recaps

Pop Culture Jeopardy

Pop Culture Jeopardy Recap – Monday, May 11, 2026

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Current Champion

Matthew Riggle, career statistics:
47 correct, 6 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
41.23% in first on buzzer (47/114)
3/3 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $7,600)
1/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $21,300

To win:
3 games: 68.027%
4: 46.277%
5: 31.481%
6: 21.415%
7: 14.568%
Avg. streak: 4.128 games.
(Next game: September 14)
(Click Here for Methodology)

Upcoming Encore Presentations

August 12: S42 E98 (January 21, 2026)
August 13: S42 E99 (January 22, 2026)
August 14: S42 E100 (January 23, 2026)
August 15-16: S41 E141 (March 24, 2025)
August 17: S42 E101 (January 26, 2026)
August 18: S42 E105 (January 30, 2026)
August 19: S42 E102 (January 27, 2026)
August 20: S42 E103 (January 28, 2026)
August 21: S42 E104 (January 29, 2026)
August 22-23: S41 E142 (March 25, 2025)
August 24: S42 E106 (February 2, 2026)
August 25: S42 E107 (February 3, 2026)
August 26: S42 E108 (February 4, 2026)
August 27: S42 E109 (February 5, 2026)
August 28: S42 E110 (February 6, 2026)
August 29-30: S41 E143 (March 26, 2025)
(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 $1,098,403
7. Mattea Roach $897,983
8. Jamie Ding $885,605
9. David Madden $785,733
10. Victoria Groce $773,801
11. Cris Pannullo $754,286
12. Roger Craig $706,200
13. Larissa Kelly $671,930
14. Matt Jackson $623,612
15. Jason Zuffranieri $549,496
16. Andrew He $534,365
17. Scott Riccardi $533,000
18. Jerome Vered $499,102
19. Julia Collins $495,767
20. Austin Rogers $493,000
21. Ben Ingram $449,201
22. Paolo Pasco $448,717
23. Adriana Harmeyer $446,600
24. Buzzy Cohen $441,603
25. Juveria Zaheer $441,000

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Are you looking for today’s regular syndicated Jeopardy! recap? Find that here!

Here’s the Pop Culture Jeopardy Final Jeopardy (in the category 2009 No. 1 Hits) for Monday, May 11, 2026 (Season 2, Game 1):

The rapper behind this song said he wanted to rap about “regular guidebook stuff” alongside “the city’s gritty side”

(correct response beneath the contestants)

Today’s Pop Culture Jeopardy! contestants:

One Baddie After Another, Jonathan & McShane

One Baddie After Another on Pop Culture Jeopardy!

Cheaper By The Cousin, Peggy & Ilanna

Cheaper By The Cousin on Pop Culture Jeopardy!

Jeopardazed and Confused, Becca & Sam

Jeopardazed and Confused on Pop Culture Jeopardy!

Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:

It’s time for a new season of Pop Culture Jeopardy!, once again hosted by Colin Jost.

What’s different this time out? First up, teams of 2 instead of teams of 3. This probably would have been a much better received change amongst everyone had teams not been asked to drop from 3 to 2 after auditioning as groups of 3. That doesn’t seem like particularly pleasant treatment of players to me!

Additionally, the winning team will get to defend their title in the next episode—to a maximum of 5 victories. Once 15 episodes are done, the top 9 teams will return in the final week in a semifinal round, followed by a final, with the winner taking Season 2 and the $300,000 grand prize.

One final change to gameplay: Unlike in Season 1, there is no “Triple Play”; things play identical to the regular game now.

Our first set of contestants are One Baddie After Another (Jonathan & McShane), Cheaper by the Cousin (Peggy & Ilanna), and Jeopardazed & Confused (Becca & Sam).

(Content continues below)

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 23 players, including Caleb Groen, Adam Remsen, Tristan Williams and 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 “Empire State of Mind”?

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.)

“Empire State of Mind” was the 2009 Jay-Z/Alicia Keys collab and megahit that also appeared on Jay-Z’s The Blueprint 3; in his 2010 biography Decoded, Jay-Z wrote that he wanted to use the verses “to tell stories of the city’s gritty side, to use stories about hustling and getting hustled to add tension to the soaring beauty of the chorus”.

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 & Tonight’s Game Stats:

Here’s the recap for Season 2, Episode 1:

Jeopardy! Round:

(Categories: Unconventional Talk Shows; Annual Accolades; The Razzies; She’s With The Brand; Millennial Cartoons; Sounds Like 6-7)

Our baddies had a good start, but fell back to 0 with an incorrect True Daily Double. That said, they rebounded well and had a good-sized lead after 30 clues. On the opening board, One Baddie After Another went 4/5 in The Razzies and 6-7 and 3/5 in talk shows and millennial cartoons.

