2026Jeopardy!Invitational Tournament semifinal game 1.
Drew Basile — a writer from Birmingham, Michigan
Jen Giles — a teacher from Longmont, Colorado
Roger Craig — an applied scientist originally from Johnstown, Pennsylvania
| Player | First Commercial | End of Jeopardy! | End of Double Jeopardy! | Final | Coryat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Roger | $800 | $1,200 | $18,400 |
$28,001
Finalist |
$16,800
20 R (including 1 DD), 4 W |
| Jen | $2,000 | $2,400 | $4,800 |
$4,075
3rd place: $10,000 |
$4,600
8 R (including 1 DD), 1 W |
| Drew | $2,200 | $6,000 | $14,000 |
$14,000
2nd place: $10,000 |
$9,600
20 R (including 1 DD), 2 W |
| WOMEN | STOCK IT TO ME | COMMON KNOWLEDGE | SONG & BOOK: SAME TITLE | REVERSIBLE WORDS | DOWN IN THE DUMP |
|
$200
[16]
Crystal Eastman's 1920 speech "Now We Can Begin" asks for this type of "work" to be recognized & have "economic reward"
housework
Roger
|
$200
[15]
Charles Schwab defines one of these as "a market in which share prices have declined more than 20% from a recent high"
a bear market
Drew
|
$200
[17]
Compiled by Thomas Cranmer in 1549, the Book of Common Prayer is the liturgy of this Protestant branch
Anglican
Drew
|
$200
[21]
The Beatles song uses a sitar & is subtitled "This Bird Has Flown"; the book by Haruki Murakami mentions that song in Chapter 1
"Norwegian Wood"
Drew
|
$200
[25]
Grizzly feet & to exchange one thing for another
swap & paws
Drew
|
$200
[26]
While dumps tend to be unregulated, this govt. agency regulates landfills under the Resource Conservation & Recovery Act
the EPA
Drew
|
|
$400
[6]
Born on an Osage reservation, Maria Tallchiefwas the first American with this two-word title
prima ballerina
Roger
|
$400
[14]
These, LLCs, protect stock owners from potential losses beyond the amounts they've invested
a limited liability company (corporation)
Roger
|
$400
[18]
Working title "Plain Truth", it was published anonymously in January 1776 & sold 120,000 copies in the first 3 months
Common Sense
Drew
|
$400
[20]
The Smiths song wonders if the title woman will "pull through"; the Douglas Coupland novel also awaits her reawakening
"Girlfriend In A Coma"
Roger
|
$400
[24]
A castle stronghold&a quick glance
keep & peek
Roger
|
$400
[27]
Some refer to this method of garbage disposal, which fertilizes the land & reduces landfill waste, as "nature's way of recycling"
compost
Jen
|
|
$600
[5]
In a 2025 film Amanda Seyfried stars as Ann Lee, a leader of this 18th century religious sect
the Shakers
|
$600
[13]
Game Stop is regarded as the first of these 4-letter stocks hyped via websites & social media
meme stocks
Drew
|
$600
[10]
Thisfuture Supreme Court justice gave a series of lectures in Boston on common law, which became his 1881 book, "The Common Law"
Oliver Wendell Holmes
|
$600
[19]
Jay McInerney had a hit with the novel in 1984; in Jimmy Reed's classic blues song, the title elements have "gone to my baby's head"
Bright Lights, Big City
Drew
|
$600
[23]
Isle of exile in the Tyrrhenian Sea & especially proficient
Elba & able
Drew
|
$600
[30]
Organic materials decomposing in landfills produce a usable fuel called biogas, which is made up mostly of CH4, this compound
methane
Drew
|
|
$800
[3]
Once head of the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde is today president of this entity, the ECB
the European Central Bank
Drew
|
$800
[12]
Stock prices are often driven by 10-Qs, quarterly these reports detailing a company's financial results
earnings
Drew
|
$800
[8]
At the start of this piece by Aaron Copland, 3 trumpets in unison give the flourish mentioned in the work's title
Fanfare for the Common Man
Drew
|
DD
$1,000
[2]
Don Henley looks back at an old relationship; Roger Kahn looks back at the baseball players of the 1950s
"The Boys Of Summer"
Jen
|
$800
[22]
A stopwatch & a fancy way to say "send payment"
timer/remit
Drew
|
$800
[28]
The Guinness record for largest landfill site in area belongs to Apex Regional Landfill in this county, also home to Vegas, baby, Vegas!
