‘Jeopardy!’ Champ Addresses ‘Embarrassing’ Bet That Nearly Cost Them the Game

Kelli Boyle October 24, 2023, 8:02 pm

Jilana Cotter playing in the Tuesday, October 24, 2023 episode of 'Jeopardy' — Jeopardy, Inc.

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Tuesday, October 24, 2023 episode of Jeopardy!]

Jilana Cotter impressed fans during the Tuesday, October 24 episode of Jeopardy!. Following her appearance on the game show, she took to the Jeopardy Reddit discussion board to give viewers a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the episode in addition to answering questions about her game play, and her comments addressed her Final Jeopardy bet that she called “embarrassing.”

By the time of the first commercial break, Jilana, a senior data analyst from Dade City, Florida, had won $4,400. She was in the lead ahead of competitors Steve Crupi, a retired police information supervisor from Las Vegas, Nevada, and John Vigna, a writer from Los Angeles, California, but Steve caught up after the first break. By the end of the round, she had only added $200 to her score, leaving her with $4,600. Steve was in the lead with $6,400. John was trailing behind with -$400.

Jilana increased her winnings to $19,000 in Double Jeopardy, and she only had one Daily Double win to help her out. She added $4,000 to her score with her correct answer to the clue in the Metropolitan Opera category. Heading into Final Jeopardy, Jilana led with $19,000, Steve was in second with $9,600, and John was in third with $900. Steve bet it all in Final Jeopardy hoping to exceed Jilana’s $19,000, but he and John both answered Final Jeopardy incorrectly.

The Final Jeopardy category was “Awards & Honors.” The clue: “As of 2023, the only two to win a Nobel Prize in Literature and an Academy Award were George Bernard Shaw and this singer-songwriter.” The correct answer was Bob Dylan. With her correct answer, Jilana added $801 to her score. Steve ended with $0, and John ended in second place with $2. The highest score Steve could achieve was $19,200. Had Jilana been wrong and Steve been right, she would have ended up in second place with $18,199.

Jilana commented on the bet on the Jeopardy Reddit page.

“I didn’t realize until today that I’d made a math error on my FJ wager,” she wrote. “It’s embarrassing, but because it’s not as fast-paced as the rest of the game I find it much more stressful and I seem to be more prone to errors then. FJ is by far the hardest part of the game for me because I don’t have the momentum that I do during the earlier rounds. I didn’t know that Bob Dylan had an Oscar, but I remembered there being some controversy about him getting the Nobel prize in literature and I definitely didn’t know of any other singer-songwriters who had one, so he seemed like the most likely answer to me.”

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“It’s tough to have your mistakes on public display!” she continued. “My fellow players from the diamonds bracket have been immensely supportive and encouraging and I’m so, so grateful. It sounds cliché, but especially playing in a multi-day tournament like this gave us a wonderful opportunity to bond and we keep in touch now. No matter how aggressive we might seem while playing, that all turns off as soon as we’re done. There are lots of smiles, laughter, and encouragement during the commercial breaks.”

Jilana also opened things up to questions. When one fan asked if there was one “correct response (could be from this game or from another game that you played in) that [she was] particularly proud of getting correct,” Jilana replied, “In this game I think I was most proud of knowing Richard Cory, since I had no idea that the song was based on a poem and I was so delighted to get it right.”

“I was also really proud of knowing Spotlight in the Oscars category in my first second chance game,” she continued. “I don’t see a lot of movies and had never even heard of that one before I started studying flash cards of Oscar winners to prepare for the show. I loved feeling like my studying paid off.”

The October 24 game was the third night of playing for the second group of the 2023 Champions Wildcard Tournament. Jilana joins Leigh Wiegand and Dave Pai as a semifinalist. Josh Saak was the champion of Group One.

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