[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Wednesday, November 20 episode of Jeopardy!]
Jeopardy! fans were in for a new champ on Wednesday, November 20’s episode, but not before an AC/DC fail on a top-row clue and other rap misses left viewers shook and host Ken Jennings with a classic (rock) quip ready to go.
Mikey McCullough entered as the returning champ with a one-day total of $18,200. The librarian from Baltimore, Maryland, faced Mehal Shah, a software engineer from Seattle, Washington, and Elizabeth Little, a writer from Los Angeles, California.
In the Jeopardy! round, Shah got the Daily Double on the second clue under the “Road Trip” category, correctly identifying “Key West” and “Key Largo” to have an early $1400 boost. Fans were in for some catchup from his opponents, another movie promo category (this time for Gladiator II), and an unrelated but very spirited There Will Be Blood impression from Jennings. McCullough trailed with $2,400, Little had $4,600, and Shah led the way with $7,600.
In Double Jeopardy, Shah continued to mount a wide lead. Little dropped a big $4000 on the “3 of The Same Letter” Daily Double seeking “Overlook.” Shah found the remaining Daily Double, wagering a mere $800 of his near-runaway on an “Authors Epitaphs” clue seeking “Virginia Woolf” on which he presciently drew a blank.
Then, things hit a sour note when the $400 “A Little Night Music” clue was finally selected. It was, “The walls were shaking, the earth was quaking” in this AC/DC Top 40 hit.”
Shah rang in and guessed, “What is… ‘Shook Me All Night Long’?” and he was ruled incorrect. Next, Little took a stab at it with, “What is ‘They Shook Me All Night Long’?” Jennings asked if McCullough wanted to make a guess and she said, “Nah.”
Jennings broke the prolonged silence with a smirk and ruled, “Different pronoun.” He explained that the correct response was, “You Shook Me All Night Long.” All three contestants nervously chuckled.
From there, the timer ran out shortly after with a few clues uncovered and Shah, who had led at every commercial break but couldn’t notch a runaway, went into Final Jeopardy wtih $12,800, McCullough with $7,600, and Little with $3,800.
The “Figures of Myth” clue was, “Ovid says he “toppled, beating wild with naked arms the unsustaining air… shrieking for succour from his sire.” No one came up with the correct response, “Icarus.” Where’s Ike Barinholz when you need him? Shah dropped $3,001 to win and become the new champ with $9,799 and a huge grin.
Fans took to the Reddit thread of the episode with many react to the rough AC/DC moment, with others calling out the other music stand-and-stares of the night, which included triple-stumpers about Migos and A$AP Rocky.
“Ouch! Song titles can be tricky. I’m a big ACDC fan,” one Redditor wrote.
“I was surprised they didn’t accept Mehal’s response, since ‘shook me all night long’ is really the refrain, and I would have thought it’s commonly referred to that way (or that maybe the title was partially parenthetical like “[You] Shook Me All Night Long”), but apparently not,” wrote another.
“Exact titles are needed (when they’re needed of course, lol)” wrote a third.
“They have a rap section on jeopardy and they didn’t know Asap Rocky or Migos,” wrote a fourth on X.
“They didn’t ring in on ASAP Rocky AND Migos #Jeopardy” wrote a fifth.
They didn’t ring in on ASAP Rocky AND Migos #Jeopardy pic.twitter.com/EGCQ5w6u7i— I AM DONE (@anotherdeiinnyc) November 21, 2024
Other fans in the Reddit thread took issue with the vague nature of some of the other categories and were bothered that the clock ran out (thanks Gladiator II).
One observed, “It would’ve been real nice to know what the specific letter was in each word in the ‘3 OF THE SAME LETTER’ category. Just a nitpick, perhaps, but given that it went 0/4 in the studio, it couldn’t have hurt to throw it in as the first bit of info in each clue.”
Another felt the same about a different category, “I didn’t get the MMM, LEFTOVERS category. What was the theme?”
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“I know many people agree that these guest reader categories suck time, wrote a third on the clock running out. “But I’ve noticed something else: the sound on today’s was really bad. I had difficulty hearing on both the video clues. I wonder what gives.”
A fourth surmised, with only so many games left before the Tournament of Champions (and Champions Wildcard) cutoff, “With the postseason clock ticking, whenever I see a new contestant win one game with less than 29,200 dollars, I think, “Please win another game! Don’t end up in One Day Hell!” I know it’s great to win a game to begin with, but…yeah. Happy to see another Washington state winner, at least!”
What did you think of the game? Do you think Mehal Shah can win a few more? And should we lock movie promo categories in the Disney vault? Let us know in the comments section below!
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