Final Jeopardy Clues: 2-16-26 to 2-20-26

Here are the Final Jeopardy clues and correct responses for the week of February 16, 2026 through February 20, 2026.

Click on the dates to see the recap for each game.

Mon, Feb 16 – Correct answers: 0
MEN OF RELIGION: A 1660 book quoted Mary, Queen of Scots as saying she feared this man’s prayers more than an army of men show

Tue, Feb 17 – Correct answers: 1
WRITERS: The winner of 3 Pulitzer Prizes in 2 different categories, he called his home in Connecticut “The House the Bridge Built” show

Wed, Feb 18 – Correct answers: 0
AMERICAN AUTHORS: She wrote the foreword for a 1971 cookbook sponsored by the Jackson Symphony League show

Thu, Feb 19 – Correct answers: 1
WORLD OF FIRST NAMES: Like an English-language one, this German first name of a physicist of sound & a 1930s film director means “serious” show

Fri, Feb 20 – Correct answers: 1
EUROPE: Thomas Mann’s “The Magic Mountain” is set in this town that in 1971 hosted the first what was then the European Management Symposium show

The clue writers were stumping the Invitational players pretty good this week. They even managed to make big league players look bad! The first 2 games were semifinals and, between the 2, there was only 1 correct response in FJ! The last 3 were final games and there were only 3 out of 9 possible correct responses!

I thought the World of First Names clue was the easiest (and fully explained why in the comments on that game). For the hardest, I nominated Friday’s clue, even though there was one correct response. There were 2 ways to get that clue: from the book, or knowing the original name of the World Economic Forum. However, I thought the ways to know the right answers to all the other clues were a lot easier.

This week’s winners:
Mon 2/16/26 $13,562 Andrew He
Tue 2/17/26 $20,801 Long Nguyen
Wed 2/18/26 $11,599 Andrew He
Thu 2/19/26 $17,599 Long Nguyen
Fri 2/20/26 $48,801 Andrew He

The above figures are the scores at the end of each game. The top prize was $150,000 for this tournament and Andrew He won it on Friday.

Semifinalists Matt Amodio, Alison Betts, Karen Farrell and Drew Goins each got $10,000 consolation prizes. Finalists Roger Craig and Long Nguyen got $50,000 prizes after the 3 final games.

Here is the MUSICAL LANGUAGE LESSON category from Wednesday’s game.