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JEOPARDY! fans were left stupified after nearly half of the clues went completely unanswered on Wednesday’s episode.
There were an astounding 23 triple stumpers – or clues that went over all three players’ heads – which is close to an all-time record.
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On Wednesday’s episode, Suresh Krishnan, a networking engineer from Suwanee, Georgia, was the one to beat after taking out three-day champ Jared Watson.
He faced Collette Lee, a middle school math teacher from Paxton, Illinois, and Kristine Rembach, a human rights lawyer from Ghent, New York.
The Jeopardy! round categories were sweet nods to the late Stephen Sondheim and were all titled after his musicals – but the Double Jeopardy! round left everyone on a sour note.
There were a whopping 16 missed clues out of 30, and 23 missed clues out of 60 overall.
The triple-stumper three-buzz sound became a recurring note, and the contestants looked exhausted up there.
When Kristine got the last Daily Double correct (the first two were no-gos), it felt like a small miracle and the in-studio audience loudly applauded.
Going into Final Jeopardy, she had $8,500 while Suresh had $7,000 and Collette $3,500 – no one getting into the five digits.
“It’s time for Final Jeopardy, here’s the category,” host Mayim Bialik simply concluded not remarking on the sorry sight during the episode.
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Final Jeopardy! under “European Countries” read: “Of all the nations that border Italy, the one that didn’t exist in 1990.”
Suresh and Collette were correct, thankfully, with “Slovenia” and added $3,499 for a $10,499 victory giving him a two-day total of $21,099.
‘I’VE NEVER SEEN MORE TRIPLE STUMPERS’
One person wrote under a YouTube clip: “Probably the most unanswered questions ever. WTF! One of the worst games ever.”
“In their defense, a lot of the questions were pretty hard,” someone else replied.
“WOW…MUST BE A RECORD FOR MOST UNANSWERED QUESTIONS,” wrote a third.
“I think this was the LEAST amount of questions answered in a Jeopardy game!!!” wrote a fourth.
“Oh, boy! That was a tough Double Jeopardy!” wrote a fifth.
A sixth wrote on Reddit that Mayim could have done more in the way of bedside manner or maybe an ad-lib about the stack of stumpers.
“I feel like Ken or Alex would’ve commented like Alex did when all three contestants didn’t get any clue in the [Talkin’] Football category, but Mayim and the contestants didn’t say anything.”
“I haven’t quite figured it out yet, but somehow this is Mayim Bialik’s fault,” joked one more.
Someone else defended: “This game the issues were widespread, so all Mayim and the players could do is get through it was quickly as possible.”
Contestant Collette then chimed into the Reddit thread and wrote: “Kristine and I commented on that to each other before Final, saying that we were worried we’d go viral for not knowing anything!
“I personally tried to ‘keep calm and clam up’ to try to avoid ending up in the red with bad guesses but as the game wore on, especially in Double Jeopardy it was obvious we were collectively riding the struggle bus with our board!”
AND THE TRIPLE STUMPER TROPHY GOES TO…
However, according to the J-Archive the record for Triple Stumpers in one game is just one away at 24.
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It took place in 2005 during the Ultimate Tournament of Champions.
When the players whiffed an entire Oscars category an always-quick-on-his-feet Alex Trebek joked: “At least the quotes are entertaining.”
TIME TO EASE UP?
Jeopardy! has seen some shockingly difficult boards in the last couple of weeks.
Last week, all three players stumbled into the Double Jeopardy! round with either $0 or negative scores.
Meanwhile, out of the first 12 episodes in April, five games resulted in Triple Stumper Final Jeopardys.
Even Ken, according to a contestant, remarked that one Final Jeopardy clue was so complex it took him “five minutes” before it “hit him.”
Someone wrote in response: “Very interesting. That should be a pretty good indication to the writers that maybe the clue is a bit too difficult.”
MUM MAYIM?
Last episode, the host some raised eyebrows for not acknowledging that outgoing 3-day winner Jared swept an entire category before losing.
He racked up $6000 after booking it through “Books & Authors” but host Mayim, 47, did not mention a thing.
Running a category is a respected and rare feat and when a contestant swept a “Phobias” category earlier this year co-host Ken Jennings was quick to applaud: “That’s correct, you know your phobias!”
One Reddit user wrote in an internet thread: “No love for Jared running the category of Books and Authors? Jeez…”
Another spotted the snub too: “For some reason, Mayim failed to give props to Jared on running the BOOKS & AUTHORS category.”
Even Suresh, who won the episode, chimed in to say: “I wondered that too.”
WHAT IS: THE JEOPARDY! HOST SCHEDULE
Ken wrapped the thrilling Jeopardy! Masters special, which was won by James Holzhauer.
Underdog Mattea Roach, 24, came in a close second last month.
Mayim, who is Ken’s co-successor to the late, great Alex, is finishing out the regular season until the summer.
Ken won’t be seen until the 2023 Tournament of Champions, which will kick off Season 40 in September, barring the last week of Season 39.
Many Jeopardy! viewers who have tuned in since Masters have not been overly impressed with Mayim and her hosting style.
In particular, they also noticed that the star takes too long to respond to contestants when they give their responses.
Taking to Twitter, one viewer fumed: “As hard as I have tried I do not care for Mayim Bialik hosting Jeopardy!. She pauses before she answers and it drives me crazy. And I’m spoiled from the Masters.”
A second person agreed and replied: “My sentiments exactly. I think she waits for somebody in her ear to tell her whether the answer is accepted and it annoys me to no end. Then there’s the Masters hangover I have also. Ken Jennings has humor & charisma.”
Last week, other viewers begged Jeopardy! producers to address the issue.
Since Mayim wasn’t fast enough to mark the responses right or wrong, a contestant started adding to his responses while waiting for her to rule.
Thankfully the additions he made to his two responses did not render him incorrect.
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