Warning: This page contains spoilers for the December 6, 2022, 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 Plays) for Tuesday, December 6, 2022 (Season 39, Game 62):
A 1609 story in which an exiled king of Bulgaria creates a sea palace with his magic may have inspired the plot of this play
(correct response beneath the contestants)
Today’s Jeopardy! contestants:
Meghan Mello, an athletic trainer from North Smithfield, Rhode Island |
Andy Tirrell, a political science & international relations professor from San Diego, California |
Cris Pannullo, a customer success operations manager from Ocean City, New Jersey (21-day total: $748,286) |
Andy’s Pregame Thoughts:
Cris Pannullo is now solely #6 all-time in terms of the number of regular season games won on Jeopardy, behind only Ken Jennings, Amy Schneider, Matt Amodio, James Holzhauer, and Mattea Roach. Today, Andy Tirrell and Meghan Mello hope to put an end to Cris Pannullo’s recent dominance on the show. As I’ve said before, the key to beating Cris is to hope that the game’s variance works in your favor. Cris needs to be starved of the Daily Doubles—and the challengers need to take full advantage of them. And then, Final Jeopardy! may also need to work in your favor. That said, I believe that more challengers know how to play against a great player like Cris than they would have even two years ago.
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Correct response: What is The Tempest?
You can find game-by-game stats here at The Jeopardy! Fan of all 15 players, including Matt Amodio, Jonathan Fisher, Amy Schneider, Mattea Roach, Ryan Long, and Cris Pannullo, that have won 10 or more games on Jeopardy!
More information about Final Jeopardy:
(The following write-up is original content and is copyright 2022 The Jeopardy! Fan. It may not be copied without linked attribution back to this page.)
Essay time! My thoughts on this can be summed up as follows: I’m not the biggest fan of this clue today.
Here’s what Shakespeare Online, a longtime online authority on the subject of Shakespeare, has to say:
“Little more can be said for the second analogous version – a Spanish tale published in 1609 in a collection known as Winter Nights by Antonio de Eslava. Here the sea, absent from Ayrer’s scene, plays a large part. A King of Bulgaria, who possesses magical powers, being driven from his kingdom by the Emperor of Greece, sails with his daughter into the middle of the Adriatic, strikes the water with his wand, and descends into a gorgeous palace at the bottom of the sea.” … “Here again we have clearly only a remote relative of the theme of The Tempest.”
Additionally, we have the following two recent Final Jeopardy! clues: April 16, 2020: “An account of a deposed Duke of Genoa in a 1549 “History of Italy” is a presumed source for this play”, and February 12, 2019: “650 miles off the U.S., it was the site of a 1609 shipwreck of colonists bound for Jamestown that may have inspired ‘The Tempest'”. The fact that Jeopardy! has decided now to use three different “may have inspired the plot” or “presumed source” for The Tempest over the span of four years is getting to be a bit much, and may in fact lead to viewers having less confidence in the material put out by the show—after all, if you’re changing up the “this is the source” story every year, what are your viewers supposed to believe? In other words: pick a lane!
Moreover, for years in auditions, Jeopardy! has strongly suggested that prospective players watch the show as a form of studying for the show. I would say that there is a non-zero chance that a viewer, or even a player, with a good memory, might remember these past Final Jeopardy! clues about The Tempest and may even be talked out of a correct response today. I think that if the show really wanted to use this factoid as a Final, replacing “may have inspired the plot of” with “may have been one of the many inspirations for” would have made a much better clue, as it would have been a nod to the show’s past clues about other inspirations. (Granted, the show’s recent record on these matters hasn’t exactly been pristine.)
In conclusion, while this clue is technically accurate, it could have been so much better, which ultimately disappoints me as a viewer and fan.
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Game Recap:
Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: The Surprisingly Successful League Of Nations; Kids’ Book Titles In Latin; Wouldn’t It Be Rubbery; Radio, Radio; An “Arm”; A Lego)
Cris opened by finding the Daily Double; that kept his score down after 30! Andy, meanwhile, struggled out of the gate and was in a deficit situation for most of the opening round; Megan was in a strong second.
Statistics at the first break (15 clues):
Cris 7 correct 1 incorrect
Meghan 3 correct 0 incorrect
Andy 1 correct 3 incorrect
Statistics after the Jeopardy round:
Cris 15 correct 1 incorrect
Meghan 7 correct 1 incorrect
Andy 3 correct 3 incorrect
Double Jeopardy! Round:
(Categories: World Geography; Big Book Royalty; Animals; Blood, Sweat & Tears; Their Top 40 Debut Album; 7-Letter “W”ords)
Cris got to the second Daily Double; unfortunately, a rare miss put Megan into the lead! By the time Andy found the third one, he was leading. Unfortunately, he only bet half his score, which proved crucial as Cris came back and overtook Andy by just $700 going into Final! Scores going into Final were Cris at just $12,600, Andy at $11,900, and Meghan at $4,200!