Clark County, Nevada
Roger
|
|
$1,000
[4]
19th c. scientist Maria Mitchell discovered a comet in 1847 & was this New York college's first professor of astronomy
Vassar
Roger
|
$1,000
[11]
In one of these, each stockholder in a company gets additional shares, but per-share value decreases proportionately
a stock split
Roger
|
$1,000
[9]
A joint venture of the U.S. government & the private sector, COBOL is an acronym standing for this language
Common Business-Oriented Language
Roger
|
$1,000
[1]
Irving Stone's novel was about van Gogh; Iggy Pop liked the title for his song about drug addiction
Lust for Life
Roger
Jen
|
$1,000
[7]
A summary of yesterday's soap opera episode & a horse trained to move at a special gait
recap & pacer
Drew
|
$1,000
[29]
Hazardous waste can take many forms, including liquid, gas, solid & this icky one the OED describes as "earthy or slimy"
sludge
Roger
|
| THE OCCIDENTAL TOURIST | WRITERS | A SCIENCE BRIEF | LOCKUPS | MOVIE MAGIC | FIRST NAME WORDS |
|
$400
[22]
I'm heading to Zaanse Schans, a historic windmill village 12 miles north of this capital
Amsterdam
Roger
|
$400
[23]
She wrote, "To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped... the world itself is the bad dream"
Plath
Roger
|
$400
[29]
Commonly found in nature as quartz, this major constituent of sand has the formula SiO2
silica (silicon dioxide)
Drew
|
$400
[30]
Artist Paul Delarochedepictedtwo princes' 15th century captivity in this landmark
Tower of London
Drew
|
$400
[27]
In "The Wizard of Oz", the "snow" that falls on Dorothy & friends in the poppy field was actually this, which causes mesothelioma
asbestos
Jen
|
$400
[21]
O joy! This feminine first name comes from the Latin for "happy"
Felicity
Jen
|
|
$800
[17]
I'm on the Western Hemisphere's highestobservation deckatop this Toronto structure, & I can see New York!
CN Tower
Roger
|
$800
[24]
She got the title for her novel "The House of Mirth" from Ecclesiastes
(Edith) Wharton
Drew
|
$800
[25]
It's the delicious term for being stretched out upon falling into a black hole
spaghettification
Jen
|
$800
[28]
Jim Carroll rhymed this island in the New York area with "rattin' on some bikers"
Rikers (Island)
Roger
|
$800
[26]
A matte painting was used for the military warehouse where an object from Exodus 25 is kept at the end of this film
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Roger
|
$800
[20]
It refers to a nose with a prominent bridge, also called aquiline
Roman
Roger
|
|
$1,200
[16]
I'm walking the Camino de Santiago in Spain, en route to the tomb of this martyred apostle & saint; hola, my fellow pilgrims!
St. James
Jen
|
$1,600
[7]
"V." is the 1963 first novel by this man whose later books have inspired 2 Paul Thomas Anderson movies
Pynchon
Drew
|
$1,200
[9]
Fossils called Asteriacites show where these sea creatures rested millions of years ago
starfish
Roger
|
$1,200
[18]
Told in "Midnight Express", the story of Billy Hayes, sent to Imrali Prison, made this type of "prison" a byword for a bad one
Turkish (prison)
Drew
|
$1,200
[5]
In this '80s horror comedy, David Naughton's male pattern hirsuteness as he gets all lupine was filmed in reverse
An American Werewolf in London
Roger
|
$1,200
[19]
One of the 2 plants & first names in the title of the traditional song heard here:"The rising of the sun / And the running of the deer / The playing of the merry organ / Sweet singing in the choir"
"The Holly And The Ivy"
|
|
$1,600
[3]
I'm visiting this walled city on the Brittany coast; it looks just like I imagined from reading "All the Light We Cannot See"
Saint-Malo
Jen
|
$2,000
[6]
Shesaid "Poetry mustn't be fancy", an approach that earned her a Pulitzer for her collection "American Primitive"
Mary Oliver
|
$2,000
[1]
This 10-letter ball of cells is formed during the early embryonic stage of a mammal
blastocyst
Roger
|
$1,600
[13]
Bluesmen have sung about this state's Parchman Farm, notorious for its conditions when it opened in 1901 & stillopentoday
Mississippi
|
$1,600
[15]
Sally Hawkins on a wire & light that seemed to come through liquid made this film's opening scene look like it was under the sea
The Shape of Water
Roger
|
$1,600
[11]
In an Anthony Trollope novel, characters talking about Fanny's guy reject this word for "lover", which is at least English
beau
|
|
$2,000
[4]
I'm paying a visit to this former penal colony, a vowel-heavy city on Tierra del Fuego; just saw a penguin!
Ushuaia
Jen
Drew
|
DD
$5,600
[8]
Dickens saluted this writer as "my dear sir" but also expressed doubt that it was actually a man behind the name (it wasn't)
George Eliot
Drew
|
DD
$3,200
[2]
The Cassini-Huygens mission found rippling sand dunes & liquid seas on this moon
Titan
Roger
|
$2,000
[12]
A tour of the Old Melbourne Gaol includes the 1880 execution site of him, "Australia's most notorious outlaw"
(Ned) Kelly
Roger
|
$2,000
[14]
Some movies use underexposure & color correction to depict evening with this 3-word method, also the title of a Truffaut film
day for night
Roger
|
$2,000
[10]
Old-time transportation job seen here
a carter
|
Mentioned several times in a 1599 play, this patron saint of cobblers had a feast day that coincided with the Battle of Agincourt
St. Crispin