recaps
Season 42
Today’s Final Jeopardy – Wednesday, March 18, 2026
Warning: This page contains spoilers for the March 18, 2026, 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 Bodies of Water) for Wednesday, March 18, 2026 (Season 42, Game 138):
Bordered by 3 nations, it’s the world’s largest tropical lake & the world’s second-largest freshwater lake
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Kamilah Tisdale, a special projects consultant from Trumbull, Connecticut
Luke Minton, a technology director from El Paso, Texas
Jamie Ding, a bureaucrat & law student from Lawrenceville, New Jersey (3-day total: $77,800)
h2>Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
On June 10, 2004, Ken Jennings set the single-game Coryat score record of $39,200; at the time, he broke the record set by Michael Daunt on December 4, 1995 by $3,000. (Michael’s Coryat in that game was a pre-doubled $18,100.) I did not expect to see the single-game Coryat record broken by an even larger margin—yesterday saw Jamie Ding pick up a Coryat score of $42,400, breaking Jennings’s record by $3,200. If there’s any sort of positive that challengers Luke Minton and Kamilah Tisdale can take from such a performance, it’s that Jamie’s dominance came on the signalling device, successfully buzzing first on 42 of his 48 attempts. Buzzer timing can often be fickle—if either Luke or Kamilah can find timing early, it might make things very interesting today.
As of right now, Jamie has been performing so well that his Adjusted Performance Mean would already place him among some of the game’s greats; it would be even higher if Jamie could make better gains on the Daily Doubles. (Because there are a few of you who care about when I choose to officially add players like Jamie to my Unified Prediction Model tracking, a win today means he will officially enter the tracking list.)
Finally, if you watch the show on a CBS affiliate, coverage of March Madness—as always happens this time of year—is causing widespread pre-emptions tomorrow and Friday. Make sure to check your local listings or Matt Carberry’s Google sheet.
(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: What is Lake Victoria?
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.)
Africa’s largest lake by area and the second-largest freshwater lake after Lake Superior in North America, Lake Victoria borders three countries: Tanzania, Uganda, and Kenya. Lake Victoria also serves as the source of the Nile River.
Geography clues always tend to play harder than I think they will; for some reason, Jeopardy! contestants have traditionally struggled with African geography. I will say, though, that I think a player of Jamie’s calibre will have no issue with this one.
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Game Recap:
Luke Minton was not at all intimidated by seeing Jamie’s incredible performance in yesterday’s game; he very much played Jamie very evenly over the first 37 clues of this game, and in fact was leading when Jamie found the first Daily Double of Double Jeopardy. Jamie’s $8,200 bet and correct response allowed our champion to pull out an advantage; Jamie’s incorrect response on the last Daily Double, though, meant that Jamie didn’t have a runaway entering Final Jeopardy for the first time.
A geography clue wasn’t going to stop our champion today, though, as his singleton get on clue #61 made Jamie Ding a 4-time champion. He goes for #5 tomorrow!
Scores going into Final:
Jamie $23,200
Luke $14,400
Kamilah $5,000
Tonight’s results:
Kamilah $5,000 – $4,999 = $1 (What is Lake Tanganica?)
Luke $14,400 – $14,400 = $0 (What’s Lake Managua?)
Jamie $23,200 + $5,601 = $28,801 (What is… Lake Victoria?) (4-day total: $106,601)
Game Stats:
Jamie $22,400 Coryat, 28 correct, 4 incorrect, 47.37% in first on buzzer (27/57), 2/2 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Kamilah $5,000 Coryat, 5 correct, 1 incorrect, 8.77% in first on buzzer (5/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Luke $14,400 Coryat, 22 correct, 2 incorrect, 40.35% in first on buzzer (23/57), 1/1 on rebound attempts (on 3 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $41,800
Jamie Ding, to win:
5 games: 71.595%
6: 51.258%
7: 36.698%
8: 26.274%
9: 18.811%
Avg. streak: 6.521 games
Andy’s Thoughts:
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Jamie $23,200 Luke $14,400 Kamilah $5,000)
Jamie: Standard cover bet is $5,601. (Actual bet: $5,601)
Luke: You have to bet at least $3,201 to have a chance of victory. If you don’t mind about finishing second and getting $1,000 less, go all in to maxmize winnings if you’re correct. Otherwise, you could safely limit your bet to $4,400 to guarantee at least second place. (Actual bet: $14,400)
Kamilah: In the battle for second, Luke’s two most likely bets are either $8,801 or all in/close to it. Bet at least $600, but do hold something back in case Luke goes all in (or close to it). (Actual bet: $4,999)
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