Jeopardy! fans have a theory about that “brutal” episode that aired Wednesday (July 17) night: Producers were ramping up the difficulty to stop the bleeding of cash.
The episode saw Jay Fisher, the one-day champion who ousted Tournament of Champions-bound Isaac Hirsch, face off against two newcomers: Church secretary Nella Ballauer and law clerk Zach Eckstein.
Though the episode cemented Fisher as a multi-game champion, adding $14,400 for a two-day total of $16,199, there were a lot of triple stumpers, including the Final Jeopardy clue.
In the FJ category “literary characters,” the clue was: “In a 1980 National Book Award Winner, we learn this title character gets his name from the rank of his late Dad–Technical Sergeant.” No one correctly guessed T.S. Garp (just Fisher even ventured a guess), but Fisher had already secured a massive runaway by the end.
“Rough game all around. I was having fun in Round 1, which seemed very straightforward. I should’ve known that the DJ round would be a massive step up in difficulty,” one fan wrote on Reddit in response to the game. But I didn’t expect THIS much! The writers were feeling stingy today. In addition to A Dreaded Opera Category, they threw out a French Cinema category? Was this being saved to keep Isaac from getting a big number and then Jay threw them a curveball?”
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Another fan floated the idea that Hirsch’s massive $215,390 winning streak might’ve caused producers the tighten the purse strings a bit with harder answers: “Really had to save some money in the prize budget after Isaac, huh?”
Another fan argued that the difficulty of the night’s board was just part of a trend, writing, “It may just be me, but the games that follow a ToC champ’s departure seem to trend towards having lower stats and more TSes. Not helping matters is that the DJ board in particular felt brutal.”
Whatever the case may be, it looks like Jay Fisher will get another chance at the buzzer on Thursday night.
Jeopardy!, weeknights, check local listings
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