‘Jeopardy!’: Daily Double Drama Decides Who Joins Scott Riccardi in TOC Final
Spoiler Alert
[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Wednesday, January 28, episode of Jeopardy!]
While the second semifinal game of the 2026 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions wasn’t quite the runaway that the first one was, the Daily Double wagers ultimately became the deciding factor in who would move on to the finals to face Scott Riccardi, the winner of Game 1.
Laura Faddah, from Memphis, Tennessee, who received a bye to the semi-finals, played against TJ Fisher, from San Francisco, California, and Steven Olson, from Princeton, Illinois, on January 28. Faddah, a manager, won eight games during her original run, earning her $95,599.
The first half of the round had Fisher, a marketing specialist, and Olson, a band director, battling for first place. However, after the first 15 clues, Olson had the lead by $1,200, with a total of $4,200.
Faddah found the Daily Double on clue 18. She had $1,000 and wagered all of her money in “Book It.” The clue read, “In a 1906 novel, he wrote of ‘splitters’ who earned 50 cents an hour doing nothing but chopping hogs down the middle.” She answered correctly with “Who is (Upton) Sinclair?” giving her $2,000.
She ended the round with $2,000. Fisher had $3,400. Olson was in first place with $6,200.
In Double Jeopardy, Faddah found the first DD on clue one. She made it a true Daily Double with $2,000 in her bank. In “‘N’ The City,” the clue read, “Once named for Nicholas II, a city on the Ob was given this new name meaning ‘new Siberia.'”
“What’s… No… Novo… Nord… I don’t know,” she responded. The correct response was Novosibirsk. She dropped down to $0.
Olson answered the next two clues correctly. Then, he found the second DD on clue five after a Triple Stumper. He had a significant lead, but Olson wagered all of his $9,400 in “From The Neck Up.” The clue was “Also called gray matter, this outermost part of the brain, with a 2-word name, integrates sensory impulses.”
After some prompting from host Ken Jennings, Olson answered, “What’s corpus callosum?” which was wrong. He dropped down to $0. The correct response was the cerebral cortex.
This gave Fisher a great opportunity to win the game since he was the only one with money in his bank. Although Olson made a comeback, it wasn’t enough to take first place.
Fisher ended in first with $13,400. Olson had $8,400. Faddah was in last place with $1,600.
The category for Final Jeopardy was “20th Century Bigwigs.” The clue read, “The subtitle of a 2022 bio of this magnate who died in 1976 is ‘the meek shall inherit the Earth – but not its mineral rights.'” The final clue was a Triple Stumper from the game show contestants, as none of them answered J.Paul Getty.
Faddah and Olson both answered, “Who is DeBeers?” Faddah wagered $1,599, leaving her with $1. Olson wagered $5,404, making his final total $2,996. Fisher answered with “Who is Du Pont?” He wagered $3,001, making his final total $10,799.
Fisher advanced to the finals as a result of failed Daily Doubles from his opponents. He will join Riccardi and Thursday’s winner in the finals. The first contestant to win three games becomes the champion.
“Those d**n Daily Doubles,” one Reddit fan said.
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