Who Won Jeopardy! Tonight? (Monday, Sept. 14, 2026) — Final Jeopardy Answer and Scores (Spoilers)

The gist: Matthew Riggle won the Season 43 premiere of Jeopardy! on Monday with $8,001, and he did it without knowing the answer. Nobody did. Final Jeopardy! was a triple stumper, and the wagers decided it.

That makes him a three-day champion with $72,401. It's the smallest of his three winning totals by a lot, and probably the one he'll remember.

Key takeaways

• Final Jeopardy! was Transportation. The correct response: What is the Vespa?
• Bryan Lee led going in, $15,600 to Riggle's $12,000, but lost $8,401 on a miss.
• Riggle's $3,999 wager left him exactly $1 above anything Emily Mayo could reach.

What was Final Jeopardy on September 14?

The category was Transportation. The clue asked for a postwar Italian design classic whose name comes from the insect world, credited to engineer Corradino D'Ascanio.

The correct response: What is the Vespa? Vespa means wasp in Italian, and it's also the scientific name for the hornet genus.

Here's the part we liked. Mayo wrote Beetle, Lee wrote VW bug and Riggle wrote Spyder. All three went looking for a car named after a creature, which was the right instinct and the wrong machine.

How did Riggle win with the wrong answer?

By betting for the one scenario he could actually win. Lee wagered $8,401, a standard cover bet: if he was right, he'd finish at $24,001, one dollar more than Riggle could ever reach by doubling.

So a correct Riggle response couldn't beat a correct Lee. His only path was Lee missing. For that, he had to stay above two numbers at once.

Our math, from the scores in the Sources below. Mayo could only reach $8,000, so $3,999 was the biggest bet that kept Riggle clear of her. Lee's miss dropped him to $7,199, $802 short.

👉 A $1 margin over third place is what won this, not the $802 over second.

Is Matthew Riggle still the Jeopardy! champion?

Yes. The community college math instructor from Madison, Alabama, is now 3-0.

That works out to about $24,134 a game, down from $32,200 before Monday. Whether he reaches five is anyone's guess. For where three wins sits historically, our list of the longest Jeopardy! winning streaks starts at 31.

Lee, the climate financial strategist from Falls Church, Virginia, finished second. Mayo, who works on Broadway ads in Brooklyn, bet it all from third and ended on zero.

When does Riggle play again?

Tuesday, Sept. 15, in your station's regular slot. It's a new episode, like every night this week. The day-by-day plan is in our Sept. 14–18 Jeopardy! schedule, and the running “Is Jeopardy! new tonight?” page gets each night's players once they're posted.

Before the game, we laid out who Riggle was facing and when it aired. Friday's encore that closed Season 42 reruns is in our Sept. 11 recap, and every nightly result lives under results. Stations shuffle half-hours, so check the market-by-market viewing guide if yours moved. Wheel also opened a new season Monday; its bonus puzzle goes on our Wheel of Fortune tonight page.

FAQ

What was the Final Jeopardy answer today? What is the Vespa? The category was Transportation, and all three players missed it.

Who won Jeopardy! tonight? Matthew Riggle, with $8,001, after a $3,999 wager.

Who is the Jeopardy! champion now? Riggle, a three-day champion with $72,401.

Sources

• Parade — Who won Jeopardy! today, September 14, 2026
• Fikkle Fame — Final Jeopardy: Transportation (9-14-26)
• Jeopardy Tonight — Final Jeopardy for September 14, 2026

By the Game Show On Air desk · Updated 5:45 p.m. ET