Final Jeopardy: Authors (7-23-26)
The Final Jeopardy question (7/23/2026) in the category “Authors” was:
She sometimes signed letters “Charles Thunder”
New champ Dean Zach, a creative writing graduate student from Pearland, TX, won $36,000 yesterday. In Game 2, his opponents are: Matthew Riggle, a community college math instructor from Madison, AL; and Jacqueline Ziegler, a set designer from New York, NY.
Round 1 Categories: Elect Me as President – Kid Lit – Sailing Away – Potpourri – I Don’t Get It – Joe Buck on the Call
Matthew found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Elect Me as President” under the $800 clue on the second pick of the round. With $800, he was the only one on the board. Matthew bet the $1,000 allowance and he was RIGHT.
An 1840 viral campaign song mentioned 2 things: this battle & this running mate too show
Matthew finished in the lead with $6,600. Jacqueline was second with $5,600 and Dean was last with $3,200. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: That’s “R” City Name, Don’t Wear It Out – The Book of Psalms – Earth Science – The Contest – On the Movie Poster – Consecutive Letter Word Pairs
Dean found the first Daily Double in “On the Movie Poster” under the $1,200 clue on the 4th pick. In second place with $6,000, he had $1,400 less than Matthew’s lead. Dean made it a true Daily Double and he was RIGHT.
1986: 2 dog tags in place of 2 “O”s in a title show
Dean landed on the last Daily Double in “Earth Science” under the $800 clue on the very next pick. He was in the lead with $12,000 now, $4,600 more than Matthew in second place. Dean said he might as well make it a true Daily Double. He did and he was RIGHT again. going from $6K to 24K in 2 clues.
The technical definition of this stuff is any layer of ground that’s been at or below 32 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 or more years show
It looked like the game was over at this point, but there were still 25 clues left and, undaunted, Matthew went to work.
Matthew finished in the lead with $24,200. Dean was next with $24,000 and Jacqueline was in third place with $12,800. All clues were shown.
Only ONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHO IS CHARLOTTE BRONTË
It is generally well-known that Charlotte Brontë published her most famous novel, “Jane Eyre” (1847) under the pseudonym “Currer Bell” to avoid male prejudice against female authors. Her sisters and other female authors, such as Mary Ann Evans aka George Eliot, did the same thing. What is less well known is that Charlotte like to use pseudonyms in her personal correspondence. Chapter IX of “The Life of Charlotte Brontë” by Elizabeth Gaskell mentions how Charlotte “occasionally calls herself ‘Charles Thunder,’ making a kind of pseudonym for herself out of her Christian name, and the meaning of her Greek surname.” You can see on the same page that she also liked to sign off as “Caliban”, a Shakespearean character.
The Online Etymology Dictionary has the history of how the Brontë sisters’ father changed their surname. They have “brontophobia” (fear of thunder) on the same page, tracing brontē back to Greek mythology.
Jacqueline thought it was George Eliot. She bet and lost her whole $12,800.
Dean went with George Eliot, too. That cost him $1,601 and left him with $22,399.
Matthew got it right. He bet $23,801 and won the game with $48,001. Matthew Riggle is the new Jeopardy champ!
A triple stumper from each round:
KID LIT ($400) Brad Meltzer writes about historic heroes as kids, each book with a lesson, in his series this type of “People Change the World”
THE CONTEST ($2000) A book & a movie told the tale of Evelyn Ryan, mom & serial contest winner from this city southwest of Toledo
2 years ago: TWO of the players got this FJ in “FAMOUS WOMEN”
Adding to her nickname, one legend claimed that earlier in life, she was saved from drowning by family friend Mark Twain show
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Maybe this game would be enough for Dean and Jacqueline to make it to the Second Chance.
Dean doesn’t need a second chance. He already won $36K as a champ.
It was the most amazing game of the week. Wild!
This game has to be on the shortlist for Game of the Year at next year’s Jeopardy Honors. It looked like Dean was going to have the same result as yesterday after quadrupling his score. Matthew came all the way back after being down by 16,600 to take a small lead late in DJ! Jacqueline came storming back at the end to get her score into five figures. This was really a great game. Tomorrow is the last game of the season. Whoever wins gets to spend the summer as a Jeopardy champion.