Warning: This page contains spoilers for the February 12, 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 The Southern Hemisphere) for Thursday, February 12, 2026 (Season 42, Game 114):
A 1606 map of America shows this archipelago as part of a southern continent by a canoe with smoke billowing from its center
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Adriana Harmeyer, an archivist from West Lafayette, Indiana
|
Will Yancey, a lecturer of history originally from Gadsden, Alabama
|
Long Nguyen, a retired engineer from Las Vegas, Nevada
|
Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Our sixth and final quarterfinal of this tournament features Long Nguyen, Will Yancey, and seeded Adriana Harmeyer. Long and Will are both Second Chance winners, while Adriana is a superchamp from 2024, having also qualified for Jeopardy! Masters in 2025. After Long’s strong play in Second Chance and Champions Wildcard back in Season 40, the Unified Prediction Model does have Long as a slim favorite to take victory in this game today. Additionally, we know that there are still three spots up for grabs in the semifinals, and that three of Long, Will, Adriana, Jen Giles, and Drew Basile will end up taking those spots.
An incredibly important consideration that I’ll probably end up reiterating in the recap later as well: before playing their quarterfinal, the players are under a strict sequester and have no idea about any of the scores that have happened in the games before theirs. Thus, they’ll have no idea what score is necessary in order to advance as a wild card.
I know that I’ve been making a lot of golf analogies this week, but I’m going to make another one here: the past two iterations of this tournament have been at a “difficulty” level similar to how difficult a professional golfer would find a course set up for the PGA Championship, while this year’s tournament—especially in the Double Jeopardy Round—has been at a difficulty level similar to how difficult a professional golfer would find a course set up for the US Open. It’s certainly had an effect on the wild cards, with very few players even breaking $10,000 entering Final Jeopardy. While the games are still close, I think this would have been a much more enjoyable tournament to this point if every player’s score was $5,000 higher than it was entering Final Jeopardy.
The Olympics pre-emptions are still happening on many NBC stations this week and next: viewers are reminded that they can check their local listings, or Matt Carberry’s Google sheet with the nationwide effects.
(Content continues below)
Did you accidentally get logged out of your TJ!F Plus account? Log in here!
My friends over at Geeks Who Drink have a daily trivia game—Thrice! Existing to make daily clever trivia content accessible to a wide audience, it's a daily challenge that tries to get you to the answer via three separate clues. It has a shareable score functionality to challenge your friends and new questions every day will give you a new daily social ritual. You can find it at thricegame.com.
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.
Are you looking for information on how to stream Jeopardy! in 2026? Find out information here on how to stream from most places in North America!
You can find game-by-game stats here at The Jeopardy! Fan of all 20 players, now including Jamie Ding, that have won 10 or more games on Jeopardy!
You can now listen to Alex Trebek-hosted Jeopardy! episodes from TuneIn Radio without leaving The Jeopardy! Fan — listen now!
Correct response: What is Tierra del Fuego?
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.)
In Jodocus Hondius’s 1606 map of the Western Hemisphere, titled America, what is now known as the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego (at the southern tip of South America) was rendered as a part of the believed southern “continent” “Terra Australis”, near the aforementioned canoe with smoke billowing from its center. (The archipelago was also labeled as “Tierra del fogo” in 1606.)
This feels like a relatively straightforward clue—after all, where there’s smoke, there’s fire—and that should hopefully be enough for our players to get to the correct response.
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 early 2026! All previous orders will still be supported.
Game Recap:
Long Nguyen picked up 20 correct responses, including both Daily Doubles in the Double Jeopardy round, to roll to a lights-to-flag runaway victory in our last quarterfinal, doing very well on difficult material. Meanwhile, Will Yancey entered Final Jeopardy in second and Adriana Harmeyer in third after the two of them struggled with some expensive incorrect responses on the second board. Viewers paying attention to the wild card scores would have known that Adriana was out of contention. However, Will’s low score would have been enough for a wild card, though he wouldn’t know this due to having been in a sequester for the entirety of the taping day.
Heartbreakingly for Will, he was the only player incorrect on a Final Jeopardy that both of his opponents got, dropping him out of contention and advancing both Jen Giles and Drew Basile to the semifinals as the last two wild cards.
Scores going into Final:
Long $19,600
Will $7,400
Adriana $3,400
Tonight’s results:
Adriana $3,400 + $3,400 = $6,800 (What is Tierra del Fuego?)
Will $7,400 – $7,400 = $0 (What is the Florida Antilles)
Long $19,600 + $2,000 = $21,600 (What is Tierra del Fuego?) (Semi-Finalist)
Wild card standings:
Quarterfinal #1: Matt Amodio, $18,800
Quarterfinal #2: Roger Craig, $15,000
Quarterfinal #3: Drew Goins, $1,600
Quarterfinal #4: Andrew He, $10,801
Quarterfinal #5: Alison Betts, $2,786
Quarterfinal #6: Long Nguyen, $21,600
1. Karen Farrell, $16,400
2. Jen Giles, $8,400
3. Drew Basile, $7,200
4. Adriana Harmeyer, $6,800
5. Mehal Shah, $6,001
6. Liz Feltner, $1,599
7. T.L. Cubbage, $1
8. Josh Hill, $0 ($7,600, $3,400)
9. Isaac Hirsch, $0 ($7,600, $3,200)
10. Will Yancey, $0 ($7,400)
11. Veronica Vichit-Vadakan, $0 ($7,200)
12. Eric Ahasic, $0 ($5,600)
Chances of winning tournament:
Matt Amodio: 19.091%
Andrew He: 18.026%
Roger Craig: 17.525%
Long Nguyen: 12.039%
Drew Basile: 8.006%
Drew Goins: 7.876%
Karen Farrell: 6.766%
Alison Betts: 5.399%
Jen Giles: 5.272%
(These percentages will change once the matchups are revealed.)
Game Stats:
Long $18,400 Coryat, 20 correct, 1 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 2/3 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Adriana $3,200 Coryat, 11 correct, 2 incorrect, 21.05% in first on buzzer (12/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Will $7,400 Coryat, 17 correct, 4 incorrect, 35.09% in first on buzzer (20/57), 0/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $29,000
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Long’s YouTube channel can be found here.
- Long was just the fourth player in the quarterfinals with a Coryat score above $10,000 and just the third with a pre-Final Jeopardy score above $10,000.
- Some things to keep in mind with the semifinal matchups:
- Matt Amodio, Karen Farrell, and Drew Basile will be in different semifinals in order to avoid an immediate rematch
- I would also expect to see Alison Betts, Karen Farrell, and Jen Giles in separate semifinals.
- Filed under “more likely than not”: Matt Amodio, Andrew He, and Roger Craig will probably be in separate semifinals as they are the three remaining “seeded” players.
- Finally, it is possible to put the three wildcards in separate semifinals, but the show is under no obligation to do so.
- Today’s J!6 clues can be found at the monthly archive.
The new TJ!F Plus section is active! In order to get the Daily Details of each episode coming soon, as well as the ability to comment on posts site-wide, make sure to register for your account! It should be noted that if you have not registered for an account since December 13, 2025, that registration for a new account is necessary.
Did you accidentally get logged out of your TJ!F Plus account? Log in here!
Become a Supporter now! Make a monthly contribution to the site on Patreon!
Contestant photo credit: jeopardy.com
When commenting, please note that all comments on The Jeopardy! Fan must be in compliance with the Site Comment Policy.
If you are going to quote any information from this page or this website, attribution is required.
Have you had a chance to listen to our podcast game show, Complete The List, yet? Check it out! It's also available on Apple Podcasts.