Today’s Final Jeopardy – Monday, January 5, 2026

Current Champion

Nikolas Polsinelli, career statistics:
44 correct, 6 incorrect
2/2 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
35.96% in first on buzzer (41/114)
4/5 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $10,600)
1/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $17,500

To win:
3 games: 64.111%
4: 41.102%
5: 26.351%
6: 16.894%
7: 10.831%
Avg. streak: 3.786 games.
(Click Here for Methodology)

Upcoming Encore Presentations

September 26-27: S42 E174 (May 7, 2026)
October 3-4: S42 E175 (May 8, 2026)
October 10-11: S42 E176 (May 11, 2026)
(Source: Bell Fibe TV program guide)

All Time Winnings

All Time Jeopardy! Winnings, Regular Play Only:

1. Ken Jennings $2,520,700
2. James Holzhauer $2,462,216
3. Matt Amodio $1,518,601
4. Amy Schneider $1,382,800
5. Jamie Ding $882,605
6. Cris Pannullo $748,286
7. Mattea Roach $560,983
8. Jason Zuffranieri $532,496
9. Scott Riccardi $455,000
10. David Madden $430,400
11. Julia Collins $428,100
12. Matt Jackson $411,612
13. Austin Rogers $411,000
14. Ray Lalonde $386,400
15. Harrison Whitaker $373,999
16. Adriana Harmeyer $349,600
17. Caleb Groen $346,968
18. Adam Remsen $306,415
19. Ryan Long $299,400
20. Arthur Chu $297,200

All Time Jeopardy! Winnings, Including Tournaments (and Consolation Prizes):

1. Brad Rutter $4,968,436
2. Ken Jennings $4,372,700
3. James Holzhauer $3,614,216
4. Matt Amodio $1,964,601
5. Amy Schneider $1,864,800
6. Yogesh Raut $1,598,403
7. Victoria Groce $1,023,801
8. Mattea Roach $897,983
9. Jamie Ding $885,605
10. David Madden $785,733
11. Cris Pannullo $754,286
12. Roger Craig $706,200
13. Andrew He $684,365
14. Larissa Kelly $671,930
15. Matt Jackson $623,612
16. Jason Zuffranieri $549,496
17. Paolo Pasco $548,717
18. Scott Riccardi $533,000
19. Jerome Vered $499,102
20. Julia Collins $495,767
21. Austin Rogers $493,000
22. Juveria Zaheer $491,000
23. Ben Ingram $449,201
24. Adriana Harmeyer $446,600
25. Buzzy Cohen $441,603

Warning: This page contains spoilers for the January 5, 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.

Attention: There is also a new “Daily Details” post accompanying this game. If you’re looking for more detailed thoughts and statistics about today’s game of Jeopardy!, as well as the ability to leave a comment, make sure to check them out here! (Note that the page is only viewable to logged-in free subscribers to TJF Plus.)

Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category Science) for Monday, January 5, 2026 (Season 42, Game 86):

Important in developing vaccines against TB, they were domesticated as a food source in the Andes region around 5000 B.C.

(correct response beneath the contestants)

Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:

Dargan Ware, an attorney & writer from Bessemer, Alabama

Bill McKinney, a hospitality executive from San Diego, California

Stella Trout, a software engineer originally from Houston, Texas

Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:

We are now done Second Chance for Season 42; our next step in postseason play is Champions Wildcard, where players who came just short of qualifying for the Tournament of Champions are returning to compete for the final spot in the 33^rd Tournament of Champions (beginning January 19). Our first set of quarterfinalists are Stella Trout, Bill McKinney, and Dargan Ware. For those who aren’t as familiar with the 15-player tournament format, the 5 winners automatically advance to the semifinals, where they are joined by the next four highest non-winning scores.

I had originally written this next section for my tournament preview yesterday. However, I think it is more important to me that the paragraph stands as a general comment, as opposed to attaching my complaints about a single statistic towards any specific player in a tournament preview.

There is no doubt in my mind that “attempts” can be a great statistic. However—and I direct this at both Executive Producer Michael Davies and Gameplay Analyst Michael Harris—ever since Emily Sands went on record in Season 40 about how she would deliberately buzz in late in order to “juice” her attempt numbers, I have been skeptical about how accurate attempt numbers are; I simply can not trust that statistic for any player whatsoever right now. I can grant that rebounds may require more than one attempt to be recorded. However, I absolutely think that some sort of “you must be attempting within x milliseconds of another player’s successful attempt” needs to be added in order to return my trust in that statistic, especially considering that it is being used as a major reason why contestants are brought back for postseason play.

I should also mention that anyone who might be looking for today’s game to go into J! Archive at its usual time may be disappointed—there are server issues that are preventing the Archive team from being to input new games that will not be fixed until this evening at the earliest.

Correct response: What is a guinea pig?

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.)

Because guinea pigs have extremely similar lung pathology and immune response to tuberculosis bacteria as humans do, guinea pigs will be routinely used for testing novel vaccines and their efficacy compared to the standard Bacillus Calmette–Guérin vaccine, which has been used for more than a century. In fact, the National Library of Medicine calls guinea pigs the “gold standard” for testing the efficacy of TB vaccines. The animal itself was first domesticated in the Andes around 5000 B.C. as a food source; moreover, its use in many other medical trials has led to the animal’s name being used as an idiom to refer to a test subject.

That being said: the fact that a reading of this clue, depending on one’s interpretation of the word “domesticated”, could very well point to potato (while the guinea pig was first domesticated in 5,000 B.C., potatoes were also still being domesticated at that point, even though they were first domesticated before then, while potatoes were also crucial to the initial TB vaccine; additionally, Merriam-Webster itself does say that “domesticate” can refer to plants or animals), means that the show needed to do a much better job of pinning this clue for Final Jeopardy.

In order to redesign our merchandise area to serve you better in 2026, all merchandise sales have been temporarily taken offline. Look for a return in late 2026! All previous orders will still be supported.

Game Recap:

Stella found both Daily Doubles in Double Jeopardy to go from third to first. Meanwhile, Dargan struggled with incorrect responses on the second board and sat in a distant third entering Final. Bill crossed out the correct response in Final and by rule, wasn’t given credit as Stella took the automatic spot in the semifinals. Bill still has a very good chance of advancing as a wild card, though!

Scores going into Final:

Stella $16,000
Bill $13,200
Dargan $2,600

Tonight’s results:

Dargan $2,600 – $400 = $2,200 (What are Llamas)
Bill $13,200 – $1,000 = $12,200 (What is Guinea Pigs?)
Stella $16,000 + $10,401 = $26,401 (What are guinea pigs) (Semi-Finalist)

Wild Card standings:

Monday: Stella Trout, $26,401
1. Bill McKinney, $12,200, 88.611% to advance
2. Dargan Ware, $2,200, 0.253% to advance

Andy’s Thoughts:

• Today’s J!6 clues can be found at the monthly archive.

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