[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Thursday, December 18 episode of Jeopardy!]Jeopardy! fans welcomed a new champ for the first time all week in Eric Weldon-Schilling, who defeated fast favorite Ashley Chan in an impressive runaway in the last episode. Weldon-Schilling proceeded to lose the following game on Thursday night, winding up with $0 and a very adverse reaction to the Final round being about sports.Weldon-Schilling, a bar manager & sommelier from Houston, Texas, entered a one-day champ with winnings of $21,000. He faced Laura Faddah, a manager from Memphis, Tennessee, and Neal Bowling, a journeyman lineman from Mackinaw, Illinois.In the Jeopardy! round, Faddah got off to a hot start while fellow challenger Bowling dropped $1,000 on the “U.S. History” Daily Double seeking “John Marshall.” Faddah wound up in the lead with $6,400, the returning champ in a solid second place with $3,400, and Bowling trailed with $400.In Double Jeopardy, Bowling found the second Daily Double, this time getting it correct and adding $3,000, knowing the Shakespeare clue was “Merchant” to close the second-place gap. Weldon-Schilling got the last Daily Double, a Greek/Roman God clue seeking “Hera and Juno.” With a savvy wager of $4,600, the game became much tighter as well.The lead was up for grabs on the last clue of the round, making things interesting. Bowling buzzed in first but missed, and Faddah picked it up for the lead going into Final Jeopardy. She had $13,600, Weldon-Schilling had $10,000, and Bowling had $9,800. Host Ken Jennings remarked it was suddenly quite the nail-biter, “Close game. You won’t want to miss this!”It all hinged on the “Super Bowl History” clue, “It’s the only team to play in the Super Bowl before Neil Armstrong’s moon walk that has not been back to the big game since.”For what will likely not be the last time, sports and Jeopardy! did not mesh. It was a triple-stumper as no one correctly responded, “The New York Jets,” and the returning champ completely bombed out, opting to wager it all on what was not his ideal category.Bowling dropped $7,000 writing “Cleveland.” Weldon-Schilling wrote “The Giants,” and going all-in, he dropped to last place. Faddah wrote “Houston,” dropping just $2,400 to win with $11,200 and a gigantic grin.Fans rushed the Reddit thread for the episode, reacting to the abrupt loss of Winston-Shilling after his big win against four-day-champ Chan, and to the sports triple-fumble.“Once again sports category proves to doom Jeopardy players. Anyone who knows anything about football should easily get that,” one Redditor wrote.“Either the person on the writing team who wrote up today’s FJ is a massive Jets fan releasing some pent-up frustration, or they’re taking incredible delight in the absolutely awful season the Jets are having this year. Either way, it’s a great & timely clue,” wrote a other.Winston-Shilling chimed into the thread to share that he lost his cool at the time, as sports was his “weakest category,” and when it was revealed, he “legitimately cursed,” having known he bet it all. He was very thankful this did not make the broadcast.“Sports has always been my absolute weakest category,” he began. “When can announced that the final Jeopardy category was Super Bowl history I legitimately cursed under my breath. I’m shocked the microphone didn’t pick me up saying ‘f**k.’ But I knew I had to make a big swing if I had any chance of winning, and unfortunately it didn’t pay off.”Related6 Things to Know About ‘Jeopardy!’ Champ Ashley Chan“Ultimately though I am happy with the way things went,” he continued. Sure, I would’ve loved to have broken some records or gone on a crazy run like James Holtzauer Amy… or Ken. but I had at least one really good day made my lifelong dream come true and there’s always a chance I could come back for champions wild card. And honestly, Laura was such a nice lady and so calm and collected who ended up being a ferocious player. I’m honored to have lost to her.”What did you think of the nail-biter game? Were you surprised to see Eric Winston-Shilling lose so soon? Do you think new champ Laura Faddah can keep it up? And how about Neal Bowling’s mustache? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
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