2026 Champions Wildcard semifinal game 2.
Bill McKinney — a hospitality executive from San Diego, California
Michelle Tsai — a tutor originally from Honolulu, Hawaii
Jonathan Hugendubler — an adjunct professor and trivia host from Baltimore, Maryland
| Player | First Commercial | End of Jeopardy! | End of Double Jeopardy! | Final | Coryat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jonathan | $5,000 | $6,800 | $30,600 |
$30,600
Finalist |
$19,200
20 R (including 2 DDs), 2 W |
| Michelle | $4,800 | $6,600 | $13,400 |
$13,369
2nd place: $10,000 |
$12,800
21 R (including 1 DD), 4 W |
| Bill | $1,200 | $1,600 | $1,200 |
$1,200
3rd place: $10,000 |
$1,200
9 R, 5 W |
| INCISOR TRADING | GLOBAL SPORTS | ON THE CALENDAR | OUR LOVE'S IN JEOPARDY | BABY | "OO", OO OO OO |
|
$200
[27]
Called peg teeth, a 2nd pair of incisors behind larger ones distinguishes these animals, like the cottontail, from rodents
rabbits
Jonathan
|
$200
[25]
Thisfranchise beat the L.A. Kings in 1993 to claim their 24th Stanley Cup, the most of any team
the Canadiens
Michelle
|
$200
[24]
Some ring in the new year with this, a month-long break from drinking, perhaps to assess their relationship with alcohol
Dry January
Bill
|
$200
[28]
Marriage trouble: this novel character responds to his wife asking, "What shall I do?" with "My dear, I don't give a damn"
Rhett Butler
Bill
|
$200
[29]
The stump of this may go from yellow to brown or black before falling off after 10 days to 3 weeks, & that's OK; red, not so OK
the umbilical cord
Michelle
|
$200
[30]
A throwing weapon, literally, or to have something you said get thrown back in your face, metaphorically
a boomerang
Michelle
|
|
$400
[26]
Cows & other members of this cud-chewing suborder have dental pads instead of upper incisors
ruminants
Michelle
Bill
|
$400
[13]
The 4 Grand Slam events in tennis take place in these 4 countries
the United States, France, England & Australia
Michelle
|
$400
[23]
With baked goods, of course, an event at the San Francisco Exploratorium in 1988 was an early celebration of Pi Day, this date
March 14
Michelle
|
$400
[22]
Rochester says, "It is you only I intend to marry"; this title woman says, "Your bride stands between us", which seems problematic
Jane Eyre
Bill
|
$400
[21]
Gerber has trademarked this plural word for a singular baby outfit
Onesies
Bill
|
$400
[12]
It's the term for 1 followed by 100 zeros; you could look it up
a googol
Bill
|
|
$600
[16]
The longest of these elongated incisors ever found was a 16-footer from a creature extinct more than 10,000 years ago
tusk
Michelle
Bill
|
$600
[3]
Flo Jo won 3 gold medals at the 1988 Summer Olympics in this Asian city
Seoul
Jonathan
|
$600
[8]
You could celebrate this movie every Wednesday by wearing pink or annually on Oct. 3 (that's when Aaron asked Cady the date)
Mean Girls
Jonathan
|
$600
[15]
Jack wants to set up a ranch with Ennis & try to make things work in this story, but Ennis shoots the plan down
Brokeback Mountain
Michelle
|
$600
[7]
First name of one Mr. Jakobson of Sweden, who began making a baby bouncer with his sister-in-law Elsa around 1960
Björn
|
$600
[11]
"You call that vibrato, man?!" In 1705 Bach got into a street scuffle with a player of this wind instrument
bassoon
Michelle
|
|
$800
[17]
You've heard of Iron Man, but what about Iron Beaver? This hard outer layer of their wood-chomping teeth contains iron
enamel
Jonathan
|
$800
[2]
In 2025 fans sometimes failed to whisper & applaud politely when the Europeans came to Bethpage for this golf event
Ryder Cup
Jonathan
|
$800
[9]
For those in the know, TLAP Day is short for this day, celebrated September 19; hope you don't have to walk the plank
Talk Like a Pirate
Michelle
|
$800
[4]
We won't be obscure, we'll come right out & say it--things ain't gonna work out between this man & Arabella, who fakes a pregnancy
Jude (the Obscure)
Bill
|
$800
[20]
After delivery, the "golden hour" of skin-to-skin contact, right on mom's bare chest, is called this marsupial "care"
kangaroo
Jonathan
|
$800
[5]
A person in Flin Flon asking for one of these just wants a Canadian dollar
a loonie
Michelle
|
|
$1,000
[18]
The exposed incisors of this birthday-suited creature can function like independent chopsticks for digging tunnels
a naked mole-rat
Bill
|
$1,000
[1]
One of the most successful F1 drivers of all time, he holds the record for career victories & was knighted in 2021
(Lewis) Hamilton
Jonathan
|
$1,000
[14]
This character in the "Li'l Abner" comic strip gave her name to a day & a type of dance where the girls pursue the boys
Sadie Hawkins
Jonathan
|
DD
$1,600
[10]
Vronsky loves Kitty, thinks this title woman, "but me he thinks of with hatred, and is sorry he had anything to do with me"
Anna Karenina
Michelle
|
$1,000
[19]
This book called the "Pregnancy Bible" has more than 24 million copies in print since its 1984 birth
What to Expect When You're Expecting
Michelle
|
$1,000
[6]
People working together on secret plans are said to be "in" these, plural; the singular version means partnership but who says that?