Today’s interviews:

One Baddie After Another are fans of “One Battle After Another”.
Cheaper By The Cousin are big fans of One Direction and got to meet them when they first came to the U.S.
Jeopardazed and Confused became friends at engineering school, watching “Bachelor in Paradise”.

Statistics after the Jeopardy round:

One Baddie After Another 17 correct 2 incorrect
Jeopardazed and Confused 5 correct 1 incorrect
Cheaper By The Cousin 3 correct 2 incorrect

Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:

One Baddie After Another 5,000
Jeopardazed and Confused 2,600
Cheaper By The Cousin 200

Double Jeopardy! Round:

(Categories: Movies That Sound Dirty, But Aren’t; Alliteration; Oldies On The Jukebox; Damn, She Vine; Pigs; In Space)

This game had your classic “find one Daily Double immediately and then spend most of the round finding the second one”. The cousins lost 2,000 early, but got themselves out of the hole and around for final. Meanwhile, our baddies bet just enough on DD3 once they found it to ensure they had a runaway entering Final Jeopardy. On that second board, the Baddies went 4/5 in movies that sound dirty but aren’t and 3/5 in alliteration and old Vines, while Jeopardazed went 3/5 in pigs.

Statistics after Double Jeopardy:

One Baddie After Another 32 correct 2 incorrect
Jeopardazed and Confused 14 correct 1 incorrect
Cheaper By The Cousin 6 correct 3 incorrect

Scores going into Final:

One Baddie After Another 27,200
Jeopardazed and Confused 12,600
Cheaper By The Cousin 2,600

This one went 2/3 in Final (though would have been 3/3 had out players started writing sooner.)

Tonight’s results:

Cheaper By The Cousin 2,600 – 2,600 = 0 (What is empire state or Hi Aud!)
Jeopardazed and Confused 12,600 + 6,700 = 19,300 (What is Empire State of Mind)
One Baddie After Another 27,200 + 0 = 27,200 (What is Empire State of Mind?) (Winner)

Current Overall Standings:

  1. One Baddie After Another: 1 win, 27,200 points
One Baddie After Another, today's Pop Culture Jeopardy! winners (for the May 11, 2026 game.)

Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:

Daily Double locations:

1) UNCONVENTIONAL TALK SHOWS 800 (clue #8)
One Baddie After Another 4400 -4400 (Jeopardazed and Confused 600 Cheaper By The Cousin 0)
2) OLDIES ON THE JUKEBOX 800 (clue #1)
Cheaper By The Cousin 200 -2000 (Jeopardazed and Confused 2600 One Baddie After Another 5000)
3) PIGS 800 (clue #24, 2800 left on board)
One Baddie After Another 20200 +5000 (Jeopardazed and Confused 12200 Cheaper By The Cousin 2200)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: -175

Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:

J! Round:
Jeopardazed and Confused 3 5 5
Cheaper By The Cousin
One Baddie After Another 4 5 4 4 4*

DJ! Round:
Jeopardazed and Confused 3 4† 2 3 5 3 3† 2 3
Cheaper By The Cousin 2* 3 2 1
One Baddie After Another 5 4 5† 4 4 5 4 5 4 5 2*

† – selection in same category as Daily Double

Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:

One Baddie After Another 4.25
Jeopardazed and Confused 3.42
Cheaper By The Cousin 2.00

Game Stats:

One Baddie After Another 27,400 Coryat, 32 correct, 2 incorrect, 52.63% in first on buzzer (30/57), 2/2 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Jeopardazed and Confused 12,600 Coryat, 14 correct, 1 incorrect, 26.32% in first on buzzer (15/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Cheaper By The Cousin 4,600 Coryat, 6 correct, 3 incorrect, 12.28% in first on buzzer (7/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: 44,600
Lach Trash: 5,600 (on 6 Triple Stumpers)
Lead Changes: 4
Times Tied: 0

Player Statistics:

Jeopardazed and Confused, career statistics:

15 correct, 1 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
26.32% in first on buzzer (15/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: 12,600

Cheaper By The Cousin, career statistics:

6 correct, 4 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
12.28% in first on buzzer (7/57)
0/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -2,000)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: 4,600

One Baddie After Another, career statistics:

33 correct, 2 incorrect
2/2 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
52.63% in first on buzzer (30/57)
1/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: 600)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: 27,400

Andy’s Thoughts:

  • I’ll be honest: it feels particularly disappointing not to see any sort of reference to any prize money won on the episode itself. How much did our players win today? Who knows! This feels like a pretty significant oversight on somebody’s part.
  • It just feels different watching the show straight through and not having a break for commercials, although I bet that the show probably took a break at its usual spots.
  • I also know it’s immaterial here to the outright result, but maybe players should focus on trying to get their actual response written before trying to get shoutouts on the screen?
  • Due to today’s runaway for both first and second place, wagering suggestions will not be posted.

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