The ‘Jeopardy!’ clue that brought down a 12-game champ

After a 12-game winning streak in a “Jeopardy!” season that has seen several standout contestants, Adam Remsen’s time on the show came to an end Tuesday — and it all came down to the final question.

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Adam Remsen’s ‘Jeopardy!’ winning streak ends

Remsen, an attorney and theater producer from Memphis, Tennessee, had the lead going into the Final Jeopardy round.

In a consistently close game with contestant Richard Nguyen, Remsen’s lead largely came about thanks to a $5,000 Daily Double wager on the following clue: “The effect of this effect is that patients sometimes get better even when treated with inactive substances or fake procedures.”

Remsen’s correct answer — the placebo effect — helped place him in the lead with $20,800 over Nguyen’s $14,400.

It all came down to the final clue in the category “20th-century novels”: “David Ben-Gurion called this 1958 book ‘as a piece of propaganda … the greatest thing ever written about Israel.’”

Only Nguyen came up with the right response: “What is ‘Exodus’?”

Remsen’s $8,001 wager took him down to $12,799. Nguyen’s $6,401 wager raised his total to $20,801, and the research attorney from Placentia, California, is now the newest “Jeopardy!” champion.

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“Jeopardy!” fans haven’t seen the last of Remsen, though. The 12-game champ — who won over $300,000 throughout his run — will return to the Alex Trebek Stage to compete in the prestigious Tournament of Champions.

He’ll compete alongside other standout players this season, including 31-game champion Jamie Ding, 10-game winner Tristan Williams and eight-game champ Chris D’Angelo.

What clues did Adam Remsen miss on ‘Jeopardy!’?

Here are 15 clues Remsen missed during his “Jeopardy!” run, as the Deseret News previously reported.

1. Notable geography: “This smallest Central American country is also the only one that doesn’t border the Caribbean Sea.”
2. Standard: “Come on, who decides which songs are standards? Oh, him, former assistant to Ira Gershwin and founder of the Great American Songbook Foundation.”
3. History in art: “A painting of a 1666 battle between these two nations shows ships including The Mighty Gouda; the enemy wanted to see it smoked.”
4. I played a real person: “In the series ‘Winning Time,’ about the Lakers in the 1980s, Adrien Brody played this guy, rising to become head coach.”
5. Holidays and observances: “July 6, 2025, was designated a ‘Day of Compassion’ and the start of a ‘Year of Compassion’ in honor of his 90th birthday.”
6. To be tide: “Slack tide, between incoming and outgoing, is a great time to do this with your boat (better than with your pay).”
7. What is that beeping?!: “Periodic ‘chirps’ could mean your device for detecting this odorless gas, a byproduct of combustion, needs new batteries.”
8. International borders: “The Lateran Treaty of 1929 set the border between these two states.”
9. American historical fathers: “Heading a committee for detecting and defeating conspiracies, John Jay is the father of this 19-letter word in the USA.”
10. National holidays: “March 17 is St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland; across the channel in Scotland, November 30 is this.”
11. Hollywood names: “He’s got 12 Oscar nominations and two wins and a Henry Mancini Award from ASCAP and in 2018 received the German Order of Merit.”
12. The 1930s: “Beginning a tradition, this British king made a Christmas speech in 1932, with a little help from Rudyard Kipling.”
13. The animal “in the” metaphor: “This 11-word phrase means it’s better to have a sure thing than to risk it for double.”
14. 1926 bookshelf: “In the ’20s, Arthur Conan Doyle cranked out nonfiction on a passion of his, including ‘History of’ this movement of seances and mediums.”
15. Tributes: “Big Ben has been purposely silenced in honor of a person on only two occasions: the funerals of these two non-royals, 48 years apart.”

Answers: 1. El Salvador; 2. Michael Feinstein; 3. England and the Netherlands; 4. Pat Riley; 5. the Dalai Lama; 6. dock; 7. carbon monoxide; 8. Italy and the Vatican; 9. counterintelligence; 10. St. Andrew’s Day; 11. Hans Zimmer; 12. George V; 13. “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”; 14. “Spiritualism”; 15. Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher

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