2026 Tournament of Champions quarterfinal game 5.
Matt Massie — an attorney originally from South Charleston, West Virginia
Josh Weikert — a politics professor from Collegeville, Pennsylvania
Steven Olson — a band director from Princeton, Illinois
| Player | First Commercial | End of Jeopardy! | End of Double Jeopardy! | Final | Coryat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steven | $1,800 | $3,800 | $25,800 |
$32,917
Winner: guaranteed semifinalist |
$18,600
25 R (including 2 DDs), 4 W |
| Josh | $2,200 | $3,600 | $5,600 |
$5,600
3rd place: $5,000 |
$7,600
14 R, 5 W (including 1 DD) |
| Matt | $2,800 | $3,000 | $5,800 |
$11,600
2nd place: $5,000 |
$5,800
11 R, 3 W |
| A RANDOM 5-COURSE MEAL | TREE-POURRI | ASIAN GEOGRAPHY | NUMERIC WORDS & PHRASES | I CAN ADAPT | 21st CENTURY GAME SHOWS |
|
$200
[28]
This type of uncooked soup from Andalusia for you! Martha Stewart recommends "a few shavings of Manchego cheese"
gazpacho
Steven
|
$200
[24]
From a Spanish word for "raft", this tree yields an extremely lightweight wood that's been used in making rafts
balsa
Josh
|
$200
[27]
The largest continuous area of sand in the world, the Rub' al-Khali Desert is mainly in this country
Saudi Arabia
Steven
Josh
|
$200
[26]
A brief period is being described when these 2 words precede "of a lamb's tail"
two shakes
Josh
|
$200
[29]
This semiaquatic Aussie creature has fur keeping it dry as it swims, & that snout is really efficient--it's not just a divine joke
a platypus
Steven
|
$200
[30]
The New York Times described this show hosted by Jeff Foxworthy as "duncey adults match wits, sort of with children"
Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?
Steven
|
|
$400
[20]
They're more like lobster than shrimp, but anyway, I'm up for an app of the shellfish called Dublin Bay these
langoustine (prawns)
Josh
|
$400
[14]
As an expression of grief in the aftermath of World War I, Monet did a series of paintings of these trees at Giverny
weeping willows
Josh
|
$400
[21]
The Mekong port city of Luang Prabangin this nation is home to Mount Phou Si where afootprintof Buddha is enshrined
Laos
Steven
Josh
Matt
|
$400
[22]
A chef calls a certain number when out of a dish; this is the number called when that item is back on the menu
68
Josh
|
$400
[23]
...sort of! It's armored up with plates called the carapace but sadly, the 9-banded this is still known as the "Texas speedbump"
armadillo
Steven
|
$400
[25]
Meghan Markle & Chrissy Teigen both got their start as "Briefcase Girls" (seriously, they call them that) on this show
Deal or No Deal
Steven
|
|
$600
[19]
Oui, let's go with this salad that includes French green beans, herbs, tuna & hard-boiled eggs
Niçoise
Josh
|
$600
[13]
Andrew Jackson's troops nicknamed him "Old" this, a comparison of his toughness to the wood of a certain tree
Hickory
Josh
|
$600
[2]
Important to the world's oil supply & seaborne shipping, this strait separates Oman & Iran
(Strait of) Hormuz
Steven
|
$600
[6]
On CB radio, if you want to know someone's location, you ask, "What's your" this number
20
Steven
Josh
|
$600
[17]
1 type of the leaf-tailed this reptile uses its tail when lying flat to look like moss or lichen; the Brit accent from TV isn't adaptive
a gecko
Matt
|
$600
[18]
No trivia questions, just hyper-realistic baking on the Netflix game show whose title asks this peculiar question
Is It Cake?
