Below you’ll see the Final Jeopardy clue for Friday, September 20, 2024. In a surprise bet but a correct response to yesterday’s Final Jeopardy clue, high school teacher Jen Feldman won Jeopardy on Thursday. She comes in with $13,800, and she wants to extend that total, she’ll need to win against two new contestants, tech executive Santhosh Sastry from Texas and Sarah Preisinger from Nebraska. Here is the question and answer for Final Jeopardy on 9/20/2024, along with the wagers and the winner of the match.
Final Jeopardy Question for September 20
The Final Jeopardy question for September 20, 2024 is in the category of “Island Chains” and has the following clue:
Named for a Spanish queen, this Pacific island chain was a starting point for famous explorations of 1960 & 2012
Per usual, the right answer for this clue can be found at the end of this article to give you a chance to work it out.
Final Jeopardy Wagers and Winner for September 20
Jen won for a second time in a row, though no one was able to provide the right response for Final Jeopardy.
Starting with $15,100, Jen only made a safe bet of $1,050, leaving her with $14,050 total after incorrectly guessing “Isabella.” Santhosh also guessed the same island, but he risked his entire total of $9,400 in his wager and finished in third place with $0.
Sarah also had a safe bet, just $1,000 out of her $7,000, but she guessed the Antilles. This reduced her total to $6,000, putting her in second place.
Final Jeopardy Answer for September 20
The correct answer for Final Jeopardy on September 20, 2024 is “What are the Mariana Islands?”
Since there are many island chains in Oceania, narrowing down which ones the clue is talking about is difficult. This is on top of the fact that countries in Oceania are not usually as well-known. The main piece of information from the clue is that the chain is named after a Spanish queen, which in this case is Mariana of Austria. The Mariana Islands were the first islands that Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan discovered in the Pacific in the early 16th century.
The 1960 and 2012 explorations in the clue refer to journeys made to Challenger Deep, the lowest known point in the ocean. This is located on the southern end of the Mariana Trench, which is another way that the contestants could have gotten the right response.