Statistics after Double Jeopardy:
Cris 27 correct 2 incorrect
Andy 14 correct 5 incorrect
Meghan 9 correct 2 incorrect
Total number of unplayed clues this season: 12 (0 today).
Andy was the only player correct in Final Jeopardy! today—he becomes the giant killer taking down the 21-day champion! Andy returns tomorrow as champion!
Tonight’s Game Stats:
Looking to find out who won Jeopardy! today? Here’s the Tuesday, December 6, 2022 Jeopardy! by the numbers:
Scores going into Final:
Cris $12,600
Andy $11,900
Meghan $4,200
Tonight’s results:
Meghan $4,200 – $0 = $4,200 (What is I had fun t)
Andy $11,900 + $3,499 = $15,399 (What is the Tempest) (1-day total: $15,399)
Cris $12,600 – $11,201 = $1,399 (What is The little mermaid)
Scores after the Jeopardy! Round:
Cris $7,600
Meghan $4,200
Andy -$1,000
Opening break taken after: 15 clues
Daily Double locations:
1) THE SURPRISINGLY SUCCESSFUL LEAGUE OF NATIONS $800 (clue #1)
Cris 0 +1000 (Andy 0 Meghan 0)
2) BLOOD, SWEAT & TEARS $1600 (clue #7)
Cris 10400 -6600 (Andy 2200 Meghan 5800)
3) 7-LETTER “W”ORDS $800 (clue #17, $13600 left on board)
Andy 7400 +3700 (Cris 6200 Meghan 5800)
Overall Daily Double Efficiency for this game: 87
Clue Selection by Row, Before Daily Doubles Found:
J! Round:
Cris 4*
Andy
Meghan
DJ! Round:
Cris 5 4 4* 4 3 2
Andy 3 4 2 3 5 3 4 5 2 2*
Meghan 1
Average Row of Clue Selection, Before Daily Doubles Found:
Andy 3.30
Meghan 1.00
Cris 3.71
Unplayed clues:
J! Round: None!
DJ! Round: None!
Total Left On Board: $0
Number of clues left unrevealed this season: 12 (0.19 per episode average), 0 Daily Doubles
Game Stats:
Andy $9,000 Coryat, 14 correct, 5 incorrect, 29.82% in first on buzzer (17/57), 0/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
Meghan $4,200 Coryat, 9 correct, 2 incorrect, 19.30% in first on buzzer (11/57), 0/0 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
Cris $19,000 Coryat, 27 correct, 2 incorrect, 40.35% in first on buzzer (23/57), 3/4 on rebound attempts (on 6 rebound opportunities)
Combined Coryat Score: $32,200
Lach Trash: $10,600 (on 9 Triple Stumpers)
Coryat lost to incorrect responses (less double-correct responses): $11,200
Cris Pannullo, career statistics:
664 correct, 50 incorrect
35/38 on rebound attempts (on 88 rebound opportunities)
48.32% in first on buzzer (604/1250)
45/50 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $168,600)
14/22 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $25,036
Andy Tirrell, career statistics:
15 correct, 5 incorrect
0/1 on rebound attempts (on 2 rebound opportunities)
29.82% in first on buzzer (17/57)
1/1 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $3,700)
1/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $9,000
Meghan Mello, career statistics:
9 correct, 3 incorrect
0/0 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
19.30% in first on buzzer (11/57)
0/0 on Daily Doubles
0/1 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $4,200
Andy Tirrell, to win:
2 games: 40.214%
3: 16.172%
4: 6.503%
5: 2.615%
6: 1.052%
Avg. streak: 1.673 games.
Today’s interviews:
Meghan goes to adult gymnastics camp twice a year.
Andy has done research in Norway, north of the Arctic Circle.
Cris has a father who has been thrilled about Cris’ run.
Andy’s Thoughts:
- Andy is the first player in regular play to come back from being in the negatives after the Jeopardy! round to win the game since Matt Amodio (in Matt’s 22nd game, ironically enough) on September 16, 2021. Andy is only the 31st player since October 4, 2004, to do so in regular play.
- If there’s any positive to Cris’ streak ending today, it’s that it’s ended with Cris on a winnings total far enough away from any other player, such that there isn’t any debate as to where Cris ranks overall.
- Today’s box score: December 6, 2022 Box Score.
Final Jeopardy! wagering suggestions:
(Scores: Cris $12,600 Andy $11,900 Meghan $4,200)
Cris: Standard cover bet over Andy is $11,201. (Actual bet: $11,201)
Andy: Bet between $1,400 and $3,499 to cover any of Cris’ small range and keep Meghan locked out for 2nd. (Actual bet: $3,499)
Meghan: If Cris covers Andy and is incorrect, he falls to $1,399. Bet between $0 and $2,799 to stay ahead of that. (Actual bet: $0)
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