Final Jeopardy: Historic Americans (3-23-26)
The Final Jeopardy question (3/23/2026) in the category “Historic Americans” was:
Before taking office in 1801, President Jefferson asked the Army to locate this officer who had “knowledge of the western country”
6x champ Jamie Ding, a bureaucrat & law student from Lawrenceville, NJ, is back for a go at adding to $162,203. In the first game of the week, he takes on: Max Genecov, a clinical psychology Ph.D. student from Philadelphia, PA; and Erin Howard, a community membership facilitator from Shrewsbury, MA.
Round 1 Categories: A Place in History – NATO Phonetic Alphabet Suggestions – Super Bowl Ads – Animal Idioms – Science AKAs – Fitting Sports Names
Jamie found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Animal Idioms” under the $800 clue on the 11th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $5,200, $4,000 more than Max in second place. Jamie bet $4,200 and he was RIGHT.
I love it when I get this largest portion of something, as would befit a Savanna predator show
Jamie finished in the lead with $11,600. Max was in second place with $7,200. Erin was last with $1,800. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: His Widow Lived on – PCI: Pop Culture Initials – A Bit of Lit – Middle “C” – Mexican Geography – Farewells
Jamie found the first Daily Double in “His Widow Lived On” under the $1,200 clue on the 11th pick of the round. He was in the lead with $17,200 now, $5,200 more than Max in second place. Jamie bet $4,200 and he was RIGHT.
Almost 30 yrs. after this author’s death, his widow Elaine befriended Bruce Springsteen around when he made “The Ghost of Tom Joad” show
Max got the last Daily Double in “Mexican Geography” under the $1,600 clue on the 16th pick of the round. In second place with $15,200, he had $8,200 less than Jamie’s lead. Max bet $7,000 and guessed Chichen Itza. That was WRONG.
This southern Mexican state is known for the Mayan Ruins of Palenque & Bonampak & as the site of the Zapatista uprising show
Jamie finished in the lead with a runaway $28,200. Max was in second place with $9,800. Erin was last with $1,400. All clues were shown.
ALL of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right and I hope at least one of them tells Ken that he or she already knew it and did not “guess the right one.” It is absolutely rude and unnecessary for Ken to say things like that.
WHO IS MERIWETHER LEWIS?
Thomas Jefferson wrote to General James Wilkinson on 2/23/1800 seeking his help in locating “Lieutt” Meriwether Lewis. By that time, Lewis was actually an Army captain, a higher rank than lieutenant. Jefferson, who knew Lewis as a “personal acquaintance”, initially employed Lewis as his private secretary and later sent him out west to explore land acquired through the Louisiana Purchase. Lewis selected retired Lieutenant William Clark to help him lead the “Corps of Discovery” expedition from 1803 to 1806.
Interesting fact: Despite outranking Clark, Meriwether Lewis insisted that they would be equals in commanding the expedition. Jefferson attempted but failed to have Clark promoted to captain. On 1/17/2001, President Bill Clinton posthumously promoted Clark to the rank of U.S. Army Captain.
Erin bet $1,000 and finished with $2,400.
Max bet $6,000 and finished with $15,800.
Jamie bet $4,800 and won the game with $33,000. His 7-day total is $195,203.
A triple stumper from each round:
PCI: POP CULTURE INITIALS ($1600) A reboot of both a ’70s series and a 2003 film, this acronym-titled drama ran for 8 seasons and shared a TV universe with “The Shield”
MEXICAN GEOGRAPHY ($2000) Alphabetically, Mexico’s states run from Aquascalientes in the center to this “Z” one to the north
2 years ago: NONE of the players got this FJ in “NOTORIOUS FIGURES”
Never even a soldier, this man lied that his nickname came from a shrapnel wound while fighting in the Argonne show
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The Super Bowl Ads category about FedEx from the Tom Hanks movie Cast Away. The bad news is that Ken didn’t mention the wrong answer in his 75th game.
Pretty good game, married only by Max’s miss on that killer DD. As an Oregonian, I hang my head in shame by not knowing Final. I even have a photo of me at the monument to L&C in Seaside. Gadsden was all I could come up with. Missed the stumpers, too, although there weren’t very many. I thought the first round clues were mostly easy across the board, including that cupcake of a DD. The 2nd DD was pretty gettable; I don’t see any info in the recap about who selected it and the wager, etc. I did know the FJ from 2 years ago that all the players missed, but probably only because I recalled it from that show.
Just fixed that , Howard.
Well, it was another incredible game, and Jamie finished another game with a virtual insurmountable runaway. As for me, I performed somewhat below average in the game with the FJ being an obvious no brainer.
Just a thought, not a criticism — I know the conventional wisdom is to bet big when you get a DD and you’re far behind the lead. The other way to look at it is you’re handing the lead a runaway if you’re wrong. So there’s no way I’d bet big on a DD in a category I don’t know a lot about.
I’d rather take my chances that the leader would mess up a few times for fear of me catching up.