her runaway.
Scores going into Final:
Allegra $18,200
Brendan $8,000
Andrew $6,200
Tonight’s results:
Andrew $6,200 + $1,801 = $8,001 (What is penicillin?)
Brendan $8,000 + $1,337 = $9,337 (What’s penicillin)
Allegra $18,200 – $10 = $18,190 (What is agar?) (Semi-Finalist)
Chances of winning Tournament of Champions:
Scott Riccardi: 17.715%
Laura Faddah: 3.693%
Paolo Pasco: 14.279%
Tom Devlin: 13.275%
Allegra Kuney: 13.919%
Bryce Wargin: 2.359%
Cameron Berry: 3.374%
Ben Ganger: 4.318%
Ashley Chan: 2.279%
W. Kamau Bell: 1.592%
Alex DeFrank: 6.099%
Steven Olson: 4.976%
Josh Weikert: 2.025%
Matt Massie: 4.063%
Lisa Ann Walter: 1.137%
Mike Dawson: 2.220%
TJ Fisher: 2.677%
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Today’s game being a runaway means that no wagering suggestions will be posted.
- Today’s J!6 clues can be found at the monthly archive.
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