Season 42, Week 13

What a turnaround by Libby Jones, from not getting in first once in the opening segment to ending the 14-win run of Harrison Whitaker. The Daily Doubles were evenly split between the three players, but Harrison and Brendan couldn’t do much with theirs, each finding one on the first clue of a round (and indeed, both missing). Perhaps Libby could’ve gone bigger on hers, but the $3,000 bet was enough to keep her close enough going into Final Jeopardy — where she played the situation superbly.

It’s expected that from the lead and given his pedigree, Harrison will make the standard cover wager — betting on himself. But an alternative is to keep himself above Libby’s score entering Final, ensuring he wins if Libby misses. He can go up to $3,799 and accomplish that. With Libby’s $7,601, here’s how that plays out:

She guarantees victory with a correct response regardless of Harrison’s, while staying above him if he makes the more likely $13,401 (as he did) and they both miss.

While the category can in some cases inform Final Jeopardy strategy, far more important are the relative positions of the scores at the end of Double. As Coach Herm Edwards memorably said in a press conference, “you play to win the game” — and here, that means giving yourself as many of the eight possible outcomes of Final as possible. Great on Libby to recognize that, and be rewarded for it.

Dropping on Monday afternoon, the comments about overthinking responses with the luxury of more time proved prescient, as he went for a deeper cut than might have seemed obvious. (The same might hold for the opening clue of the game, the Daily Double he missed.)

I also want to make a suggestion – really, more of a request – of the Jeopardy! producers. Change the setup for these Winner’s Circle interviews. Put the questioner and the contestant in chairs at the center of the stage. Put them at the podcast desk, much as how Yogesh Raut was interviewed after he won the last Masters. It may be uncouth or contrary to protocol, but put Sarah Foss behind the host’s lectern. Something.

I’ll be honest — it rubs me the wrong way because player at lectern, Foss six feet away, both never in the shot simultaneously, has the feel of… being socially distanced. COVID’s been over for years. This vestige of that era can go to the dustbin.

I am counting the sixth category of the Jeopardy round as a Rickrolling of the viewers by the show. Ah, that was a different time.

Anne Martyn’s father was hammer thrower Ed Burke. He was chosen as flag bearer for Team USA on home soil at the Games of the XXIIIth Olympiad because he was not only the oldest member of the team, he’d qualified for the Olympics 20 years after having first done so, and 16 years on from his most recent appearance.

Jeopardy! and the Olympics are very similar in a key respect — much of the glory is achieved by simply qualifying to compete, no matter how it turns out. Like father,1 like daughter, as Anne was sandwiched between two buzzsaws. Libby and Eli Selzer had Coryats of $21,000 and $18,000 respectively. The game particularly turned on two clues: the eighth and eleventh of Double Jeopardy. Both missed by Eli and rebounded by Libby, they produced a net $7,200 swing to the defending champion — and to boot, Libby found the final Daily Double thanks to the second rebound. I see returns for both these heavy hitters; Libby should be just about a stone cold lead pipe lock for Champions Wildcard, while Eli is a very strong contender for a Second Chance berth.

Eli mentioned his “one-man barbershop quartet” — so sure enough, he recorded "the “Weird Al” Yankovic song “I Lost on Jeopardy!” in that style.2

Ron Lalonde made this a battle of second siblings to compete on Jeopardy! — and with his win, a matchup of second siblings to both be champions. As mentioned, his brother is Season 39 13-game champion3 Ray Lalonde; while Libby’s sibling Evan competed fifty-two weeks earlier than she, winning a game.

Evan pulled a stat from J! Archive that the Lalondes are the second pair of twins to both become Jeopardy! champions, following Phyllis and Paula Massengale in Season 5 and 6, respectively. Another member of the This Is Jeopardy! Discord server did a deeper dive, and from that, it appears that Ray and Ron are the sixth pair of siblings to both have won at least one game. And if I read it correctly, there have been eight parent/child pairs to have both been champions.

I got a kick out of LITERATURE $400. Its mention of Isla Nublar recalled for me how much you really have to suspend disbelief to accept the premise of the entire Jurassic Park film franchise after the first movie. I share an opinion that Jeopardy! scribe Claire McNear expounded upon back in 2018 in The Ringer — in the real world, Isla Nublar (and presumably, Isla Sorna, which would have become known to international authorities) would’ve been nuked to, and beyond, kingdom come.

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I recall “Benedict” alone, without his regnal number XVI, being accepted in the not too recent past4, so at least they appear consistent on this. I applaud Ron for giving the regnal name alone; better to do that and chance a “be more specific” prompt, vice giving the wrong regnal number and being ruled incorrect outright.5

In the interview segment, Ken told Youssef that he “can have” a certain quip — but beyond that, “checkouts to checkups” is © 2025 Kenneth W. Jennings III, all rights reserved.

Though this game was taped on October 28, it featured a number of uncannily timely moments:

• Ron mentioned serving Wayne Gretzky and being “starstruck,” and tongue-tied. This on the same day that Gretzky served as one of the four draw assistants (along with Tom Brady, Shaquille O’Neal, and Aaron Judge) at the final draw for next year’s FIFA World Cup. Gretzky butchered the pronunciation of Curaçao as “curr-ACK-ow.”

• A clue about the Chattahoochee River forming part of the border between Alabama and Georgia, in a game the day before the football teams of the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs did battle in the SEC Championship Game.

• “Canto” appeared at the bottom of the ALEXANDER POPE category… three days after the publication of American Canto, the widely panned new memoir by political journalist6 Olivia Nuzzi.

Additionally, this game featured shout-outs in all three Final Jeopardy responses — the first such instance since I started keeping track at the beginning of last season.

The following subject matter is absolutely appropriate as Jeopardy! material, notwithstanding objections from viewers:

• Monday: the entire STATE DEPT. NO-GOs category; take note that State did not suddenly start issuing travel warnings at noon on January 20

• Wednesday: Anthony Devolder7

• Friday:

  • Louis XIV’s revocation of the Edict of Nantes (specifically the “not big on diversity, equity, or inclusion” wording)

  • Palantir

As I pointed out on social media on Friday, the hosts of What Is… a Jeopardy! Podcast have been freshly armed with new material to support their thesis of excessive horniness among the cast and crew on the Alex Trebek Stage:

• Tuesday:

  • “the rack” (I thought this was borderline, but I did see it mentioned) (RICK ASTLEY WOULD NEVER… $800)

  • “Three Way, Texas” (YOU CAN COUNT ON GEOGRAPHY $200)

• Wednesday:

  • the “wood” reference at the conclusion of Libby’s interview

• Friday:

  • “Let’s… get… BIZET!” (COMPOSE YOURSELF! $600)

  • “rose to the occasion” in a clue about sildenafil (REPURPOSING $600)

  • Ken’s “little slow to work” remark (ruling on the same clue)

My curiosity being piqued, I looked at the wording of the description for TV-G, the rating Jeopardy! carries under the TV Parental Guidelines in the United States:

Most parents would find this program suitable for all ages. Although this rating does not signify a program designed specifically for children, most parents may let younger children watch this program unattended. It contains little or no violence, no strong language and little or no sexual dialogue or situations.

From my vantage point, the show remains well within the bounds of that standard, for the time being.

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