[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the September 30 episode of Jeopardy!]
Jeopardy! contestant Ryan Manton, a systems administrator from Columbus, Ohio, had a sweet connection to the show even before he came on during Season 41.
Manton faced off against Alison Prelusky, a copywriter from Lindenhurst, New York, and the one-day champ Kate Roesch, a data visualization developer from Indianapolis, Indiana (with winnings of $28,200) in the September 30 game, and when it came time for the interview portion in the middle of the Jeopardy! round, host Ken Jennings asked him to tell the story of how he proposed to his wife.
“My now wife, Lauren—my girlfriend at the time—was on Jeopardy! about three years ago,” Manton shared, telling Jennings, “She was on your last guest hosting episode.”
That was the February 19, 2021 episode, in Season 37. Lauren Menke came in third place, facing off against Sam Stapleton and the one-day champ Alan Johnson. Stapleton won (with $33,201, to Johnson’s $22,600 and Menke’s $19,199) and was a two-day champ.
“While we were in LA, I proposed to her the day before her taping and then we actually got married at the courthouse exactly one month after her tape date,” Manton went on to reveal. Jennings remarked on the “short engagement” and offered his congratulations.
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So far, Manton has already done better than his wife, walking away a one-day champ with a total of $22,178. But it wasn’t an easy road to get there. After missing the first Daily Double (and betting it all), he was at $0 heading into the first Jeopardy! round break. (In Hot Cross Bunnies, the clue read, “Lepus symbolizes a hare, likely angry as he’s seen by some as the prey of these 2 Latin-named constellations, Orion’s hounds,” and he didn’t know Canus Major and Canus Minor.) But he just led going into Double Jeopardy! ($3,400 to Prelusky’s $3,200 and Roesch’s $2,600) and doubled his score (to $14,000) with a correct answer to the Second Daily Double. (In 7-Syllable Words, the clue read, “Marijuana advocates have long pushed for this removal of serious penalties; in 2024, the Biden administration moved to grant their wish,” and he knew it was decriminalization.)
Though Manton didn’t get the third Daily Double, losing $5,000 and leaving him with $17,800, it was a runaway game heading into Final Jeopardy! ($22,200 to Roesch’s $4,200 and Prelusky’s $4,000). So even though he didn’t know the answer to “The name of this, actually a not very tall hill, became a symbol of Jewish national aspiration & was used in spirituals & reggae” in Biblical Places (Mount Zion), since he only risked $22, he was the winner. He did include a “heartfelt message,” as Jennings called it, to his wife, with “What Is I Love You, Lauren.”
Fans are already impressed with Manton’s gameplay.
“He missed two of [the Daily Doubles] and the game was still a runaway. Goodness. Unless he continues to have poor DD luck (or fatigue gets him like with most of the ToCers thus far), he could have quite a good run,” one fan remarked on Reddit following the episode.
Another noted he had “29 correct responses and a $26,800 Coryat. What an impressive game by Ryan!” (The Coryat is a player’s score if all wagering is disregarded.) His is “the largest one,” a viewer wrote. “Very impressive debut.”
And while he’s only played one game so far, for one fan, “he looks to have a complete game: strong knowledge base, good on the buzzer, hunts for DDs, and wagers strategically. … Maybe he has a TOC-level knowledge base, or maybe today’s categories just happened to be in his wheelhouse and his performance in tomorrow’s game will be much more average. (I’m hoping it’s the former!)”
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