Jeopardy! High School Reunion Tournament 2023 came to an end, airing the final episode on Thursday, March 9, 2023.
The competition started last month with 27 former teen players. Speaking about the tournament, the show’s executive producer Michael Davis said:
“We didn’t want to lose that sort of college energy [this season]. We knew we had these 27 players who are all of college age who come from our existing Jeopardy! community, so this was a great opportunity to bring them back.”
On Thursday, the tournament announced its winner among three finalists — Jackson Jones, a junior at Vanderbilt University from Louisville, Kentucky, Maya Wright, a senior at Emory University from Peachtree City, Georgia, and Justin Bolsen, a first-year student at Brown University from Canton, Georgia.
Today’s Jeopardy! winner is Justin Bolsen
The finale consisted of two days. Day 1 aired on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, where Jackson Jones was leading the game with a score of $24,000. Justin Bolsen ranked second ($13,570) and Maya Wright landed in third place ($3,370).
In the latest episode, aka day 2 finale, viewers witnessed changes on the scoreboard.
The categories for the first round included “College Sports Stuff, The Long-Ago 20th Century, Can We “Dis”cuss?, A Business Major, One-Syllable Body Parts, Let’s Get Dirty.”
The first round seemed like a difficult segment for the players as a total of seven incorrect answers were delivered. Therefore, the scores were lower than on other days. Jackson found the first Daily Double but gave an incorrect response. Despite that, he took the lead in round 1.
The scores going into the second round were Jackson at $3,600, Justin at $3,000, and Maya at $2,400.
In the second round, the categories were “First Words, 4-Letter Geography, There’s A Name In The Title, Inside Ballet & Opera, You Robot, Take Me To Your Leader.”
The Double Jeopardy round brought in surprising results. Maya led the game this time after winning a Daily Double and giving multiple correct answers. The third Daily Double went to Jackson but he gave the wrong answer once again.
Jackson’s luck was not working in his favor in the High School Reunion Tournament finale. He gave the highest number of incorrect responses (seven), while Maya gave one and Justin gave three.
Maya and Justin’s scores were closer to each other compared to Jackson’s. The scores were Maya at $14,200, Justin at $11,000, and Jackson at $5,600.
In the Final Jeopardy round, all three players delivered the correct answer to the final question. Jackson, who won day 1 of the finale, could not win day 2 because of his low scores from the second round. Justin played smartly and wagered almost all his earnings from today, while Maya fell behind due to her day 1 score.
Hence, Justin Bolsen won Jeopardy! today.
Final Jeopardy! results today
In the finale episode of Jeopardy! High School Reunion Tournament 2023, the category for the final round was “Landmarks.”
The final question, aka a clue, read:
“After its completion in the late 19th c., it was called “a truly tragic street lamp” & a “high & skinny pyramid of iron ladders”
The correct answer was “Eiffel Tower.”
All three players gave the correct answer in the March 9 episode. Take a look at the final results of the High School Reunion Tournament finale:
Justin Bolsen: $11,000 + $10,991 = $21,991 + $13,570 = $35,561 (What is the Eiffel Tower? Hi dad :)) ($100,000 — WINNER)
Jackson Jones: $5,600 + $5,598 = $11,198 + $24,000 = $35,198 ($50,000) (What is the Eiffel Tower? you all!)
Maya Wright: $14,200 + $7,040 = $21,240 + $3,370 = $24,610 ($25,000) (What is the Eiffel Tower?)
With today’s win, Justin became the champion of Jeopardy! High School Reunion Tournament 2023. He received a whopping cash prize of $100,000 and earned a spot in the upcoming Tournament of Champions.
Jackson and Maya didn’t go home empty-handed as the second position holder received $50,000 and the second runner-up received $25,000.
Meanwhile, Season 39 of the game show will return to the stage with new episodes on Friday, March 10, 2023. While Mayim Bialik hosted the tournament, the regular season episodes are hosted by Ken Jennings.
