Jeopardy! saw a clean, commanding victory on Thursday night as Geoff Barnes, an analyst from Washington, D.C., steamrolled the competition and walked away with a $24,000 payday.
Barnes secured a runaway game by the end of Double Jeopardy!, entering Final with $23,000—well ahead of Anne LaGatta’s $9,600 and Thomas Sweeney’s $4,800. With the win already clinched, Barnes still wagered a modest $1,000 and nailed the Final Jeopardy! clue, bringing his total to an even $24,000.
The Final Jeopardy! category was PHRASE ORIGINS, and the clue—“An 1845 article called ‘Annexation’ was the first appearance of this two-word phrase implying inevitability”—prompted the correct response: “What is manifest destiny?”
LaGatta, a college professor originally from Moorestown, New Jersey, took second place with $1, while Sweeney, a survey technician from Morrow, Ohio, and the defending champion, ended up with $0 after Final.
Both Barnes and Sweeney made effective use of their Daily Doubles earlier in the game, with Barnes leveraging his momentum into an insurmountable lead. One of the day’s few true stumbles came in the form of a Triple Stumper: “The Mousetrap,” Agatha Christie’s long-running murder mystery, went unanswered.
It was a sharp, tactically played game—and for Barnes, a strong start to what could be a longer run.
