Who won Jeopardy! tonight? January 26, 2023, Thursday

Five-day champion Troy Meyer returned to Jeopardy! Season 39 to defend his win for the sixth time against two newcomers.

Hailing from Tampa, Florida, Troy is a music executive who had won five games until Wednesday and banked $170,401. In the January 26 episode, he returned to play against two new competitors — Emma Moore, a librarian from Princeton, New Jersey, and John Guszkowski, a planning consultant from Pomfret, Connecticut.

The longest-running Emmy-winning game show has been fans’ favorite TV program since 1964. The official website explains the origin of the competition series. It reads:

“Jeopardy! was born March 30, 1964, when the first-ever episode aired at 11:30 a.m. on NBC. The birth parents were Merv and Julann Griffin and attending was Art Fleming. The NBC daytime version of the show (which ran until 1975) paved the way for the current syndicated program that debuted in 1984.”

Meanwhile, Troy Meyer and two new players participated in Thursday’s game.

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Today's Jeopardy! winner is Troy Meyer

If Troy Meyer maintains his winning streak, it will soon bring him closer to season 39 champions Ray Lalonde and Cris Pannullo’s scores.

In the January 26 episode, the categories for the first round included “20th Century America, Let’s Talk About Sax, Baby, Working 9 2 5, What’s In The Bottle?, Alliteration Time, The “End”s Of The Earth.”

Troy played wisely in round 1 by correctly answering high-valued questions. He gave 13 correct answers and banked $9,200. New player John Guszkowski attempted a similar number of questions as Troy, but his questions were mostly lower-valued. He gave 10 correct and two incorrect answers, scoring $3,000. Emma Moore, on the other hand, was seen struggling as she gave three correct responses but four wrong answers. In round 1, her scores went to the minus group, -$1,600.

The categories for the second round of the Ken Jennings-hosted show were “A Line In The Sand, Languages, Venomous Creatures, Finance & Investing, “B” Movies, 12 Letters Or More.”

The Double Jeopardy round was a nail-biter. Both the Daily Doubles went to the new players. While Emma fell deeper into the minus zone after losing her Daily Double, John brought his scores closer to Troy as he won his Daily Double. The returning champion already had a lead from the first round and fortunately, he didn’t stop giving correct answers in round 2.

Hence, he was still at the top of the scoreboard with a score of $24,400, while John banked $22,200. By the end of this round, Emma managed to come out of the negative zone and end up with a score of $2,800.

In the Final Jeopardy round, John and Troy gave the correct answer to the final question, while Emma failed to do so. She went home with just one dollar in her pocket. John and Troy, on the other hand, didn’t shy away from wagering huge amounts for the final round. But Troy’s bet was higher than John's, which kept the Tampa native on top of the scoreboard.

Hence, Troy Meyer won Jeopardy! today.

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Final Jeopardy! results today

The category for the final round in the January 26 episode was “History,” and the final question/clue read:

“Returning home in 1493, Columbus stopped in the Azores at an island with this name, also something he’d lost off the Haiti coast.”

The correct response to the final clue was “Santa Maria.”

John and Troy gave the correct answer, while Emma wrote, “Nina.” Take a look at the final results of the January 26 episode:

Troy Meyer: $24,400 + $20,001 = $44,401 (What is Santa Maria?) (6-day total: $214,802)

John Guszkowski: $22,200 + $11,100 = $33,300 (What is Santa Maria?)

Emma Moore: $2,800 – $2,799 = $1 (What is Nina?)

Troy became the six-day champion with today’s win, where he crossed the $200,000 mark. He has also advanced to the Tournament of Champions 2023.

Troy will return to play his seventh game in the next episode, which will air on Friday, January 27, 2023.