Who won ‘Jeopardy!’ tonight? A dominant game decides returning champion Matt Wheeler’s fate on the show
Matt Wheeler, an artistic soul from Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, kicked off his journey as a returning champion on Friday's episode of 'Jeopardy!' The songwriter entered the game with $13,500 in his pocket and hoped to add more to it. He faced off against Erin Schor, a legislative director, and Adam Remsen, an attorney and theater producer, in his pursuit of a third straight game. Schor's appearance was highly anticipated, especially in Michigan, as she is the wife of the current Lansing mayor, Andy Schor. The last few episodes have been interesting to say the least. From low scores winning to triple stumpers galore, there were very few moments of peace. This installment, though, experienced dominance from start to finish.
The 'Jeopardy!' round began with a bang for the returning champion. Wheeler found the very first Daily Double (DD) of the game on the first clue. This DD belonged to the category '4 Ever More,' and its clue read, "In 1789 George Washington created the 4 original Cabinet posts, with Thomas Jefferson holding this one." Wheeler correctly answered with "What is Secretary of State?" and garnered $1,000. However, after this, the reins shifted into the hands of Remsen, who gave one correct answer after another. Schor also put her best foot forward. By the time the first commercial break arrived, Remsen and Schor were tied at $3,200 while Wheeler was trailing behind with $1,000. From the 16th clue onwards, Remsen raced ahead and almost doubled his account, leaving the other two far behind.
Remsen entered the 'Double Jeopardy' (DJ) with a whopping $7,000. Wheeler found himself in the third spot with $2,600, while Schor was standing with $4,200. The attorney did not lift his foot off the pedal and kept buzzing in with the correct answers. By the time the contestants reached clue number ten, he had $14,600, which was way ahead of Schor, who was in second place. Remsen got the chance to enhance his lead further when he stumbled on the second DD. It belonged to the category 'Yelp Reviews of the Universe,' and its clue read, "Went to this Galilean moon with a continental name. Just a bunch of ice. Antarctica at least has penguins. Just ice here. Boring." Remsen bet $4,000 and answered 'What is Europa?' which was deemed correct by the judges. The elevated amount of $18,600 gave him a $10,000 lead against Schor.
Schor got the chance to get back in the game when she discovered a DD on clue number 15. At this point, she had $5,800, and rather than go all in, she chose to take the conservative route. She put in $3,000 as a wager, which would not have been enough to surpass Remsen with $23,800, but would have at least kept her in the running. The DD belonged to the category, '1926 Bookshelf,' and its clue read, "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" ends with, "I wish 'this man' had never retired from work & come here to grow vegetable marrows." The correct answer is "Who is Poirot?" but Schor answered something else. This dwindled her account to $2,800. After this, the situation remained more or less the same until the end of the round.
Going into Final Jeopardy (FJ), Remsen had the runaway lead with $25,000, courtesy of his 27 correct responses throughout the game. At the end of DJ, Remsen honored Sam Buttrey by saying "Bring It!!" just like Wheeler did before him. Wheeler had sneaked to the second spot with $5,000, and Schor was last with $4,800. The FJ belonged to the category 'Tributes,' and its clue read, "Big Ben has been purposely silenced in honor of a person on only 2 occasions: the funerals of these 2 non-royals, 48 years apart." The answers revealed that the round was a triple stumper, as none of them provided the correct response, "Who were Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher?" Wheeler bet $4,599, which plummeted him to $401. Schor managed to jump to the second position with a bet of $4,000, which left her at $800. Remsen wagered $5,000 and won with $20,000. For the fourth episode straight, a new champion was crowned. Remsen will return on Monday's episode to defend his title.
