Oz in Jeopardy!

The October 3, 2025 episode of Jeopardy! included the category We Love You, Judy all about women named Judy. Naturally, our favorite Dorothy actress popped up, which resulted in this extremely strange post-game exchange. (Incidentally, there was also a clue about Wicked in the same game. And you can watch this episode for yourself now for the next week on Hulu or Peacock, if you subscribe to either streaming service.)

Oz in Jeopardy!

Earlier this year, Jeopardy! had an entire category devoted to The Wizard of Oz. And here it is!

I am impressed that they got them all right, especially the one about King Vidor.

Oz in Jeopardy!

On tonight's episode of Jeopardy!, this was the Final Jeopary! clue. Because of the dates, I knew it with only the first few words.

Oz in Jeopardy!

All kinds of technical issues, plus just plain time, make this former regular series of posts here a challenge. But now that Jeopardy! is posting Final Jeopardy! on YouTube, I can revive it every once in a while when something like this happens:

Oz in Jeopardy!

Thanks to a certain movie coming out later this week, there was a whole video category tonight devoted to Wicked. Unfortunately, they didn't include Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande's introduction to the category, but the rest is all here!

Oz in Jeopardy!

I haven't had a chance to do ose of these in a very long time, due to all kinds of technical issues, as well as just not having time. But Jeopardy! kindly put up this clip from a recent show highlighting one category. Let's see how long it takes for its inclusion here to become apparent:

Yeah, not long at all, was it?

Oz in Jeopardy!

Hey, Sony, keep putting these clips up! This has been great reviving this series, and having something other than comics to blog about. Here's the Pets on Film category from the Jeopardy! round of the June 9, 2023 game. That $200 clue will be of interest to everone reading this, I'm sure.

Oz in Jeoopardy!

Yes, it's been quite some time since I presented one of these. But now that Jeopardy! is posting its own videos, it makes it really easy when they present something like this Final Jeopardy! from last night's episode:

Oz in Jeopardy!

Well I haven't been able to do one of these for a while! But now that Jeopardy! has its own YouTube channel, when things like this guest giving video clues happens, I can easily post them.

Now how in the world did I know that last one was going to be in there?

Oz in Jeopardy!

I've pretty much had to give up posting every single Oz clue from Jeopardy! over the past few years, for various reasons, but mostly because they just keep coming up, and it was getting very hard to keep up. Then there are all kinds of technical issues getting screen grabs now. But recently, they've started putting Final Jeopardy! up on YouTube, and it dawned on me this morning that I could post this one from September 30:

Oz Not In Jeopardy!

It has been a very long time since I featured a Jeopardy! clue here, because it was becoming too big of a problem to keep track of games and snag the graphics. But last night, in the final game with guest host Anderson Cooper, the most extraordinary clue came up that I just had to share—and it wasn't even about Oz! The Final Jeopardy! category was Books and Authors, which is pretty broad, so I really didn't think much about it. Then this clue was revealed…

IN BOOKS BY HIM,
THE KINGDOM OF
NOLAND, RULED BY
AN ORPHAN NAMED BUD,
BORDERS A COUNTRY
CALLED IX, WHERE
QUEEN ZIXI REIGNS

My mind was blown! A clue about Queen Zixi of Ix, my favorite book by L. Frank Baum (yes, even better than the Oz books)? Wow! But would any of the players know that? After thirty seconds of the most iconic game show music ever, we were about to find out. First, Andy, the challenger on the right who struggled all game and really didn't have much of a chance, wasn't able to finish and only had "Who is And". At first I thought he might be trying to flatter the host, but now I realize he was probably referring to Hans Christian Andersen. With a pot of $3400 and a wager of $3400, he lost it all. Next was Sheila, in the middle, who responded with, "Who is Roald Dahl?" She bet $1500 of her $8400 and ended up with a final score of $6900. Finally, defending champion Emily's response was revealed: "Who is Baum?" Hooray! Anderson Cooper added that the author's name was Lyman Frank Baum (giving it the German pronunciation, not the American pronunciation preferred by the family making it sound like "bomb"), and that Noland was in the deadly desert surrounding Oz (which is not the case, Noland is on the other side of the desert, across from Oz). Emily had bet $1401, adding that to her $15,400 for a final score of $16,801. For knowing that, Emily has now become my all-time favorite Jeopardy! champion.

Oz in Jeopardy!

Our final clue in the category Quotes from The Wizard of Oz, for $1000, on the 2018 Jeopardy! desk calendar:

THE WIZARD OF OZ ENDS WITH
THIS FIVE-WORD PHRASE
Of course we all know that the correct response must be, "What is 'There's no place like home'?"

Oz in Jeopardy!

Today's $600 clue from the Jeopardy! desk calendar category Quotes from The Wizard of Oz:

THESE TWO WORDS FOLLOW
"LIONS AND TIGERS AND
BEARS..."
The correct response is, of course, "What is, 'Oh, my'?"

Oz in Jeopardy!

