Warning: This page contains spoilers for the July 24, 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 Pop Culture Nicknames) for Friday, July 24, 2026 (Season 42, Game 230):
This star, director & writer who won an Oscar for his 1996 film was called “the hillbilly Orson Welles” by Robert Duvall
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Devin Weinberg, a lawyer from Denver, Colorado
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Sophia Suazo, a licensing manager from Plainview, New York
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Matthew Riggle, a community college math instructor from Madison, Alabama (1-day total: $48,001)
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Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Yesterday saw one of the best comebacks in the history of Jeopardy!, with Matthew Riggle coming back from $16,600 down—without the help of a Daily Double—to defeat defending champion Dean Zach; both Matthew and fellow challenger Jacqueline Ziegler shut Dean out over the final 25 clues on the buzzer to aid in the comeback. Today, Matthew defends his title against Sophia Suazo and Devin Weinberg, and if the first four games this week are any indication, I can’t wait to see what today’s game has in store.
Today is the final first-run episode of Season 42, with today’s winner returning at the start of Season 43 on September 14 to defend their title. Normally, there are six weeks worth of encore presentations before the start of Season 43. However, because of the way the calendar works, and Labor Day 2026 coming on September 7 (compared to Labor Day 2025 happening on September 1), Season 43 won’t start until September 14, with there being seven weeks of encore presentations happening. While my TV program guide has confimed that the encore presentations begin with Champions Wildcard, I can presume that it will follow with the entirety of the Tournament of Champions and the Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament (as those three events added up to exactly seven weeks’ worth of episodes). That being said, there is still going to be first-run content for Jeopardy! fans to consume this summer—ESPN Jeopardy! begins airing on Hulu and Disney+ on July 31, while Jeopardy! Masters Season 4 begins on Tuesday, August 25 at 8:00 PM Eastern.
I also plan on keeping the J!6 clue archives up to date throughout the summer; however, that assumes that the J!6 clues are different for the summer encore presentations. (Right now, it’s a rare question that I don’t have to the answer to, and I’ll find out on Monday.)
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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: Who is Billy Bob Thornton?
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.)
Billy Bob Thornton received international acclaim for his 1996 film Sling Blade, which won him the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay as well as a nomination for Best Actor. The nickname “the hillbilly Orson Welles” came to prominence after Robert Duvall revealed in an interview with Vanity Fair in 2014 that he gave Thornton the nickname.
It’ll be interesting to see how today’s Final Jeopardy clue plays; I didn’t get it correct, but it’s also in one of my weaker categories. I could certainly see how a pop culture expert could do well on this Final.
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