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THE Jeopardy! studio audience, which included some past winners, were heard gasping in horror after tonight’s contestant lost all of his earnings on a risky game-ending wager.
Season 41 fan-favorite Rishabh Wuppalapati returned to Thursday night’s game in hopes of continuing his winning streak after “fighting” to win back-to-back nail biters.
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The undergraduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, who has already secured $42,402 in his two-day total, played against Aaron Brown, an entrepreneur and trivia host from Ontario as well as Angel Poe, an educational consultant from Florida.
Aaron and Rishabh had quite the battle as they swapped leads throughout the game.
However, it was Angel who found the first daily double – but unfortunately got it wrong and lost $1,000.
Going into the first break, Rishabh was in unfamiliar territory as he was in third place with $0.
Aaron was in the lead at that point with $6,200 while Angel was in second place with $2,000.
When the second Daily Double was found under “Women’s Organizations”, Aaron was in the lead with $10,800.
However, he got the response wrong and dropped $2,000 – putting Rishabh back in the lead with his $10,200.
The third Daily Double is where the game made a huge shift, as Aaron found the coveted clue again.
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Under the category The Books of Mormons, host Ken Jennings read: “One heck of a labyrinth is the only way out in this 2009 James Dashner novel.”
“What is the Maze Runner? was the answer the show was looking for however, Aaron sat in silence for several seconds before blurting out “What is Maze?” – which Ken did not accept.
Aaron bet every dollar of his $10,400 for a true Daily Double.
Though he was just a few hundred dollars behind Rishabh for the lead, he had now dropped to $0 – resulting in an audible gasp from the studio audience.
Contestant Zoe Grobman, who made her Jeopardy! debut on Tuesday’s game but lost to Rishabh, gave fans some more insight into just how shocking the moment was on-set.
“That Huge Daily Double made everyone in the audience gasp. Its such a shame it didn’t work out for Aaron.
“But all of us players (and a certain 5x Champion in the audience that day) agreed it was absolutely the right move to make given how strong Rishabh had been so far against tough competition,” she said, referencing five-day champ Mark Fitzpatrick who was also still around watching the competition.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up with a second chance on the strength of that play,” Zoe added of Aaron’s impressive performance.
GO BIG, GO HOME
Heading into Final Jeopardy, only Aaron and Rishabh participated as Angel was in the red with -$400.
Host Ken read the clue under “Letter of the Artists” category: “In 1896 he wrote, ‘my prices are 2000, 3000 & 4000 dollars for head & shoulders, 3/4 length & full-length respectively.’”
Neither player wrote down the correct: “Who was John Singer Sargent?”
Rishabh dropped $5,000 to win with $10,400 for a three day total of $52,802.
Despite going big, Aaron is going home with $1,600.
Jeopardy! Universe
Jeopardy! first aired in 1964 until 1975. Then the nighttime version began in 1974. Since then, many spinoffs of the game show have emerged. Here they all are:
Jeopardy! – (syndicated) 1974 to present, weekdays on ABC at 7 pm ET.
Tournament of Champions – 1984 to present, features the top champions who have appeared on the show since the last tournament.
Second Chance Tournament – 2022 to present features hand-selected non-winners from the season prior, where the prize is entry into Champions Wildcard.
Champions Wildcard – 2023 to present, features all one, two and three-day champions from the season prior worth entry into the Tournament of Champions.
Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament (syndication) – 2023 to present, features past greats invited by producers to vie for a slot in Masters.
Jeopardy! Masters (primetime) – 2023 to present, features the six highest-ranked Jeopardy! champions competing against each other.
Celebrity Jeopardy! (primetime) – 1992 to present, has celebrities compete against each other to raise money for charity.
Pop Culture Jeopardy (streaming) – 2024 to present, will feature teams of three tasked with pop culture trivia on Amazon Prime, hosted by Colin Jost, airdate TBD
Jeopardy! has done away with specialized tournaments like its College Tournaments, Kids Week, and Professor’s Tournament to gear towards a more sports-like model, with Masters being the top of the Jeopardy pyramid.
Other versions of Jeopardy! have fizzled out throughout the years as well, like Sports Jeopardy!.
Contestant Zoe offered more insight into the behind-the-scenes of the show, writing: “Aaron was probably the strongest player of all of us during the practice games in the morning.
“The fact that he’s a professional ‘Trivia Daddy’ gave him even more serious bonafides, so I knew whoever went up against him would have a tough time.”
She added: “Angel was an absolute sweetheart all day and it was truly sad to see her not make it to final.
“That’s the nightmare scenario coming on the show and I’m sure it hurt. But she did such a good job rallying back from a deep hole near the end, and all the rest of us thought she’s a rockstar.
“Rishabh pulled out his third straight very difficult win, he’s had to fight tooth and nail for all of them. With all the 3xers making the TOC last year, it was around now that we started wondering if we were watching a future TOC Great at play.”
Despite losing Tuesday’s game to Rishabh, Zoe had a strong Jeopardy! debut and ended her game with $19,601 – just $2,000 behind her opponent.
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