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.
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
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Bill McKinney, a hospitality executive from San Diego, California
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Stella Trout, a software engineer originally from Houston, Texas
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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 33rd 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.
(Content continues below)
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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.
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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:
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