Who won 'Jeopardy!' tonight? Jamie Ding's 31-game winning streak comes to an unexpected end
Jamie Ding's glorious run on 'Jeopardy!' has finally ended. The game show now has a new champion: Greg Shahade, who took over the crown from Ding on the episode that aired on April 27. Before this round, Ding was on a 31-game 'Jeopardy!' winning streak, which put him at the fifth rank on the tally of most consecutive wins in the game show's history. If he managed to come out with a victory in the Monday episode, his win tally would have equalled James Holzhauer’s 32-game record, and made him jump to the fourth spot on the list. Viewers nationwide were disheartened, to say the least, about the outcome. The New Jersey bureaucrat had become somewhat of an 'America's Darling' due to his calm and poised nature.
However, America now has a new champion to root for in the form of Shahade, who delivered a dominant performance against Ding. The game kicked off with a Triple Stumper, at the end of which Shahade had a clear lead. Ding made a comeback when Shahade got two consecutive clues wrong in the proceedings. The challenger managed to snatch back his lead after turning his Daily Double into a True Daily Double. The tables turned firmly in Shahade's favor when he found the correct answers to all three Daily Doubles. The accuracy, combined with his aggressive wagering, ensured that he had an insurmountable lead going into the Final Jeopardy. Shahade entered the final round with with $32,600, while Ding gathered only $16,000, and the third opponent, Katrina Puckett, had just $3,000 in the pocket.
The category of Monday's Final Jeopardy was "World Languages." The contestants were shown a clue that read, "Of South Africa's 12 official languages, these 2 are alphabetically first & last." All three correctly answered with "What are Afrikaans & Zulu?" Having secured the win in the bag, Shahade went in with a conservative bet of $400. This brought his total winnings to $33,000. Puckett wagered $1,990 in this round and hence walked away with $4,990. Ding put in $3,010 as a wager and ended up gathering $19,010. This brought his total winnings from 32 games to a whopping $882,605. Ding left a sweet message. The fan-favorite wrote “TTFN (Tata For Now!)” below his response, and exited the stage with a wave and a smile. Fans may want to keep an eye on the Tournament of Champions and the 'Masters' to get a glimpse of him again.
Shahade entered the game to fulfill his late mother's wish. “Jeopardy! was my mother’s favorite show; she never missed an episode. When she was alive, I wasn’t into trivia at all, so it feels really cool to have this late-blooming connection with her. Please pray for categories about my expertise: chess and donuts,” he wrote on Instagram. He will come back on Tuesday, April 28, to defend his title. 'Jeopardy!,' hosted by Ken Jennings, is a syndicated show that streams on Hulu.
