A Jeopardy! contestant spoke out after the game about the tough Daily Doubles deciding who won. Tristan Williams returned for his ninth game. Did he continue his streak?
Williams, from Lincoln, Nebraska, came into the game with an eight-day total of $158,501. On May 18, his ninth game, the data scientist played against Amy Dewey, from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and Thomas Trovato, from London, Ontario, Canada. Warning: Spoilers for the May 18 episode of Jeopardy! ahead.
When Williams found the Daily Double on clue six, he was leading with $2,000. The champion wagered all of his money in “3-Word Cities.”
The clue read, ” Arabic for ‘abode of peace,’ it’s Tanzania’s biggest city.” Quickly, he answered, “What is Dar es Salaam?” This gave Williams $4,000.
However, Trovato, a software developer, was in the lead with $4,600, compared to $4,000 for Williams, by the first 15 clues. Williams pulled ahead by the end of the round with $8,800. Trovato had $6,000. Dewey, a part-time homemaker and entrepreneur, was in third place with $1,600.
Williams found the first DD on clue five in “All Respect to the Ballet & Opera People.” He had $9,200 and wagered $6,000. The clue was “The original cast of this Aaron Copland ballet was headed by Agnes de Mille, who choreographed it & danced the part of the lead cowgirl.”
“What is Rodeo?” he answered correctly. This gave him $15,200.
Trovato found the second DD on clue 11 in “‘LOL’”. He wagered all of his $7,200. The clue read, “A book by Simone de Beauvoir is titled ‘Brigitte Bardot and the this’ literary character ‘Syndrome.’”
He did not give an answer and dropped down to $0. The correct response was Lolita.
“He doesn’t have it. That is a shame,” host Ken Jennings said.
After that, in the category, Alphabetically Next,” all of those clues were Triple Stumpers except for one. “I’m with you. These are tough,” Jennings said.
Clue 29 was “Days of the week: Saturday, Sunday…” Trovato correctly answered, “What is Thursday?”
“Yay! We got one!” he said.
Fans thought the clues in that category were Tournament of Champions level. “When the second-easiest response in a category is polonium, maybe it should be saved for the ToC,” a Reddit user said.
“That whole Double Jeopardy board felt ToC level to me,” Trovato responded.
“I’m not really good at trivia, but my personal experience with that board was that I didn’t get anything in the $1600/$2000 rows today. I wasn’t even close. The only $1200 clue I got was actually your DD, and I was only able to squeeze the answer out under the wire as your time was about to be up,” another fan said.
“Thanks! I’ll admit that it’s a bit comforting to know that most people found it as difficult as I did in the moment lol,” Trovato responded.
Williams had the lead at the end of the round with $22,400. Trovato had $1,200. Dewey moved to second place with $4,400.
The category for Final Jeopardy was “American Architecture.” The clue read, “In the 1930s, an automobile showroom occupied the first 2 floors of this building at 42nd & Lexington in Manhattan.”
All three game show contestants correctly responded with “What is the Chrysler Building?” Trovato wagered $17, giving him a total of $1,217.
Dewey wagered $0, making her final total $4,400. Williams wager was $7,600, giving him a final total of $30,000. He had a nine-day total of $188,501. He will return for his tenth game on May 19, which would make him a super champion if he won.
Trovato shared his thoughts on Reddit and said, “Even though it didn’t end the way that I had hoped, this was such an incredible experience that I’ll remember fondly for a very long time!”
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