Jeopardy’s 2017 Teachers Tournament $100,000 Finals Begins Tonight

Much like every Jeopardy! tournament, this one did not disappoint. Jeopardy’s 2017 Teachers Tournament will soon come to a close within the next two days as we have reached the competition’s two-day finals beginning today. David Clemmons, an 11th grade U.S. history teacher from Fort Worth, TX; Nan Cohen, a high school English teacher from Van Nuys, CA; and Mary Parker, a high school French and English teacher from Rogers, AK., are the three finalists who will be playing for the $100,000 grand prize plus a spot in the show’s annual Tournament of Champions on today’s and Friday’s shows. This year’s teacher’s tournament has been incredible to watch from the start of last Monday’s first quarterfinal game. In the eight games played thus far, we have yet to see a runaway game, where a contestant mathematically eliminated their opponents heading into Final Jeopardy by posting an insurmountable score. Even Alex Trebek has praised the overall superb performance of gameplay throughout the two-week event by saying at the top of yesterday’s episode, “[T]he quality of play in this year’s Teachers Tournament has been exceptional – much better than any tournament I can recall in recent memory.”

The most memorable moment from the quarterfinal round was perhaps Nan Cohen’s dominate performance in her quarterfinal game. On last Thursday’s show, Cohen had a quiet start before taking over the game upon answering the Daily Double question correctly early in the first round. Cohen held the lead through a staggering 51 straight questions (83% of the game) and had no intentions of looking back.

The second week kicked off with an exciting comeback and win by David Clemmons. After ending the first round with -$400 and $8,400 away from tying for first, Clemmons put the pedal to the metal and sped into first place by earning a staggering $18,000 by the end of the Double Jeopardy round – partly thanks to his gutsy, double-or-nothing $6,000 wager when he found and answered his first Daily Double correctly.

The week and a half of exciting games has culminated to the upcoming two-day finale. It’s a tough call to make a definitive decision on which of these three finalists will win the tournament. To help you decide which of the three has the best shot to win it all, here are a few stats about each finalist. 

David Clemmons (Total Qs C-I: 35-7)

Quarterfinals

Round 1: $4,800 (2nd; trailed 1st by $400 and led 3rd by $3,200)

Round 2: $10,400 (T-1st; led 3rd by $1,600)

Final J!: $10,800 (Won)

Correct: 17 

Incorrect: 2

Daily Doubles: 1 correct for $2,000 in Round 2

Semifinals

Round 1: -$400 (3rd; trailed 2nd by $2,200 and 1st by $8,400)

Round 2: $17,600 (1st; led 2nd by $4,400 and 3rd by $5,000)

Final J!: $27,600 (Led 2nd by $2,400 and 3rd by $27,600)

Correct: 18

Incorrect: 5

Daily Doubles: 1 correct for $6,000 in Round 2; 1 incorrect for -$2,000 in Round 2

Nan Cohen (Total Qs C-I: 35-3)

Quarterfinals

Round 1: $6,600 (1st; led 2nd by $3,200 and 3rd by $4,400)

Round 2: $15,500 (1st; led 2nd by $4,000 and 3rd by $8,000)

Final J!: $22,801 (Won)

Correct: 17

Incorrect: 1

Daily Doubles: 1 correct for $1,000 in Round 1

Semifinals

Round 1: $3,400 (3rd; trailed 2nd by $1,600 and 1st by $1,800) 

Round 2: $18,200 (1st; led 2nd by $6,400 and 3rd by $8,600)

Final J!: $23,601 (Led 2nd by $5,400 and 3rd by $11,001)

Correct: 18 

Incorrect: 2

Daily Doubles: 1 correct for $5,600 in Round 2

Mary Parker (Total Qs C-I: 41-5)

Quarterfinals

Round 1: $6,600 (1st; led 2nd by $2,000 and 3rd by $4,800)

Round 2: $22,200 (1st; led 2nd by $8,400 and 3rd by $12,800)

Final J!: $26,650 (Won)

Correct: 24

Incorrect: 2

Daily Doubles: 1 correct for $1,000 in Round 1 

Semifinals 

Round 1: $5,000 (1st; led 2nd and 3rd by $2,000)

Round 2: $12,200 (1st; led 2nd by $5,600 and 3rd by $9,000)

Final J!: $13,700 (Led 2nd by $7,300 and 3rd by $11,700)

Correct: 17

Incorrect: 3

Daily Doubles: 0

Stay tuned for the nail-biting conclusion of this year’s Teachers Tournament today and tomorrow on your local station! Keep up with the recaps and highlights on Jeopardy.com.

Sources: J! Archive, Jeopardy! Official Site, The Jeopardy! Fan, YouTube