cahoots
Jonathan
|
| YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION? | FERRY THEE WELL | NOTABLE AMERICAN WOMEN | A VERY CULTURED "T" | FOREIGN WORDS & PHRASES | WILD AT THE OSCARS |
|
$400
[30]
Stefan Zweig wrote that "The masses of the people regarded" her "as their... adversary... Louis XVI counted for nothing"
Marie Antoinette
Michelle
|
$400
[29]
Statue City Cruises is the only ferry authorized to provide transport to these 2 NYC islands, so ignore anyone who tells you otherwise
Ellis Island & Liberty Island
Michelle
|
$400
[24]
In 2025, shecelebrated 15 years on the Supreme Court
(Elena) Kagan
Jonathan
Michelle
|
$400
[25]
This French word is used of a group of actors freezing on stage to form a lasting image
tableau
Michelle
|
$400
[28]
Aha! I have found that this Greek word is California's state motto
eureka
Bill
|
$400
[27]
His 2022 onstage slap of Chris Rock has been called the most shocking moment in Oscars history, & it's tough to argue
Will Smith
Michelle
|
|
$800
[7]
In 1688 James II deserted England after his troops deserted him during this revolution with a laudatory adjective
Glorious
Jonathan
|
$1,200
[18]
The world's fastest ferry, the catamaran Francisco, takes two hours to zip across the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires to this capital city
Montevideo
Jonathan
|
$800
[23]
She penned the lyrics, "Mama may have, Papa may have, but God bless the child that's got his own, that's got his own"
Billie Holiday
Michelle
|
$800
[16]
Thisrotation of the legs & feet is an essential part of ballet technique
turnout
Michelle
|
$800
[26]
Italian gives us this word for the theme in Christian art depicted here, as well as the title of the work
Pietà
Bill
|
$800
[12]
"'Moonlight', this is not a joke. You guys won Best Picture", said Jordan Horowitz, a producer of this film
La La Land
Jonathan
|
|
$1,200
[4]
This leader who met the Arab Spring with ruthless repression was forced to flee his Damascus palace in 2024
Assad
Jonathan
|
$1,600
[17]
The oldest passenger ferry is the Liemba, an old Germanwarshipthat travels between Tanzania & this country via Lake Tanganyika
Zambia
Bill
|
$1,200
[22]
Born in 1864, newspaper reporter Elizabeth Cochranegot this famous pen name from a Stephen Foster song
Nellie Bly
Michelle
|
$1,200
[8]
Younger than Titian, this Venetian painter wanted to combine the colors of the older master with the design of Michelangelo
Tintoretto
Jonathan
|
$1,200
[13]
Beaux Arts can mean fine arts or a specific style of architecture; this similar French phrase refers to elegant literature
the Belles-lettres
|
$1,200
[11]
Nominated for this song about the Great White North, "South Park" creator Trey Parkershowed up in a dress & on LSD
"Blame Canada"
Jonathan
|
|
$1,600
[5]
During the Mexican Revolution, he was the leader of la División del Norte, while Zapata led troops from the south
Pancho Villa
Jonathan
Michelle
|
$2,000
[19]
The views are both mythic & mythical on the ferry from Paros to this, the largest Cyclades island, where some say Zeus was raised
Naxos
Bill
|
$2,000
[21]
This mental health care reformer with an alliterative name was superintendent of the Union Army Nurses during the Civil War
(Dorothea) Dix
Bill
|
$1,600
[9]
It's the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Tanglewood
Jonathan
|
$1,600
[14]
Many use this Japanese word to say hello, though it more properly means "good afternoon"
konnichiwa
Michelle
|
$1,600
[1]
Boos interrupted Native American activist Sacheen Littlefeather's 1973 refusal of the Best Actor award on behalf of this man
Marlon Brando
Michelle
|
|
$2,000
[6]
Occurring in the last months of 1989, this nonviolent transition of power in Czechoslovakia has a nice-to-touch name
Velvet Revolution
Jonathan
|
DD
$5,000
[20]
This city's ferry system is the world's largest, serving 2 continents & 100 million people annually, a ferry large number
Istanbul
Jonathan
|
DD
$8,800
[3]
Her other works about South Seas cultures included "Growing Up in New Guinea" & "Balinese Character"
(Margaret) Mead
Jonathan
|
$2,000
[10]
The legend of this German minstrel inspired Wagner to compose an 1845 opera
Tannhäuser
Michelle
|
$2,000
[15]
The origin of this, Arabic for school, was lectures delivered at mosques; we think of them as schools of Islamic theology now
madrasa
|
$2,000
[2]
A lengthy standing O accompanied a 1972 honorary award to this silent film legend, back in the U.S. for the first time in 20 years
Charlie Chaplin
Jonathan
|
A famous passage in Matthew 6 refers to kleptai, meaning them
thieves