JEOPARDY! fans have been left in disbelief after a Champions Wildcard contestant blew their entire prize pot and lost their spot in the upcoming tournament.
Returning winner Adam Hersh was a frontrunner to continue on in the Champions Wildcard Tournament and all but had it in the bag before one risky move tarnished his comeback chances.
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On Friday’s game, the lawyer from Brooklyn went up against Will Weiss, a technical program manager from Islip, New York and Marko Saric, a math professor from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Despite Marko quickly adding $1,000 to his score after finding the first Daily Double, it was Adam who secured an early lead.
Heading into the first break, the attorney accumulated $5,000 while Marko was in second with $3,800 and Will stayed in third with $1,400.
Though Adam had quick buzzer reactions and witty gameplay, Marko was able to find – and correctly guess – all three Daily Doubles.
Under the $1,600 category “Physical Science,” host Ken Jennings read the clue: “It’s the separation of waves according to their wavelength, as in a rainbow; also, what police may want a crowd to do, meaning scattering.”
“What is dispersion?” Marko correctly responded – adding $4,500 to his total.
Right after, he rounded out the trip of Daily Doubles under the $1,200 clue in Total Drama.
“Characters in this 4-act play include Judge Hathorne, Giles Corey & Tituba,” Ken read.
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“What is The Crucible?” Mark replied – adding another $2,700 to his total.
Heading into Final Jeopardy!, Mark had overtaken the lead with $24,400 – though Adam still had an impressive prize pot of his own with $18,600.
Will had remained in third throughout the game and had $5,400 going into the last round.
Ken, 50, revealed the final category to be “Historic Statements” as the players placed their wagers.
The host then revealed it to be: “He wrote of his intent ‘to reserve and throw away my first fire, and I have thoughts even of reserving my second fire.’”
No one was able to accurately write down “who was Alexander Hamilton?” – making the results of tonight’s game entirely dependent on what the players wagered.
Marko, having had the lead, wisely bet $0 and ended his game with $24,400 – advancing him to the semifinals of the tournament.
Though Adam would need to depend on Marko making a mistake to win, he was in good standing to continue on in the tournament with a wildcard spot with his total of over $18k.
However, he decided to go big and bet his entire $18,600 – leaving him with just $0 and squashing any chance he had of moving forward.
Jeopardy! 2025 Tournament of Champions
Jeopardy!’s next Tournament of Champions will take place this winter, midway through Season 41 (exact airdate TBA) and it’s shaping up to be another showstopper. Here’s who is officially eligible so far:
- Adriana Harmeyer (15 wins and $349,600 total)
- Isaac Hirsch (nine wins and $215,390)
- Greg Jolin (five wins and $135,002)
- Survivor alum Drew Basile (seven wins and $129,601)
- Alison Betts (5 wins and $121,500)
- Mark Fitzpatrick (five wins and $107,201)
- Dr. Amy Hummel (5 wins and $100,994)
- Ryan Manton (four wins and $83,179)
- Grant DeYoung (four wins and $81,203)
- Will Wallace (four wins and $79,998)
- Amar Kakirde (four wins and $55,899)
- Lisa Ann Walter (winner of Celebrity Jeopardy! 2024)
The prize for winning the ToC is $250,000 and a coveted slot in Jeopardy! Masters.
Jeopardy.com notes: “All 4-time and over winning players starting from 04/10/24 will be eligible for a future Tournament of Champions.”
“Presence on this list does NOT guarantee an invitation to compete. Other eligibility rules apply and final selection is up to the producers’ sole discretion.”
Will also bet it all and finished the game tied in third place with $0.
For the Jeopardy! Champions Wildcard Tournament, in addition to all five winners, the top four non-winners with the highest money totals will advance to the semifinals.
Fans were shocked at Adam’s decision given he had such a good shot of continuing his Jeopardy! run before the final round.
‘WHY ADAM, WHY?!’
“Why bet anything Adam, let alone EVERYTHING????” a fan exclaimed, to which someone else responded: “I know. He could have at least one of the wildcard spots. His scores was high enough.”
Another agreed: “So glad to see Marko win today! That being said, I can’t help but wonder why Adam made the all in FJ wager.
“I feel like a score of 18600 almost guarantees you a wildcard spot so going for the W at such a risk was quite confusing. I’d imagine Paul must have been surprised after he found out his score of 8000 was enough to move on.”
A third chimed in with some strategic advice: “Adam’s wager made no sense at all.
“If 18600 still fell uncomfortable for whatever reason to Adam, I would have bet 2000 because in that case, he could potentially have 20600 at the end which is a guaranteed wildcard spot no matter what.
“And if he had gotten it wrong, 16800 is also a shoo in for a wildcard as well.”
Another surprised viewer added: “Historically, I don’t think anyone has been eliminated from gaining a Wild Card spot with 18,000, pre-doubled or not.
“So I’m guessing Adam wanted to go high, but I don’t think anyone’s gotten a wildcard with a $30K+ score as far as I know, and now he’s gone unfortunately.”
One more fan looked into the statistics of past players’ earnings going into this game, and claimed: “I checked….Adam was guaranteed a spot in a wildcard with 18.6K.”
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