My 2018 Jeopardy! page-a-day desk calendar has as it's current category Quotes from The Wizard of Oz. It looks like they're from The Movie instead of the book, but those are so well known anyway that I suspect most people want that. So for today, for $200:

SHE CRIES OUT,
"YOU CURSED BRAT!
LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE!
I'M MELTING! MELTING!"
The correct response is, of course, "Who is the Wicked Witch of the West?" And we'll find out our next quote tomorrow!

Oz in Jeopardy!

We are nearing the end of season 34 (!) of the revived version of Jeopardy!, and it turns out our final Oz clue. I thought the category Classic Movie: The Video Game in the July 11, 2018 match was promising, but no Oz there. But when Alex revealed the Final Jeopardy! category of:

I didn't think a lot of it. And then the clue was revealed:

Ever since I've started blogging the Oz clues that pop up in Jeopardy!, I've tried to figure out if Oz knowledge translates to success on the show. The results have been mixed, at best. But tonight, Oz knowledge definitely paid off, because I'm sure you all know the correct response. But do these players? First up was Stel, at the right side lectern. He responded:

He was correct, of course, and bet all his winnings, doubling his score to $22,400. Next came George, in the center. He wrote:

I'm not sure how Son of a Witch ties into The Lion King, but he was clearly wrong. He bet $9,201, and ended up with a final score of $2,999. Then came Wes, the defending champion. He had a commanding but not insurmountable lead, so it all depended on his response and wagering. And he wrote:

Having bet $3,001, he won with a final score of 24,401.

And that's it! Jeopardy! and I are both on our summer breaks, but we'll both be back at work soon this fall. I hope to better stay on top of things this coming season (but I seem to recall saying that last year at about this time, too), but I do know that there will be many more instances of Oz in Jeopardy! forthcoming.

Oz in Jeopardy!

When they revealed the categories for the Double Jeopardy! round of the June 26, 2018 match, two categories looked promising for Oz clues. Alas, nothing about The Wiz or Wicked in Broadway Musicals, but sure enough, the very first clue in Unreal Estate, for $400, was this:

Jeff, the challenger in the middle, rang in first and correctly responded, "What is the Emerald City?" Unfortunately, this was an evenly fought match with a challenging Final Jeopardy, so the final scores were very low. Even with that, Jeff finished a distant third.

Oz in Jeopardy!

When I saw the category Best Song Oscars in the Double Jeopardy! round of the June 11, 2018 match, I knew I would eventually be writing this blog post. Sure enough, the $1200 clue was:

David, the defending champion, rang in first and responded, "What is 'Singin' in the Rain'?" So he lost $1200 for an incorrect response. Tracey, the challenger in the middle, and got it right (and bumped up her score) with, "What is 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'?" But in the end, it had little effect on either player, as Tracey came in third, David second, and the game was one by Catherine, the one player who didn't even get involved in this question at all.

Oz in Jeopardy!

I told you this was a busy week! The third semifinal in the 2018 Teachers Tournament featured no Oz clues, and it was won by Larry. So for the two-game finale, we have Steve, Larry, and Claire duking it out for bragging rights and a whole bunch of money. So, in the first match, on May 17, 2018, the Double Jeopardy! round had the category The Month of May, with this clue for $1600:

Larry signaled first and correctly responded, "What is emerald?" He went on to handily win the first match—but they were only halfway through! In the second match, the game for May 18, 2018, again in the Double Jeopardy! round there were two linked categories, Are You There God? and It's Me, Margaret. In the latter category, the $1200 clue read:

Again, Larry rang in first, and again he responded correctly, this time with, "Who is Margaret Hamilton?" Again, Larry went on to a convincing win, and so he won the whole tournament, $100,000, and a spot in the next Tournament of Champions. Not bad!

Oz in Jeopardy!

I told you there were a lot of Oz clues in this year's Teachers Tournament! The next day after my last entry in this series—the second semifinal, broadcast May 15, 2018 (L. Frank Baum's birthday, no less)—we got this $200 clue in the Music category in the Jeopardy! round:

Rachel, the teacher at the center lectern, rang in first and correctly responded with, "Who is Elton John?" She went on to finish with a final score of $25,900—and it wasn't enough, as Claire ended with $31,801 and went on to the tournament finals. And we'll find out how well she does in an upcoming entry!

Oz in Jeopardy!

As I mentioned in my last of these posts, Jeopardy! went without a lot of Oz clues for a very long time. There wasn't even a mention in the College Championship, one of the show's annual tournaments, which this year was held in April. But boy, did they make up for it in May during the Teachers Tournament! After a week of preliminary matches, the May 14, 2018 match was the first semifinal. The winner would go on to play in the two-game final match. And it urned out that in the Double Jeopardy! round, the $1200 clue in Characters in Broadway Musicals would have a big effect. Here's that clue:

Steve, at the left side lectern, rang in first and responded, "What is Wicked?" Being incorrect, he lost $1200. Erika, on the right, rang in next and said, "What is The Wizard of Oz?" and also lost $1200 for being incorrect. Scott, in the middle, then rang in and correctly responded with, "What is The Wiz?" and his score went up by $1200. Unfortunately, Scott was never able to build on that huge swing in the scores, and he ended up with nothing at the end of the match, and didn't go on to play in the final. The winner turned out to be Steve—and you'll just have to keep reading these posts to find out how he came out in the end.