Ahead of Wednesday’s episode of Jeopardy! (at least on the West Coast), host Ken Jennings tweeted, “I’m too late for the East Coast but there’s a real @Jeopardy rarity on the show tonight! Plan your evening accordingly!” What could it be? Was it the first episode of Jeopardy! with the Joker as one of the contestants? That would be tWiStEd. Or maybe every answer in the form of a question had to be spoken in Simlish? Unfortunately, neither of these scenarios came true, but it was a rarity nonetheless.
For what appears to be only the second time since 2015 (and possibly only the 10th time ever on the long-running game show), Final Jeopardy consisted of a single contestant: Mattea Roach. It was a “rare solo Final Jeopardy,” as Jennings called it. “Loni Lewis had -$600 heading into the final round, while Sean Wong was down -$1,600, preventing both of them from appearing in the third and final round of the game,” Today reports. “Roach, meanwhile, had $21,400 heading into Final Jeopardy.”
Roach correctly answered, “This website launched in 2015 with 3 offerings, from James Patterson, Dustin Hoffman and Serena Williams,” with “MasterClass,” giving her a 12-day grand total of $271,282. The 23-year-old has already qualified for the Tournament of Champions, along with fellow Jeopardy! experts Amy Schneider and Matt Amodio.
You can Roach’s solo Final Jeopardy above.
(Via Today)