What Is a Coryat Score on Jeopardy!? How It's Calculated
As of November 5, 2026
Quick answer: A Coryat score is what a Jeopardy! player would have if every clue were worth its face value and Final Jeopardy! never happened. Right responses add the dollar value on the board, wrong ones subtract it, and wagering is ignored. Fans use it to compare players without the noise of big Daily Double bets.
What is a Coryat score?
J! Archive, the fan database of past games, defines it as a player's score if all wagering is disregarded. The name comes from Karl Coryat, a two-game Season 12 champion who worked out a scorekeeping method for people playing along at home.
Wikipedia describes the same idea in its entry for Coryat. It adds that he wrote an online article of advice for would-be contestants, and that his play-along method is where the term comes from.
How is a Coryat score calculated?
Four rules cover it, all from J! Archive's glossary:
| Event | Coryat effect |
|---|---|
| Right response, regular clue | Add the board value |
| Wrong response, regular clue | Subtract the board value |
| Right Daily Double | Add the square's board value, not the wager |
| Wrong Daily Double | No penalty |
Final Jeopardy! is left out entirely, so a big gain or loss there never touches the number. Wikipedia's account agrees on the Daily Double and Final rules.
What does a Coryat score look like in a real game?
We opened J! Archive's page for Show #9615, which aired July 24, 2026, on Nov. 5 and worked it out clue by clue. Each player's correct responses and misses were listed on the page; we only added them up.
| Player | Correct | Missed | Coryat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matthew | $21,600 | −$3,000 | $18,600 |
| Devin | $14,000 | −$1,600 | $12,400 |
| Sophia | $9,400 | −$2,400 | $7,000 |
👉 Our math for Matthew: 17 regular clues worth $18,000, plus two Daily Doubles counted at their board values of $1,600 and $2,000, gives $21,600. Three misses cost $3,000. That leaves $18,600.
Add the three scores and you get a combined Coryat of $38,000. The board holds $54,000 in total, and the other $16,000 split two ways: eight clues went unanswered by anyone ($9,000), and the players' misses took away $7,000.
Why is the Coryat score different from the score on screen?
Because the on-screen score includes the bets. Here is how far each player's Coryat sat from the score they carried into Final Jeopardy!, per J! Archive's round-end totals for the same game.
| Player | Coryat | Entering Final | Wager effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Matthew | $18,600 | $21,600 | +$3,000 |
| Devin | $12,400 | $13,400 | +$1,000 |
| Sophia | $7,000 | $7,000 | $0 |
Sophia found no Daily Double, so her two numbers match exactly. That is a handy check on the method: when a player never hit a Daily Double, Coryat and the real score should agree, and here they do.
Matthew led Devin by $6,200 on Coryat and by $8,200 on the board. His Daily Double wagers padded the lead by $2,000, but he was ahead either way.
What is the highest possible Coryat score?
J! Archive lists $54,000 as the largest possible Coryat score in a game. That is the combined figure for all three players, and it requires every clue to be revealed, nobody to miss and no triple stumpers. We checked the arithmetic against the board: six columns of $200 to $1,000 give $18,000, and six columns of $400 to $2,000 give $36,000.
No real game gets there. The game above reached $38,000, and the gap came from the two things listed earlier, unanswered clues and misses.
How can a viewer use it at home?
Keep a running tally in your head or on paper, adding and subtracting board values as the clues are played. Skip the wagers and skip Final. Your total is your own Coryat score, which you can set beside the three on stage.
If you want the other half of the game, our Final Jeopardy! wagering guide and the Daily Double rules page cover what Coryat leaves out. For long runs, see the longest winning streaks, and for the other side of the podium, how the audition process works. The buzzer lockout rules cover how players get the chance to respond at all.
FAQ
Does a Coryat score include Final Jeopardy!? No. J! Archive says any gain or loss from the Final round is ignored.
Is a Coryat score the same as a player's winnings? No. Winnings come from the final on-screen score, which includes wagers, so the two numbers usually differ.
Where can I see the full clue list for a game? J! Archive keeps each aired game on its own page, with every clue, its value and who answered it.
Sources · J! Archive — Help and glossary · J! Archive — Show #9615 · Wikipedia — Karl Coryat
- Who Hosts Jeopardy!, Wheel of Fortune, Family Feud and The Price Is Right?
- How to Qualify for the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions: Wins Needed and Who Decides
- How the Jeopardy! Buzzer Works: The Quarter-Second Lockout and the Hidden Lights
- Jeopardy! Daily Double Rules: The $5 Minimum, Where They Hide and the $25,000 Record