Did ‘Jeopardy!’ Champion Ben Chan Continue His Winning Streak?

Isaac Rouse May 16, 2023, 8:05 pm

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the May 16 episode of Jeopardy!]

Following his defeat of Hannah Wilson, it was up to four-day champ Ben Chan to retain his crown and continue his quest to become a future Jeopardy! Master. But despite Ben’s dominant gameplay style, contestants Lydia-Claire Kerrigan and Tom Winiarski gave him a run for his money Tuesday evening with host Mayim Bialik.

In the first round, Tom was in the lead with $4,000 vs. Ben’s $2.600, but when Chan doubled to $12,800 after answering the first Daily Double, he took the lead before the final two categories on the board were cleared.

Going into Double Jeopardy, Ben had $13,200, Tom with $6,600, and Lydia-Claire at $3,200. Tom got the second Daily Double in the “Don’t Go Anywhere” category but could not answer correctly, dropping his score to $6,800 from $11,800. Ben was also able to snag the third and last Daily Double answer correctly, adding $2,000 to his score of $21,200 vs. Tom’s $4,800.

In the Authors category during Final Jeopardy, “in 1960 Jean-Paul Sartre wrote of this man’s “victorious attempt…to snatch every instant of his existence from his future death.” Only Ben answered correctly, adding $1,599 to win with $27,999 for a five-day total of $157,000 against Tom’s $200 and Lydia-Claire’s $2,400.

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“38 years, 7 months, and 11 days have passed since Elise Beraru, the very first 5-time champion, won her first 5 regular games in locks,” a user on the Jeopardy! subreddit pointed out. “No player has surpassed that since, but Ben has the chance to do so tomorrow.” Another user pointed out, “he’s the first contestant in the infinite streak era to pull it off…and he did it after a significant hiatus, and between two different hosts.”

Folks on Twitter also had a few things to say about the dominant win. “Five runaways in the first five #Jeopardy games. It hasn’t been done since 2001 — when it would be a player’s only five games. First time in the sky’s-the-limit era,” a user pointed out.

Check out the tweets below and see if Chan is able to break more records tomorrow.

Five runaways in the first five #Jeopardy games.

It hasn’t been done since 2001 — when it would be a player’s only five games. First time in the sky’s-the-limit era.

Congratulations, @JeopardyBenBen!!

— Matt Carberry (@mfc248) May 16, 2023

#Jeopardy Congratulations @JeopardyBenBen on being the first person since Rick Knutsen in 2001 to win their first 5 games by runaways. (Knutsen defeated @tweetophobicpam and gave @bradrutter a run for his money in the 2001 ToC).

— Martin Ocon (@prizequizzer) May 17, 2023

Ben Chan is a mf’n genius dude I could never go on jeopardy I simply do not know things

— kt 🐾 (@kt_mcpherson) May 16, 2023

Guess who’s back, back again?

Ben Chan’s back, tell a friend!: https://t.co/BD8hVlw32a pic.twitter.com/Y3Ad8WtPvd

— Jeopardy! (@Jeopardy) May 15, 2023

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