Jeopardy! recap for Wed., May 27

 Here are today's contestants:

- J.R. Scott, an economist from Dana Point, California;

- Rachel Hoke, an instructional technologist from Wilmington, Delaware; and

- Chris D'Angelo, a content manager from Washington, D.C. Chris is a five-day champ with winnings of $97,000.

Jeopardy!

A BIG COUNTRY // TV SHOWS BY CHARACTERS // CANADIAN TERMINOLOGY // THE PLANET WITH... // BRANDS BY LETTER // ROOMMATES

DD1 - $1,000 - CANADIAN TERMINOLOGY - When the Globe & Mail uses "GTA", it likely doesn't mean Grand Theft Auto but this region, home to 7 million Canadian (J.R. lost $1,000 from his score of $2,000.)

Scores at first break: Chris $4,400, Rachel $0, J.R. $1,000.

Scores entering DJ: Chris $5,800, Rachel $1,800, J.R. $2,400.

Double Jeopardy!

HEATED RIVALRIES // ADVENTUROUS READING // WHERE WE LIVE // WORLD RELIGIONS // NATONAL SPELLING BEE WINNING WORDS // THANK YOU, ROB REINER...

DD2 - $1,600 - HEATED RIVALRIES - During a March 4, 1861 inaugural speech, this wily debater held his onetime rival's hat (J.R. doubled to $5,600 vs. $5,800 for Chris.)

DD3 - $1,600 - NATONAL SPELLING BEE WINNING WORDS - From Greek for "word" & "flow", this noun meaning pathologically excessive speech was the winning word in 1999 (With $11,600 vs. $9,400 for Chris, J.R. added $2,000.)

J.R. got close to Chris with a double-up on DD2, had a short lead when he found DD3 and was correct after making a small wager, then Chris took over in the later stages to hold first into FJ at $19,800 vs. $13,600 for J.R. and $4,200 for Rachel.

Final Jeopardy!

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS - Published in 1868, "Etudes Sur Le Vinaigre" was one of this man’s groundbreaking works

Only Chris was correct on FJ, adding $7,401 to win with $27,201 for a six-day total of $124,201.

Final scores: Chris $27,401, Rachel $2,000, J.R. $1.

Wagering strategy: By betting nearly everything on FJ, J.R. forced himself to be correct on FJ to have a chance to win, while with a tiny bet, he could have won if Chris missed without having to be correct himself.

Judging the judges: For the Spinal Tap clue, while none of the three responses was precisely correct, all contained the essential information, but only one was accepted in a display of judging pedantry that's impressive even for this show.

Correct Qs: DD1 - What is Greater Toronto Area? DD2 - Who was Stephen Douglas? DD3 - What is logorrhea? FJ - Who was Louis Pasteur?