Josh
|
|
$800
[16]
Mushroom & veggies are an excellent choice for this type of pressed sandwich with an Italian name
panini
Steven
|
$800
[11]
Arz el-Rab, or the Cedars of God, are what's left of an ancientcedar forestin this nation
Lebanon
Josh
|
$800
[1]
The building of this sacred structure in the holy city of Amritsar was begun by Arjan, the fifth Sikh guru
the Golden Temple
|
$800
[3]
Surgeons & seamstresses cling to this 18th century proverb that says careful work now will prevent patch-up work later
a stitch in time saves nine
Steven
|
$800
[4]
Nocturnal fruit-eating cave dwellers, oilbirdsnavigate using this 12-letter sensory system
echolocation
Matt
|
$800
[10]
Contestants navigate an extreme obstacle course to win a cash prize on this show where spectacular failure is right there in the title
Wipeout
Josh
|
|
$1,000
[15]
The cheese plate includes slices of Havarti, originally from this country; let's get one for the table
Denmark
Josh
|
DD
$2,000
[12]
Its name meaning "enlightenment", this type of fig tree is sacred to both Hindus & Buddhists
the Bodhi tree
Josh
|
$1,000
[5]
Found east of the Gulf of Tonkin in the South China Sea, it's the People's Republic of China's only tropical island
Hainan
Steven
|
$1,000
[7]
This 4-digit number taken from California's Welfare & Institutions Code now has come to refer to anyone unstable
5150
|
$1,000
[8]
A cephalopod like the squid & octopus, this creature can let loose with a colored ink secretion when chased by a predator
a cuttlefish
Matt
|
$1,000
[9]
This show hosted by comedian Ben Bailey survived the rise of rideshare apps but sadly, not the people-staying-home of the pandemic
Cash Cab
Matt
|
| MILITARY HISTORY | A BASIC CATEGORY | COLORFUL LIT | DEBUT ALBUMS | GOING "PRO" | NATIONAL ANTHEM LORE |
|
$400
[27]
It's the name of the operation to expel invading Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991
Desert Storm
Steven
|
$400
[28]
Daniel Handler published "The Basic Eight" under his own name before using this pen name for "A Series of Unfortunate Events"
Lemony Snicket
Steven
|
$400
[30]
Color in the titles of a classic novel set in Puritan New England & a swashbuckling novel set in the French Revolution
scarlet
Steven
|
$400
[22]
3 years prior to "Back to Black", she released "Frank", the title in tribute to Frank Sinatra
Amy Winehouse
Matt
|
$400
[25]
It's the original model on which something is based, like Motorola's first portable phone, the 2+ lb. DynaTAC in 1973
prototype
Matt
|
$400
[29]
A marching song composed in 1792, it was originally called "Chant de Guerre pour l'Armée du Rhin"
"The Marseillaise"
Steven
|
|
$800
[26]
The Guerra Grande, or Ten Years' War of 1868 to 1878, was the first of 3 this Caribbean island would fight to gain freedom from Spain
Cuba
Josh
|
$800
[24]
The 4 basic or fundamental forces in physics are electromagnetic, gravitational & these 2 that sound like opposites
strong & weak
Steven
|
$800
[23]
This title character first appears in an 1891 novel "wonderfully handsome" & "unspotted from the world"
Dorian Gray
Steven
|
$800
[21]
According to Rolling Stone, their "Appetite for Destruction" was the biggest-selling debut album of the 1980s
Guns N' Roses
Steven
|
$800
[14]
From 1881 to 1956 Tunisia was this type of French territory
a protectorate
Matt
|
$800
[16]
It began using "Patria" in 1975 after independence from Portugal & adopted it in 2002 after independence from Indonesia
Timor-Leste (East Timor)
Matt
|
|
$1,200
[10]
The son of Darius, this Persian king waged war against Greece with an army Herodotus said was over five million strong
Xerxes
Steven
|
$1,200
[3]
Joe Eszterhas wrote this 1992 film & announced plans for a TV reboot in 2025
Basic Instinct
Steven
|
$1,600
[18]
In this classic by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a woman sees a human form in the title decor, peeling in her room
The Yellow Wallpaper
|
$1,200
[20]
In 2014, shewon the Grammy for Best Country Album with her major label debut, "Same Trailer Different Park"
Kacey Musgraves
Matt
|
$1,200
[9]
It's been defined as "any long flexible snout" & informally as "a person's nose, especially if large"
proboscis
Steven
|
$1,200
[11]
Bernardo de Vera y Pintado was commissioned to write Chile's anthem after this guy with the same first name led them to freedom
Bernardo O'Higgins
Matt
|
|
$2,000
[6]
In 1759 the British captured Quebec in the French & Indian War as a result of the Battle of these Plains on the edge of the city
Abraham
Steven
|
$1,600
[19]
Navy SEALs might be buds, but they also undergo a training program called BUD/S, standing for Basic these 2 words / SEAL
Underwater Demolition
Josh
|
$2,000
[13]
The title of this classic Harlem Renaissance novel is from a folk saying that ends, "the sweeter the juice"
The Blacker the Berry
Steven
Josh
Matt
|
$1,600
[17]
With their 1990 debut, Terry Ellis, Cindy Herron, Maxine Jones & Dawn Robinson, aka this group, showed they were born to sing
En Vogue
|
$1,600
[5]
Appearing before quod in a Latin phrase, by itself it means a stipulation added to an agreement
proviso
Josh
|
$1,600
[1]
This Bengali poet did double duty, composing the anthems of both India & Bangladesh
Rabindranath Tagore
|
|
DD
$3,000
[7]
The largest of the Ryukyu Islands, it was the site of a grueling 1945 battle with 12,000 American & 100,000 Japanese troops killed
Okinawa
Steven
|
$2,000
[15]
The Modern Library's anthology called "Basic Writings of Existentialism" includes an excerpt from his "Myth of Sisyphus"
Camus
Steven
|
DD
$7,000
[4]
"The wide corridor up the center of E Block was floored with linoleum the color of tired old limes" in this 1996 bestseller
The Green Mile
Steven
|
$2,000
[12]
One of Britain's biggest bands of the early 2000s, they broke the ice with "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not"
the Arctic Monkeys
Matt
|
$2,000
[8]
This hormone that's produced by the pituitary gland induces milk production in nursing mothers
prolactin
Steven
Matt
|
$2,000
[2]
This "Sabre Dance" composer wrote the music for the Armenian anthem that was used until 1991
Khachaturian
Steven
|
One of the 2 Canadian provincial capitals that share their names with a nation's capital city
(1 of) Victoria, British Columbia or St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador