Sometime last week, I got the feeling a long time had passed since we’d seen a triple-get in Final Jeopardy! – a clue for which all three players give a correct response. When I ran the stats, I was shocked to learn it had not happened since January 14.
Perhaps it was dumb luck that the display on my MacBook Pro crapped out over the weekend before I could put together a post; on Monday, the streak came to an end after 32 games, including the two-week Teachers Tournament.
In a previous By the Numbers installment, I analyzed the frequency of right-wrong combinations in Final Jeopardy!. In regular play between December 1, 2004 and January 2, 2015, around 19% of Final clues saw three successful responses.
Assuming that any given FJ combination will be randomly selected, the probability of any 32-game stretch having zero triple-gets is about 0.14%, or around once in 750 games. Fittingly, 32 games tied the longest streak in the post-KJ era.
Although we had just one three-game winner in our recently-ended streak (not counting the Teachers Tournament), a dearth of triple-gets does not mean no one goes on a tear.
Stefan Goodreau (responses darkened) won his five games at the beginning of this span, going 4/6 on Final.
The week of July 13 was Kids Week; there were also two Celebrity games, in lighter colors.
The first two weeks were from the Tournament of Champions won by Celeste DiNucci.
Lisa Klink (darker) won 5 games starting on November 26. She was 3/6 on Final.
Jason Zollinger, who won 6 games, won his first game on the commencing triple-get. Another Celebrity game was held January 21, and the College Championship rounded out the streak the weeks of February 1 and 8.
Dan Pawson’s third game is the first on this list. Overall in his original run, Dan was 5/10 in Final.