Jeopardy! Season 39 returned with a brand new episode on Tuesday, March 21, 2023, featuring three players.
Melissa Klapper, a professor from Merion Station, Pennsylvania, was the returning champion. She played against two new contestants — Brandon Anderson, a communications director from Columbus, Ohio, and Charlotte Diffendale, a letter carrier from Albany, New York.
The official synopsis of the trivia show reads:
“A returning champion and two challengers test their buzzer skills and their knowledge in a wide range of academic and popular categories.”
An episode consists of three rounds. A player who ends up with the highest score after three rounds will win the game.
Today’s Jeopardy! winner is Melissa Klapper
Returning player Melissa Klapper played her first game in the March 20 episode. She continued her winning streak in the latest episode as well.
In the first round, the categories were “Made In Pennsylvania, To The Mountaintop!, The 1980s, A.K.A., It’s A Joke, 4-Letter “V”erbs.”
All three players played wonderfully in the first round. New players beat one-day champion Melissa in this segment. Charlotte Diffendale won the first Daily Double early in the game. She gave a total of 10 correct answers and one incorrect response, while another new player Brandon Anderson landed in second place as he gave 10 correct and three incorrect answers. Melissa was in third place with six correct answers. A difference of $1,000 separated the players in the first round.
The scores were Charlotte at $4,600, Brandon at $4,200, and Melissa at $3,600.
In the second round of the Ken Jennings-hosted episode, the categories included “TV & Movie Cities, Books, The Future Is Now, 2-Word Terms, The Life Sciences, Etymology, I Love A Man In Cuneiform.”
Melissa crawled her way back into the game as she gave the maximum number of correct answers and zero incorrect responses in the Double Jeopardy round. With two Daily Doubles in this round, one went to Charlotte and the other to Melissa. The latter took the lead as her score was $22,800, while the new players were unable to surpass the $15,000 and $10,000 marks. Charlotte landed in second place with a score of $14,000 and Brandon banked $9,000.
The Final Jeopardy round was not impressive as none of the players were able to answer the final question. While Brandon wagered all his earnings and went home with zero dollars, Melissa wagered only $5,201. Charlotte gave up around half of her earnings after losing the final round and continued to be in second position.
Hence, Melissa Klapper won Jeopardy! today.
Final Jeopardy! results today
The final question in the March 21 episode was under the category, “Medieval Places.” The clue, aka the question, read:
“One of the participants in an 1170 event at this place said, ‘Let us away, knights; he will rise no more.’”
The correct answer to the final clue was “Canterbury, England.”
None of the players gave the correct answer in the final round. Melissa wrote “Paris,” while Brandon and Charlotte guessed “The Holy Sepulchre” and “Hasting,” respectively.
Take a look at the final results of the March 21 episode:
Melissa Klapper: $22,800 – $5,201 = $17,599 (What is Paris?) (2-day total: $42,400)
Charlotte Diffendale: $14,000 – $8,801 = $5,199 (What is Hasting)
Brandon Anderson: $9,000 – $9,000 = $0 (What is The Holy Sepulchre)
With today’s win, Melissa became a two-day champion with a total score of $42,400. She will appear in the next episode to defend her win against two new players.
The syndicated game show will air the next episode on Wednesday, March 22, 2023.