Who Won Jeopardy! Tonight? (Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026) — Final Jeopardy Answer and Scores (Spoilers)

Quick answer — Nobody had the Sept. 9, 2026 Final Jeopardy! (American Authors: Who is Eudora Welty?). Andrew He won Game 1 of the Invitational final with $11,599 and later took the series 2–1.

Roger Craig got to the buzzer more often than either opponent, answered more clues correctly than either of them, and walked off with nothing.

That is Game 1 of the Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament final in one line. Andrew He won it, on a wager that left exactly one dollar of daylight, and stations ran the whole thing Wednesday as an encore.

Key takeaways

• Final Jeopardy! category: American Authors. The correct response was Who is Eudora Welty?
• Nobody had it. A triple stumper meant the wagers settled the game, and Andrew He took it with $11,599.
• This was an encore of the February 18 game, so the syndicated title is untouched. New episodes start Monday, September 14.

What was the Final Jeopardy answer on September 9?

The category was American Authors. The clue pointed to the writer who supplied the foreword to a 1971 cookbook put out by the Jackson Symphony League.

The response is Who is Eudora Welty? Welty spent nearly her whole life in Jackson, Mississippi, and won the 1973 Pulitzer for The Optimist's Daughter. She wrote forewords for several local cookbooks in that stretch.

None of the three found her. He guessed Flagg, Nguyen guessed Angelou, and Craig wrote down a name that was not a writer at all.

Who won Game 1, and how close was the wager?

He led $16,400 to $10,600 with Nguyen a distant third, which is not a runaway. Craig doubling up would have reached $21,200.

👉 So He bet $4,801 — a correct response would have put him on $21,201, one dollar clear of the worst case. He got it wrong, Craig got it wrong too, and the cover never mattered.

Why did Roger Craig bet all of it?

Because second place in a best-of-three final is worth nothing. Craig had to be right and He had to be wrong, and betting everything is what forces the leader into a cover.

It is the correct play and it still cost him the whole stack. Nguyen, in third with $2,000, needed a wild overbet from He that was never coming, so his $1,933 was housekeeping.

How did Andrew He build the lead?

On one clue, mostly. The first board stayed tight — Craig led $3,800 to He's $3,600 after fifteen clues — and the Daily Double never surfaced.

He found it early in the second half and doubled $4,800, and by the end of the Jeopardy! round he was on $10,400 to Craig's $5,800.

Nguyen then found both remaining Daily Doubles. He converted the first, then went all in on $6,400 in Idioms & Expressions with He sitting in a runaway position over him, and lost it.

Here is the part worth sitting with: Craig finished with 20 correct to He's 16 and won the buzzer 38.6 percent to 31.8 percent. On Coryat — the wager-free measure of who actually played better — He still came out ahead, $12,200 to $10,600, because the Daily Double swing was bigger than the buzzer edge. Six lead changes and two ties along the way.

Was this a new episode?

No. It first aired February 18, and if it feels unfamiliar you may watch on an NBC affiliate that dropped these episodes for Olympics coverage back in the winter. Our Tuesday recap covered the semifinal that sent Nguyen to this table, and Monday's had He's thirty-eight-dollar wager.

Every night of that week is filed in the results archive, and the Tuesday preview has the air times as they stood.

How did the rest of the final go?

Game 1 turned out to be the template. The leader covered to the dollar in all three games, and the series still needed the full three nights.

Roger Craig never won a game in the final. The same buzzer edge he had on Wednesday did not return on Friday, when He ran 16 of 17 in Double Jeopardy! — the full breakdown is in the Game 3 recap.

When did new Jeopardy! games come back?

Monday, September 14, when Season 43 began. Matthew Riggle returned as champion, stretched his run to four games and $95,602, and lost it to Jen Spinoglio on Sept. 16. The title has changed hands almost nightly since; the current name is on Jeopardy! Tonight.

Nothing in a tournament encore moves that title. The Invitational winner gets $150,000 and a seat at the next Jeopardy! Masters, which is a separate ledger entirely. Market-by-market slots are in the viewing guide, and the other half of Wednesday's hour ended better — the Wheel bonus round finally paid off a car.

FAQ

What was the Final Jeopardy answer today? Who is Eudora Welty? The category was American Authors and all three players missed it.

Who won Jeopardy! tonight? Andrew He, with $11,599, in an encore of Game 1 of the 2026 Invitational Tournament final.

Who is the Jeopardy! champion now? Nikolas Polsinelli, after his $17,601 win on Thursday, Sept. 24. The Invitational is scored separately and does not affect that title.

Who won the 2026 Jeopardy! Invitational? Andrew He, two games to one over Long Nguyen, with Roger Craig third.

Sources

• The Jeopardy! Fan — recap and box score, September 9, 2026
• Jeopardy.com — 2026 Invitational Tournament tracker
• Jeopardy Tonight — today's Final Jeopardy
• GameShows.com — fall 2026 premiere dates

By the Game Show On Air desk · Updated Sept. 24, 10:46 p.m. ET