‘Jeopardy!’s Adriana Harmeyer Explains Why Tournament of Champion Players Were Stumped by Category
Jeopardy!‘s Tournament of Champions continues as the Semifinals kicked off with Adriana Harmeyer, Will Wallace, and Ryan Manton on February 4th.
It was an exciting match for Ryan and Adriana who went head-to-head for most of the match, with Will admittedly not delivering his best performance. “It was obviously not my game. Adriana and Ryan are amazing players, and whereas I had my buzzer locked in on my quarterfinal, I never found my rhythm this game. It threw me off and I never recovered,” Will wrote on Reddit.
Ultimately, Adriana came out on top, winning the game with 25,000 total points, outdoing Ryan’s 22,001, and Will’s 0. While Ryan started the game strong, leading the game heading into Double Jeopardy with 5,200 against Adriana’s 4,400. It was a Daily Double during the second round that allowed Adriana to gain traction, putting her ahead of Ryan.
Jeopardy!, Inc.
Heading into Final Jeopardy, Adriana had 22,000 against Ryan’s 12,000, which meant this game wasn’t a runaway, but certainly close heading into the final round. The category was “Countries of the World,” with the clue reading, “About 80 miles from Vladivostok, its 11-mile land border with Russia is the shortest of that country’s 14 neighbors.”
The correct response was “What is North Korea?” and both Ryan and Adriana responded correctly. But even if they had the right answers there, the match had one category that stumped them all. The category of celebrity podcasts left the players quite duped, as the players passed on responses to three of the five clues provided.
While Adriana took a moment on Reddit to admire her fellow competitors, as she wrote, “One of the most delightful things about Jeopardy is meeting fellow competitors, and one of the worst things about Jeopardy is going out on the stage with two of those competitors, knowing that only one of you can win. Will and Ryan are both excellent players and just great people. Having watched their quarterfinals, I knew we could be in for a tough game.”
But at the end of the day, she jokingly explained, “It turns out that not only do none of us listen to celebrity podcasts, I haven’t even heard of most of them.”
What did you think of the player’s lack of knowledge when it comes to celebrity podcasts? Sound off in the comments section, and stay tuned as the Tournament of Champions continues.
Jeopardy!, Weeknights, Check your local listings
This… Is… Jeopardy!
Get absolutely everything about Jeopardy! in your inbox!
Conversation13 Comments
Please read the TV Insider Community Guidelines.
Comments are closed on this story.
-
B
What's a celebrity podcast?
20
-
G
Podcasts generally are an absurd waste of time. We can read the info in a fraction of the time. And celebrities are weak sources almost by definition. Jeopardy champions tend to have stronger thinking skills and a nose for facts and reason. This one's a no-brainer--like celebrity podcasts, in a different sense. I can't believe the Jeopardy writers expected anything different.
17
-
W
Who wants to listen to celebrities drone on and on because they think that EVERYONE wants to hear their opinions about politics, social issues or buying their junk.
The writers also have a penchant for questions about New York City, NPR and female writers and artists.
Also, if you're guessing at an answer, try Animal Farm, Jack Kerouac, Grandma Moses, Michelle Obama, Adam Smith or Ayn Rand. You'll probably be correct.
15 2
-
O
Well I have found celebrities and amazing source of stories about their life's lessons. I've learned the value of listening skills and made trivia such a fun hobby. It helps me remember things I heard as a young person and how fun it is to retell the story as I've lived an interesting life🙂👂
-
C
Don't forget the HEAVY abundance of Canada questions. I didn't like it, but I understood while Alex was hosting that they'd throw him a bone every episode with some Canadian trivia or geography that NO ONE knows. But he's dead now. We don't need the constant, daily barage of Great White North drivel about a country of only 40 million people... similar in size to Yemen, Poland and Morocco.
2
-
-
O
She is pretty much on point as to the importance of "Celebrity Podcasts!
11
-
O
I told my wife earlier tonight that Jeopardy isn't as much fun to me any more because I feel like so many of the clues are bizarre, minute trivia that so few people would know or care about. Maybe that's the point and why so few people succeed at the show, but it seems like they're digging for the most obscure, meaningless facts lately.
8
-
C
Sometimes the writers like to pretend they are "oh so cool" with ridiculous questions about crummy new music or fads, and that was the case with that stupid podcast category. No one is rushing to listen to Dua Lipa. I'm glad they didn't know those answers!
8
-
G
So-called celebrities often have limited fame and aren’t recognized by most of the general public. Even the best trivia masters may not be aware of such trivial podcasters.
7
-
R
Podcasts are not the 'strong suit' for a lot of people.
6
-
O
Of course there's no expectation that anyone can be aware of the thousands of podcasts available. I thought the bigger deal was the misleading Final Jeopardy clue. I immediately thought of North Korea but I knew it didn't have 14 neighbors.
3
-
R
Article sets up for plenty of comments... obviously nobody wants to get or watch people getting clues about celeb podcasts.
2
-
P
Too busy to listen to these