‘Jeopardy!’ Bosses Give Contestant Another Chance After Admitting Mistake
What To Know
- Jeopardy! contestant Stella Trout was given another chance to compete in the 2027 Tournament of Champions.
- Trout initially lost her lead and the game due to her response, but producers later determined her answer was accurate.
Jeopardy! contestant Stella Trout is getting another chance to compete after the bosses realized they made a mistake. As a result of the error, Trout will return to compete in the 2027 Tournament of Champions.
During the January 19 Inside Jeopardy! episode, executive producers Sarah Whitcomb-Foss and Michael Davies shared that Trout found out about her second chance during the Jeopardy! Honors on January 18, where she won the Bounceback Award.
In the finals of Champions Wildcard, Trout, a resident of Houston, Texas, went into game two against Cameron Berry and Jonathan Hugendubler with a lead after winning game one.
During game two, she had the lead of $11,200 when she found the second Daily Double in Double Jeopardy and bet all of her money. The clue in “Making Conservation” was “Within the Department of the Interior, this is the country’s oldest conservation agency.” Trout answered, “What is the National Park Service?” which the game show dubbed as wrong. They said the correct response was the Fish and Wildlife Service. This caused Trout to drop down to $0 and eventually lose the game. Berry went on to win.
“We had a very interesting conversation with Stella during Jeopardy! Honors. I think we took her completely by surprise, in which we informed her that we are always looking at our material in the research room,” Davies said.
“She gave us a response during that last Daily Double that made us think. We went back and looked at it, and we have decided that we ruled incorrectly. So, Stella, who was the alternate for this year’s Tournament of Champions, is going to be the first competitor in Tournament of Champions 2027,” he continued.
However, the current season super champion, Harrison Whitaker, has already earned a spot in the 2027 ToC after he qualified one game too late in the 2026 season. Trout will join him.
“She was delighted to hear,” Davies said.
The National Park Service was established in 1916. The Fish and Wildlife Service was established in 1882, but has changed its name many times over the years. The NPS is the oldest agency with the same name.
“The contestant gave a response that is closer in accuracy than the one on the script,” Davies said. “So, we look at these things all the time and most of the time we are right, but to be a strong television program, to be a place where we can all agree about facts, we have to hold ourselves to a high standard.”
The 2026 Tournament of Champions kicks off on Monday, January 19, but Trout won’t compete until next year.
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R
I hope they also allow her to keep the $25,000 second place money.
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P
They should give her the $100,000 she would have won.
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Y
First, Jeopardy crew did the right thing by admitting their mistake, but what would the new calculations, for Game 2 & cumulative score, be? I assume the crew calculated that she had enough to win Champions Wildcard?
What we know is that Stella had a narrow win in Game 1 of Champions Wildcard's finals. Now for game 2, Stella would've won her spot in TOC in the following case:
She earns back her true DD wager of $11,200, & possibly gain more money & a few more penalties before entering FJ, then enters FJ with at least $20,000 & wouldn't have to wager anything, b/c in this case, she had enough to win the tournament & secure her spot in the TOC.
Also curious to know what taping schedule was like and when the mistake was found. Otherwise, since the Champions Wildcard winner Cameron's TOC episode hasn't aired yet, there should've been time to update the TOC roster & put Stella in; & maybe invite Cameron back for future invitational tournament(s).
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B
She got it right; I knew she got it right; I'm glad they figured out she got it right and corrected their somewhat understandable error. The Fish & Wildlife Service has a complicated history, combined from two different entities and placed under different agencies until, finally, on June 30, 1940, the Bureau of Fisheries and the Bureau of Biological Survey were combined to form the Department of the Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service.
Look it up on wikipedia.org to see how convoluted its history really is and why the National Park Service truly is the better answer.
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D
Agree with you completely. The facts are as you state. The FWS did NOT come into official existence until 1940. It is not the same as the earlier Bureau of Fisheries.
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G
Good for Stella. We liked her as a champion!
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P
Did they give her the $100,000 she would have won in this game?
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M
Stella would certainly have won that championship and gotten $100,000 so giving her another chance doesn’t give her the $100,000 she would’ve won if you if you hadn’t made a mistake and disqualified, her correct answer.
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J
When will they fix their other horrible mistake?
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T
I thought Stella's answer was correct.
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S
That's an honorable thing to do, but they didn't owe it to her. The question isn't misleading. Feels like she guessed her answer and it was only correct if you split hairs that Fish & Wildlife has only been called that since 1956. But the question makes no implied reference to the longest still called the same thing.
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