Who won Jeopardy! tonight? July 21, 2023, Friday

A brand new episode of Jeopardy! Season 39 aired on Friday, July 21, 2023, featuring three players. One-day winner Nik Berry returned to defend his winning title against two new players — Ben Sasamoto and Taylor Clagett. All three gave tough competition to each other in the latest episode.

The official synopsis of the syndicated game show reads:

“A returning champion and two challengers test their buzzer skills and their knowledge in a wide range of academic and popular categories.”

In the July 21 episode, returning champion Nik Berry, a social studies teacher from Baltimore, Maryland, played against Taylor Clagett, a marketing director originally from Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, and Ben Sasamoto, an environmental consultant from Minneapolis, Minnesota.

---

Today’s Jeopardy! winner is Taylor Clagett

Nik Berry won Jeopardy! game in the July 20 episode and returned to play his second game on Friday. Although he was the winner in the previous installment, he didn’t perform well in the latest episode against Ben Sasamoto and Taylor Clagett.

In the first round, the categories included “Happy 75th Birthday Israel!, Shakespeare, That Hollow Feeling, The Romaines Of The Day, Track & Field, and Homophone Connection.”

All three players played well in the first segment. While Ben reached the top rank sooner due to Daily Double, Taylor struggled a bit but then matched his score with Ben. Returning champion Nik, on the other hand, landed in third place.

The scores of the players in the first round were Taylor at $3,800, Ben at $3,800, and Nik at $3,000.

In the second round, the categories included “Explorers, Internally Yours, Old Hollywood Scribes, Motley Clues, Stately Demonyms, and Ends In ‘X’.”

Nik and Taylor found Daily Doubles, respectively, in the Double Jeopardy round. Both players incorrectly answered their respective Daily Double questions and thus their scores went down. Ben didn’t get any Daily Double advantage, however, ranked first in the second round.

The scores of the contestants were Ben at $9,400, Taylor at $5,400, and Nik at $1,200.

In the Final Jeopardy round, only Taylor was able to correctly answer the final question. Interestingly, he was the only one with the highest number of incorrect answers among the three players. But his luck worked in his favor in the final round as he wagered all his earnings and fortunately gave the correct answer. Nik and Ben didn’t wager a lot but lost the game.

Hence, Taylor Clagett won Jeopardy! today.

Taylor Clagett: Tonight's winner (Image via @OneEclecticMom/Twitter)

---

Final Jeopardy! results today

The final round of the July 21 episode was under the category of “Numbers Old & New,” and the final clue/question read:

“Expressed in today’s numbers, it’s the sum total if you add the 7 Roman numerals together.”

The correct answer was “1666.”

Only Taylor gave the correct answer while Ben forgot to add “1” to his answer and lost the game. Nik, too, wrote an incorrect response.

Take a look at the final results of the July 21 episode, hosted by Ken Jennings:

Taylor Clagett: $5,400 + $5,400 = $10,800 (What 1,666?) (1-day total: $10,800)

Ben Sasamoto: $9,400 – $3,000 = $6,400 (What 666?)

Nik Berry: $1,200 – $17 = $1,183 (What is 2166?)

In today’s episode, Nik lost his winning title as viewers found a new winner. Taylor became the one-day winner who will return to the game show next week to play against two new players.

The next episode will air on Monday, July 24, 2023.