Final Jeopardy: Official Languages (5-5-25)
The Final Jeopardy question (5/5/2025) in the category “Official Languages” was:
Of the 4 independent nations of the Americas without English or Spanish as an official language, it’s the smallest in area
4x champ Ben Ganger, a data analyst from Goshen, IN, has now won $96,415. In Game 5, he’ll pass the $100K mark and get in the ToC if he can defeat Ellen Goldlust, a historian, editor & yoga teacher from Charlottesville, VA; and Rhyne Modlin, a scientist & entrepreneur from Hickory, NC.
Round 1 Categories: What Century? – “Big” Nicknames – Lakes & Rivers – Eighth Notes – In the Bank – 9-Letter Words
Ellen found the Jeopardy! round Daily Double in “Lakes & Rivers” under the $600 on the 10th pick of the round. She was in the lead with $3,600, $2,400 more than Ben in second place. Ellen made it a true Daily Double and thought it might be Warsaw. That was WRONG.
The Desna River flows into the Dnieper River near this world capital show
Ben finished in the lead with $6,000. Ellen was second with $3,000 and Rhyne was last with $2,200. All clues were shown.
Round 2 Categories: Literary Dress-Up – Movie Title Roles – From Thyme to Time – Wars of the Roses – New York, New York – Lancaster
Ellen found the first Daily Double in “From Thyme to Time” under the $1,600 clue on the 10th pick of the round. She was in second place with $3,400, $3,800 less than Ben’s lead. Ellen made it a true Daily Double again but drew a blank so she was WRONG.
Marinated meat cooked on a skewer, Indian style show
2 clues later, Ben landed on the last Daily Double in “Literary Dress-Up” under the $2,000 clue. He was in the lead with $9,200 now, $8,600 more than Rhyne in second place. Ben bet $2,500 and tried Eliza Doolittle. That was WRONG.
Later immortalized by Audrey Hepburn, she “wore a slim cool black dress, black sandals, a pearl choker” show
Ben finished in the lead with a runaway $11,500. Ellen was second with $4,000 and Rhyne was last with $2,600. All clues were shown.
NONE of the contestants got Final Jeopardy! right.
WHAT IS HAITI?
I actually found a lot more than 4 countries that don’t have English or Spanish as an official language in the Americas. From smallest to largest in area, the bottom 4 are: Antigua and Barbuda (no official language), Haiti (French & Creole French), Suriname (Dutch) and Uruguay (no official language). This whole thing is as confusing as the official and de facto capitals topic, only today’s clue specified “official”. However, Ken specifically brought up Mexico not having an official language so that would make Antigua and Barbuda the smallest.
Plenty of sites say English is the official language of Antigua and Barbuda, and Jeopardy! clue writers must have been relying on one of those sources. There are also plenty that say English is the de facto language. I could find no law or anything in the country’s Constitution declaring an official language. The only basis I found was the contention that when Antigua and Barbuda got its independence from the UK in 1981, it kept English as the official language. That’s truly odd because the UK is one of the countries that doesn’t have an official language.
Click here to see the countries where Spanish is official (de jure) or de facto. (Click on the Status column to sort them.)
Rhyne thought it was Suriname. He lost $1,000 and finished with $1,600.
Ellen thought it was Suriname, too. She lost $1,201 and finished with $2,799.
Ben made it the Suriname trifecta. He lost $2,000 but won the game with $9,500. So it’s a 5-day total of $105,915 for Ben plus a ticket to the next Tournament of Champions.
A triple stumper from each round:
“BIG” NICKNAMES ($1000) “Don Life” is one of many tracks teaming Lil Wayne and this different-sized Detroit rapper
LANCASTER ($2000) The House of Lancaster that fought & lost the Wars of the Roses was a branch of this originally French house
2 years ago: Only ONE of the players got this FJ in “NUMERICAL BOOK TITLES”
This 2007 bestselling novel takes its title from a line in the poem “Kabul” by the 17th century Persian poet Saib show
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Tough Final, I said Suriname immediately and let it ride.
Not much of a game. Ellen had to come back from the dead 3X.
Knew the 3rd DD, Clooney film, writer’s ball, Canadian bay.
I know you’re disappointed that none of the wagering clues were nailed tonight.
As usual, Ben left the challengers in the dust. As for me, I did pretty well in today’s game even though I missed the FJ. Well, I can’t say that I was too surprised.
Well, Rick, at least you were in the Caribbean.
What about Aruba? Not independent?
Nope, part of the Netherlands
Well VJ, Aruba was my response for FJ, and I sure thought that it had severed itself from the Netherlands.
I didn’t think the betting clues were that tough. I thought Rhyne the Sporcler had a good shot at FJ! but maybe he didn’t do geography quizzes over there.
The only DD I didn’t get was the Indian dish. I just wouldn’t know that but my kid did.
Disappointed show as all 3 DDs were missed resulted a skunking and a triple stumper in the final resulted an epic fail on wagering clues to start the week. The wagering clues were not nice to anybody today.
Darn Those Daily Doubles, Ellen! Not only that, this game had tough material, and everyone thought the correct response was Suriname, but it was Haiti. Oh, well. Better luck tomorrow. On the plus side, Ben Ganger has won his 5th game in a row and he’s headed to the Tournament of Champions.
All three players wrote down the same incorrect response. Final was a killer to start off the week. The last time all three players wrote down the same incorrect response was 3/26/25.
This wasn’t a “banner game”. Final scores before DJ could have been after the first round with other players.
I was 1/3 on DD and missed FJ. Like others, I said “Suriname”. Got aboutv half the TS.
And, my apologies to Travis, who said on another day that Ben resembled Lenin. I mistakenly said Ben had a goatee, but, it’s a full beard. Sorry about that!