‘Jeopardy!’ Fans React to Hilariously Misleading Seabiscuit Final Clue

Jeopardy! delivered a tricky play with words with its Final Jeopardy clue in the Wednesday, December 6 game — or at least it tried to.

The category was “Famous Names,” which automatically makes you think of people, although it technically could extend to other things. And the clue did even more work to make the players think it was a human they were talking about. But the “neighs” had it. The answer they were looking for was Seabiscuit, the famous racehorse, but fans online are laughing at how the clue was phrased to throw players off.

It was a tight race between Ed Coulson, Kate Freeman, and Patrick Hume in the latest installment of the Champions Wildcard Tournament, with Patrick leading the first two rounds. He got a laugh out of the studio audience and viewers at home when he answered one clue half right. It was volleyed to his competitors, neither of whom got it. Ken Jennings surprisingly returned to Patrick, implying that he had answered at least part of the prompt correctly and the folks backstage told Ken to give him a second chance. But when asked if he could “be more specific,” Patrick answered with a confused, “No?”

“Weird to ask for a correction after time, but also one of the funnier things I’ve seen on the show lately,” one fan wrote on the Jeopardy Reddit page in response. As another replied, “That was so funny.”

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The game got funnier in Final Jeopardy, which saw Ed in the lead with $14,600, Patrick in second with $10,200, and Kate in third with $9,000. The “Famous Names” clue read: “Subject of a 2003 film, his 1947 obituary said he fathered at least 100 and died of a heart attack at 14, at a California ranch.”

The age and location of this subject’s death, plus the staggering number of children he “fathered” and the movie hint, were the key parts of the clue. I even found myself saying, “Are they talking about a horse?!” while watching the episode, confused by their wording. But the use of the word “fathered” seemed to be intentionally misleading.

As one fan on Reddit pointed out, “‘Fathered’ is a somewhat misleading term to use when talking about a racehorse, the commonly used word is ‘sired,’ although they couldn’t use that because it would really give it away.”

The correct answer was Seabiscuit, who was the subject of the eponymous 2003 movie starring Tobey Maguire, Jeff Bridges, Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, William H. Macy, and more. Ed and Patrick answered correctly, but Kate guessed Will Rogers, an American vaudeville performer, actor, and social commentator who died in 1935 at the age of 56. Ken said “that would’ve been quite an accomplishment” if Rogers had been father to 100 children.

“Gotta love Ken’s response,” one fan said on Reddit. As another chimed in, “I’m just not sure what to say about the answer of Will Rogers. Still processing that one.”

In the end, Ed walked away victorious with $20,401. Patrick ended in second place with $18,001, and Kate in third with $Kate 7,799. Is anyone else now thinking of another well known horse, the famous Mister Ed, because of this clue and the name of the night’s winner? (A horse is a horse, of course, of course…)

What did you think of the clue and its answers? Let us know in the comments below.

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