‘Jeopardy!’ Fans React To Champions Collapse After Tough Calls

Jeopardy! | YouTube

This has been a tough season for Jeopardy! champions. So few champions have won more than three games this season that the Tournament of Champions is sending out invites to people with only three wins. Another champion fell recently, with Adam Hersh losing after only one win.

Here is what caused Adam to fall apart in the episode where he lost.

Adam Hersh Loses Jeopardy! After Two Tough Misses

Adam Hersh tried to defend his Jeoarpdy! championship on Monday, but he had two big missed questions that seemed to throw off his game and left him struggling to keep up.

Jeopardy! | YouTube
Jeopardy! | YouTube

Hersh, an attorney from Brooklyn, New York, won $29,000 in his big first win. In his first defense, he took on Carolyn Gramling, a science writer from Washington, D.C., and Kevin Laskowski, an Episcopal priest from Falls Church, Virginia. Hersh took a big lead in the game, and it looked like he was running away with things.

However, he took two big hits that caused him to implode completely. Hersh $5,800, Laskowski with $2,800, and Gramling $1,200. However, in Double Jeopardy!, he bid $3,000 for an “Animal Quotes” clue. The answer was, “What is a Panther,” but he missed it.

This then led to a question where Hersh missed a question where he missed one word in the answer. In the rap category, the answer was “U Can’t Touch This.” Hersh only said, “Can’t Touch This,” which was deemed wrong. That answer would have been worth $1,200.

Adam Hersh Couldn’t Recover On Jeopardy!

Adam couldn’t come back. Laskowski responded by almost sweeping the entire rap category and then had a big lead of $20,200, while Hersh had $7,200 and Gramling had $5,600.

Jeopardy! | YouTube
Jeopardy! | YouTube

Final Jeopardy! was “19th Century Novels.” The clue read, “The mention of a new railway section between Rothal and Allahabad in India leads to an argument and then a bet in this novel.” Only Hersh got it right (“What is Around the World in 80 Days?“), but he was so far behind by this time it didn’t matter.

Laskowski finished with $15,200, while the best Hersh could have gotten was $14,400.

Fans noticed how quickly things soured for Hersh after his two misses (via TV Insider):

  • “That was one of the craziest reversals I can recall seeing.”
  • “The “U Can’t Touch This” miss is almost the exact same as the “You Shook Me All Night Long” miss from last week.”
  • “Gotta be real careful on those. It might have been nice if the writers dropped an additional hint.”
  • “Huge props to Kevin for breaking Jeopardy’s recent rap curse and a great game overall!”

What are your thoughts on Adam falling hard in his Jeopardy! championship defense? Were you disappointed to see him go? Let us know in the comments below.

Shawn Lealos
Follow me

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *