recaps
Season 41
Today’s Final Jeopardy – Tuesday, December 24, 2024
Warning: This page contains spoilers for the December 24, 2024, game ofJeopardy!— 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.
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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Here’s today’s Final Jeopardy (in the category Government & Public Awareness) for Tuesday, December 24, 2024 (Season 41, Game 77):
As individuals, only Santa Claus & this public service ad icon introduced in 1944 have their own ZIP codes
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Jenna Hayes, an attorney from New York, New York
Harry Jarin, an emergency services consultant from Edgewater, Maryland
Laura Faddah, a manager from Memphis, Tennessee (3-day total: $30,200)
Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Laura Faddah is now a 3-day champion after picking up a runaway victory in yesterday’s episode. Today, she faces off against New York’s Jenna Hayes and Maryland’s Harry Jarin.
One further thing I feel obligated to point out after yesterday: not every Jeopardy! episode is going to be a perfect 10. Sometimes, the contestants are given clue material that does not match their strengths, and the game will have myriad Triple Stumpers, incorrect responses, and unplayed clues. That is the nature of the beast—and is also a direct result of the sort of Jeopardy! that the “give me as much regular play as possible” crowd has been begging for the last two years. This is also not a new phenomenon—the show’s 40-year history is littered with games where three very bright contestants were given a collection of 61 clues that didn’t line up with their respective quizzing strengths. Fans need to accept that this is the exact Jeopardy! that they have loved for the last four decades without lobbying unjust criticism at the show—especially in a media era where every minor quibble gets amplified into a dozen tabloid articles.
As I mentioned yesterday, if you watch Jeopardy! on ABC, you’re going to be pre-empted tomorrow. Check your local listings! Matt Carberry has created his usual Google sheet outlining the pre-emptions.
(Content continues below)
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 Smokey Bear?
More information about Final Jeopardy:
(The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2024 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)
According to the U.S. Postal Service, letters to Santa Claus in the United States are given the ZIP code 88888. (In Canada, it’s postal code H0H 0H0. As an aside, one of my favorite Canadian postal code facts is that postal code R3G 1N4 does not direct to Regina, Saskatchewan, but instead a neighborhood just west of downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba.) Letters to Smokey Bear—advertising icon of the Wildfire Prevention Campaign of the U.S. Forest Service, with the slogan “Remember…Only you can prevent forest fires”—are given ZIP code 20252.
That being said, while the clue uniquely points to Smokey, I think the writers could have worded this clue better—especially when the U.S. Forest Service website itself says, “Smokey Bear has only one of two personalized zip codes – 20252. The other customized zip code is for the U.S. President.” (emphasis mine). Furthermore, I should point out that the show has also never claimed to be perfect. As per the show’s mistakes, Alex Trebek often cited a metric saying that Ivory Soap is only 99.44% pure—extrapolating that out over the 14,030 clues that Jeopardy! writes over a 230-episode season, that would mean about 78.5 errors over the course of a season.
Furthermore, on the question of “Will ‘Smokey the Bear’ be accepted,” the show has historically done so—and has even used “Smokey the Bear” as wording in clues in the past.
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Game Recap & Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Tuesday, December 24, 2024 Jeopardy! by the numbers, along with a recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: 19th Century Novels; Science Timeline; Air Travel; Just Peachy; Dumb; Waiter)
Jenna picked up six correct, including the Daily Double, to jump out to an early lead. After 15 clues, the scores were Jenna $3,600 Laura $2,400 Harry $1,800.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Jenna 6 correct 0 incorrect
Laura 3 correct 0 incorrect
Harry 2 correct 0 incorrect
Today’s interviews:
Jenna would like to run a half marathon in all fifty states.
Harry found his grandmother’s diary from 1933 earlier this year; the diary helped him get a Final Jeopardy response correct at home.
Laura would like to be a backup singer or dancer for Taylor Swift.
Both Jenna and Harry picked up five correct after the break as Jenna continued to lead.
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Jenna 11 correct 0 incorrect
Harry 7 correct 0 incorrect
Laura 5 correct 1 incorrect
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Jenna $6,800
Harry $3,600
Laura $2,000
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: Nicknames Of Historic Women; Inscrutable Words; International Geographic; When It’s Time To Rhyme; Read Flags; Holiday Entertainment)
The Daily Doubles came out in the first nine clues; Jenna got DD2 correct, whild Harry got DD3 incorrect. Jenna picked up some high-valued correct responses in HOLIDAY ENTERTAINMENT to have a $5,000 lead going into Final Jeopardy.
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Jenna 20 correct 0 incorrect
Harry 16 correct 1 incorrect
Laura 11 correct 5 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 21 (0 today).
Scores going into Final:
Jenna $18,200
Harry $13,200
Laura $5,200
Laura getting the final clue of Double Jeopardy to pull her score back into contention was crucial, as she was the only player correct in Final. That meant she ended up winning again! She’ll go for win #5 tomorrow!
Tonight’s results:
Laura $5,200 + $5,000 = $10,200 (Who is Smokey the Bear?) (4-day total: $40,400)
Harry $13,200 – $13,199 = $1 (Who is Uncle Sam?)
Jenna $18,200 – $9,000 = $9,200 (Who is Rosie the Riveter?)
Other Miscellaneous Game Statistics:
Daily Double locations:
1) 19th CENTURY NOVELS $800 (clue #9)
Jenna 600 +1000 (Laura 1400 Harry 1000)
2) INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC $1200 (clue #3)
Jenna 8000 +3000 (Laura 1200 Harry 3600)
3) READ FLAGS $2000 (clue #9, $24400 left on board)
Harry 8800 -2000 (Laura 3200 Jenna 11000)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 115
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Laura 1 4 5
Harry 2 2
Jenna 3 4 3 4*
DJ! Round:
Laura 1 3 4
Harry 5† 2 5*
Jenna 2 3* 4†
† – selection in same category as Daily Double
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Laura 3.00
Jenna 3.29
Harry 3.20
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 21 (0.27 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Laura $5,200 Coryat, 11 correct, 5 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 0 rebound opportunities)
Jenna $16,200 Coryat, 20 correct, 0 incorrect, 29.82% in first on buzzer (17/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Harry $15,200 Coryat, 16 correct, 1 incorrect, 28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $36,600
Lach Trash: $11,200 (on 12 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $6,200
Lead Changes: 3
Times Tied: 0
Player Statistics:
Laura Faddah, career statistics:
65 correct, 12 incorrect
4/4 on rebound attempts (on 18 rebound opportunities)
29.02% in first on buzzer (65/224)
3/4 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $2,400)
1/4 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $11,550
Harry Jarin, career statistics:
16 correct, 2 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
28.07% in first on buzzer (16/57)
0/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: -$2,000)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $15,200
Jenna Hayes, career statistics:
20 correct, 1 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 5 rebound opportunities)
29.82% in first on buzzer (17/57)
2/2 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $4,000)
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $16,200
Laura Faddah, to win:
5 games: 38.155%
6: 14.558%
7: 5.555%
8: 2.119%
9: 0.809%
Avg. streak: 4.617 games.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- With 20 correct responses, Jenna has to be on a Second Chance shortlist for next season’s postseason.
- Today’s box score will be linked to when posted by the show.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Jenna $18,200 Harry $13,200 Laura $5,200)
Laura: If Jenna makes the standard cover bet and is incorrect, she falls to $9,999. Thus, you have to bet at least $4,800 to have any chance of victory—and you may still need an overbet from Harry. (Actual bet: $5,000)
Harry: Bet no more than $2,799 to keep Laura locked out. (Actual bet: $13,199)
Jenna: Standard cover bet over Harry is $8,201. (Actual bet: $9,000)
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