JEOPARDY! has scored a new champion on Wednesday's episode in Jesse Matheny who emerged with a small total of $2.6K but a big grin.
Disappointingly, only one contestant has gotten Final Jeopardy correct this week and no one has won more than three consecutive games in over a month.
Returning champ Johanna Stoberock faced Jesse, a customer success implementation manager originally from Huntington, Indiana, and Liz Everhart, a subrogation analyst and science teacher from Louisville, Kentucky.
Johanna is a fiction writer and adjunct professor from Walla Walla, Washington who returned with a 1-day total of $6,999.
Her low total resulted from a triple stumper Final Jeopardy fans felt was “easy.”
She had beaten Monday's winner who was the only one correct on the all-important last clue while another contestant had a truly rough guess thinking Denver was between Boston and Albany.
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Tonight Johanna had 12,000, Liz had $11,000 and Jesse had $10,800 - impressive since he missed two costly Daily Doubles but wasn't fazed.
'WROTE RATHER QUICKLY!'
Final Jeopardy under "Hollywood History" read: "Last name of 3 men who missed the 1927 premiere of 'The Jazz Singer' because a 4th of that name had died hours before."
“All three players look like they wrote answers rather quickly,” Ken Jennings, 48 remarked with pluck.
However, Jesse and Liz incorrectly wrote “What is: Marx," Johanna wrote “Jolssen” who Ken comforted: “Did star in that movie.”
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The correct response was "Warner" and Jesse wagered smart dropping the least to wind up the new winner.
Ken explained this was “The first successful talking picture."
"But it was released by the Warner brothers. And three of the four Warner brothers missed the premiere because their brother Sam had just passed away.”
THE NEW NORMAL?
Fans were impressed by Jesse's comeback as he went from third place to first, but other Reddit users expressed feeling streak-starved, leading to a debate about what's happening here.
One applauded: "Jesse missed two Daily Doubles, but that didn't discourage him from rebuilding. That's quite impressive!"
Another agreed: "Jesse had some bad luck with daily doubles, but he made it work out in the end."
A third remarked: "This has been a week of low Final Jeopardy winnings and lots of new winners who don't stay long on the show!"
And a fourth: "Contestants are 1 for 9 in Final Jeopardy this week. It wouldn't surprise me to see the writers lob a 'States Ending In Hampshire.'"
"I feel like ratings are going to drop if the show keeps up this way," a fifth wrote.
A sixth even said: "Man, I would have killed these players. None of these people and the people of the last few weeks ever go big. Woo hoo. The winner has like $2k. lol."
Another Redditor worried: "Even though Season 38 and the first half of Season 39 had a lot of five-time champs and 10+ time champs, things had to slow down eventually.
"But it's unlikely to last for that long. Sometimes you just gotta go with the flow and enjoy the trivia. Well, except for the clues that end up being poorly written, but still..."
Another wrote: "I believe the large number of super champs in season 38 had a lot to do with Covid, and the effect travel restrictions had on the contestant talent pool. What we're seeing now (with so many 1-/2-day champs) is a return to the normal pattern of competitive matches between intensely screened players."
A third defended: "You think exciting, down-to-the-wire matches where all three contestants end Double Jeopardy above $10,000 are bad for ratings?"
A fourth claimed: "If Ben Chan had kept playing, I think there's a very good chance he would have been an 11-day champ by now."
STREAK OF NO STREAKS
There hasn't been a four-day winner on Jeopardy! since Stephen Webb's eight-day streak ended on March 16.
Ben Chan bowed out after his third runaway win, he did not compete on Monday, April 14 as scheduled, concerning fans- as he seemed like he was going to break the curse.
In a rare occurrence, there were three new contestants instead and Ben will be returning to go for win four as the returning champ (of two out of a technicality) on May 15's episode.
As for Ben, he later clarified the real reason he did not return as scheduled.
“Before yesterday’s episode taped, I had tested positive for COVID; it was a very mild case, as you can see, I’m fine.
"Most importantly, my buzzer finger is fine, so I’m excited to watch what happens over the next few weeks, see who I’ll be competing against on May 15," he said during a virtual appearance on Good Day Wisconsin.
One fan responded when he tweeted out the story: "Looking forward to your return!"
The other three-day champ in the past month was Brian Hennegar, but otherwise, Jeopardy! has been a carousel of one or two-day winners and low scores.
In one rarity, 1-day winner Devin Lohman won with $1.2K, the lowest amount of the season after a triple stumper wiped everyone's scores.
He ended up with less takeaway than the contestant in second place's $2K consolation prize.
For reference, this time last year super-champion Mattea Roach was in the midst of their 23-game winning streak.
Then came Ryan Long - and before them Amy Schneider and Matt Amodio, all during one deeply impressive season.
Meanwhile, Ken is hosting his final week of the season this week - Mayim Bialik will return on May 1 and helm the last four months of the season.
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While she is doing so Ken will host Jeopardy! Masters in primetime on ABC for three weeks starting May 8.
The special - which isn't done filming yet due to some unexpected blips- includes the legends fans seem to be missing like Mattea as well as Amy Schneider and James Holzhauer.
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