‘Jeopardy!’ Fan Fave Ryan Long Eliminated in Tournament of Champions Premiere
Ryan Long, the fan-favorite Jeopardy! champion, who won 16 consecutive games back in June, has lost in the first round of the Tournament of Champions, which premiered on Monday, October 31.
The Philadelphia-based Uber driver was up against attorney Megan Wachspress (6 wins) and executive assistant Maureen O’Neil (4 wins), two of the lower-seeded contestants in the competition. Many viewers expected this to give Long a distinct advantage, seeing as he’d won an impressive 16 games and $299K in his previous outing.
However, Long could not repeat his success, as he struggled with the increased difficulty of the questions. This included a category literally named “This Category is Confusing,” which completely stumped the former champ. “I don’t know, couldn’t begin to guess,” Long said as he randomly landed on a Daily Double.
Wachpress and O’Neil didn’t fare much better as they also had difficulty with the complexity of the questions. In fact, by the first commercial break, all three players were barely out of negative scores. “After some jitters, I’m happy to see that all three of you are out of the hole,” host Ken Jennings commented, trying to encourage the returning champions.
In the end, O’Neil won with a $16,799 total and advanced to the semi-finals. Long and Wachspress left the game and the competition with a cash prize of $5,000, ending their dreams of becoming the Tournament of Champions victor.
During his first run on the long-running game show, Long crashed out after 16 wins, with some fans believing he lost on purpose. “I didn’t throw the game,” Long told USA Today at the time. “I didn’t lay down for it, but I wasn’t sad that I lost either. I felt like I was maybe ready to go, but I didn’t lay down.”
“A little bit of a disappointment that Ryan, a 16-time champion, didn’t advance to the semifinals, but still finished in second place,” wrote a user on the Jeopardy! Reddit forum following Monday’s game. “Anyway, congratulations Maureen, and we look forward seeing you in the semis.
“While I’m not a trivia expert, I could tell that the material was pretty tough, so I don’t blame the players for struggling,” said one fan, while another added, “These TOC questions are TOUGH. So many triple stumpers. Especially that parliament vowel category was a complete shut-out, I think.”
“Wow, the first upset is in game 1! I hope this sets the stage for a wild and fun tournament! Let’s goooo!” wrote another viewer, while one fan stated, “Absolutely shocking turn. Seemed this would be a cakewalk for Ryan.”
Meanwhile, a viewer on Twitter added, “Watching Ryan crumble horribly makes me hopeless.”
Jeopardy!, Tournament of Champions, Weeknights, Check your local listings
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Clearly the questions were more difficult; I only got 18 right on the first board. Ryan is by nature laid back, but to me, he seemed absolutely lethargic. Either he wasn't feeling well or his heart wasn't in it.
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ITA He was barely there, and even I got the Final.
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I thought the Final was the easiest category of the night. To me it seemed like the rounds were reversed in difficulty, with the Jeopardy round being the most difficult, Double Jeopardy not as difficult and the Final Jeopardy round easy. Usually it is the other way round.
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I agree. As for the final, who hasn't heard of "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee"?
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He clearly wasn’t ready for the increased difficulty.
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I agree. Tough questions, but he was clearly off his game.
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He seemed bored.
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He seemed indifferent and not at all competitive.
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Ryan so glad you got to bring your son. I thought the questions were off. Best wishes in the future. Hope you come back.
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That was a stunning first game. All of them struggled. The parliament vowel category has to be one of the most difficult categories I have ever seen. I had no clue what they were asking for. Hopefully it does pick up. It was disappointing to see Ryan go out early. Hoping he would have advanced.
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I got Diet but yeah the other ones were stupid hard.
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There's an article about Ryan that said he suffered from memory problems after having covid a short time ago.
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Bummer, I really liked that guy.
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I’ve been watching Jeopardy for a long time. The questions were hard, but Amodio and Schneider are getting these.
Ryan and Megan were 2 of my least favorite contestants. Nothing personal, but they play very slow, boring, passive games. How many times did Ryan not get through double Jeopardy? How many final Jeopardies did he miss? He got super free brackets and easy opponents (to his credit, he signals quickly). Honestly his run was unimpressive. He ran away because his opponents were poor players (quick math: averaged less than 20k, Megan averaged about 10k per win. Andrew He averaged over 30k). He and Megan play with no guts (unlike my guy Andrew. I hope he can compete against Amodio/Schneider).
Schneider also plays a slow, passive game. The difference is that Schneider doesn’t miss questions. Sorry, don’t get the hype behind Ryan.
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