Jeopardy! Tonight: Final Jeopardy, Who Won and Air Times
Friday was the strangest of the five games Season 43 has played so far. The leader missed Final Jeopardy!, the two challengers missed it too, and the man who lost $3,900 on the last clue of the night still walked off as champion.
This page is the running home for the nightly card — who is at the lecterns, when the show starts where you live, and how Final Jeopardy! turned out. The table below is the week at a glance.
| Night | Won by | One-day total |
|---|---|---|
| Mon, Sept. 14 | Matthew Riggle | $8,001 |
| Tue, Sept. 15 | Matthew Riggle | $23,201 |
| Wed, Sept. 16 | Jen Spinoglio | $10,801 |
| Thu, Sept. 17 | Mark Ramirez | $20,800 |
| Fri, Sept. 18 | Mark Ramirez | $11,500 |
Three different champions in five nights, and $74,303 handed out to winners — an average of $14,861 a game, by our count of the five one-day totals above. Season 43 is not short of money.
Who won Jeopardy! tonight?
Mark Ramirez, an executive communications lead from Northglenn, Colorado. It was his second win, and it puts him at $32,300 for the week.
| Player | From | Final score |
|---|---|---|
| Mark Ramirez (champ) | Northglenn, Colo. | $11,500 |
| Michael Mott | Owens Cross Roads, Ala. | $3,199 |
| Holly Firlein | Newark, Del. | $598 |
Ken Jennings hosted, as he has every night of the season. Ramirez goes for win number three on Monday.
What was the Final Jeopardy! answer on Sept. 18?
The category was Fictional Characters. The clue pointed at an outcast who made a mead hall unusable for a dozen years before the story's hero killed him.
The correct response was Who is Grendel? — the monster of Beowulf. Nobody had it.
Holly Firlein wrote "Who is Holden Caufield?" Michael Mott left his card blank. Ramirez also missed, which is why his total went down rather than up.
👉 A Triple Stumper is rarer than it feels — and when it lands on a night with no runaway, it decides the game rather than confirming it.
How did the scores actually move?
Firlein led after the first round with $8,000 to Ramirez's $5,000 and Mott's $2,000. Then she stalled completely.
Ramirez took over in Double Jeopardy! and finished the round at $15,400, with Mott second at $9,600 and Firlein still sitting on $8,000. The Jeopardy! Fan put Ramirez's Coryat at $14,600 on 24 correct responses against two wrong, first on the buzzer 42.11 percent of the time.
Here is the part worth pausing on: that was not a lock game. A lock needs the leader above twice the runner-up, which would have meant $19,201 for Ramirez against Mott's $9,600 — and Ramirez had $15,400.
So his $3,900 wager was a judgment call, not a formality. Mott bet $6,401 and could have finished at $16,001 with a correct response, which would have beaten Ramirez's $11,500. Grendel saved the champion.
Thursday's game, for contrast, really was over before Final — the Sept. 17 scores and wagers show Ramirez wagering nothing on a locked board. Every night of the season is filed in the results archive.
Who is the Jeopardy! champion going into next week?
Ramirez, with two wins and $32,300. His $20,800 on Thursday is still the second-biggest one-day total of the season, $2,401 behind Matthew Riggle's $23,201 on Tuesday.
Two games is a start, not a streak. For scale on what a real run looks like, the all-time streak list opens at 74 games.
What time is Jeopardy! on, and is it new?
It is syndicated, so there is no single national start time. Most big markets run it at 7 or 7:30 p.m. local — and then there is Chicago, where WLS has parked it in the middle of the afternoon for years.
| City | Station | Local start |
|---|---|---|
| New York | WABC | 7:00 p.m. |
| Philadelphia | WPVI | 7:00 p.m. |
| Los Angeles | KABC | 7:00 p.m. |
| Boston | WBZ | 7:30 p.m. |
| Chicago | WLS | 3:30 p.m. |
If your station is not on that list, the listings grid on your cable or streaming guide is the fastest check. The show moves around more than people expect, and sports and local news push it in both directions.
As for new episodes: Friday was game five of Season 43, which premiered Monday, Sept. 14. Encores turn up around holidays and in tournament gaps, and one Detroit station reran the premiere by mistake this week — our new-or-encore tracker keeps that straight night by night.
Where can I watch or stream Jeopardy!?
Live, it is your local broadcast station. There is no national cable feed.
Clips and each night's Final Jeopardy! go up on jeopardy.com, and older seasons run on Pluto TV. Our how-to-watch guide covers channels, streaming and season dates across all three syndicated shows in one place.
A few quick answers
Is there a tournament on right now? No. Regular play continues, and the Second Chance and Champions Wildcard events are not expected until the new year.
What is on next week? Five more Season 43 episodes, starting Monday with Ramirez defending. Our week-ahead schedule lists them by day.
What about Wheel of Fortune? Friday's bonus puzzle lands on our Wheel of Fortune tonight page once the East Coast broadcast wraps, and the new-or-encore tracker covers that show's schedule.
Friday, in one line
Mark Ramirez $11,500 · Michael Mott $3,199 · Holly Firlein $598 · Final: Grendel, nobody got it.
Sources · The Jeopardy! Fan — Sept. 18 Final, scores and wagers · Jeopardy Tonight — who won on Sept. 18 · Jeopardy.com — contestants and Final Jeopardy!
- Jeopardy! Tonight (Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026): Jen Spinoglio's First Defense, Air Times by City
- Jeopardy! Tonight (Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2026): Matthew Riggle Is $4,398 From $100,000
- Jeopardy! Tonight (Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026): Matthew Riggle Goes for Four vs. Abby Mullen and Wesley Jalipa
- Jeopardy! Tonight (Monday, Sept. 14, 2026): Season 43 Premiere Players, Air Time, and Where to Watch