‘Jeopardy!’ Ken Jennings Calls Out Studio, Too Hard Of Question

Joey Desena, a contestant on Jeopardy! says he made an embarrassing mistake. Despite his win on the game show, landing him a spot in the semi-finals, DeSena has a confession to make. Keep reading to find out what he has to say.

Jeopardy! Winner Joey DeSena’s Big Mistake

On January 16, 2025, In the recent episode of Jeopardy! Champions Wildcard Tournament, the champion Joey DeSena made a confession that he had made an embarrassing mistake. Joey DeSena is a development engineer from North Carolina, he competed against Mehal Shah who is a software engineer from Seattle, and Eamonn Campbell, a lawyer from Vermont. Joey is a former winner of Jeopardy! but that does not mean he knows everything about the show, on a Reddit post Joey revealed that he had made an error in the Double Jeopardy round.

During the round the category was “The Jete Set”, and DeSena thought that the round was going to be about French words. It was only later that Joey found out that the round was about ballet, even though he misunderstood this category he still managed to finish the round by earning $24,000.

Embarrassment Hit Joey After The Episode

Although Joey DeSena felt embarrassed after the show, the host Ken Jennings comforted him and said that the Final Jeopardy clue was very tough, even though he did not know the answer. Host Ken Jennings is a 50-year-old American game show host, former contestant, and author. He was born on May 23, 1974, in Edmonds, Washington. DeSena expressed his relief in hearing that he wasn’t the only one who didn’t have any idea what the round was about. The comment did make him feel better about his performance, as well as the other contestants didn’t get the answer correct either. The Final Jeopardy category was “Trees”, and the clue was about a tree from the order Arecales, which has its roots in Roman times.

Ken Jennings Says Jeopardy! Question Was Too Hard

The correct answer was “What is a palm tree?” but the three contestants failed to get the answer correct. None of the contestants won any extra money from the Final Jeopardy round but since DeSena had already earned more money than the other two contestants, he ended up winning the game. Joey ended up with $24,000, Shah with $19,600 which kept him in the tournament for the next episode, and Campbell with $9,600, since he had the least amount he was eliminated from the game. However, Ken thought the question was a little too hard. The contestant revealed what they heard once the credits started rolling.

“First thing Ken said as the credits started to roll was that FJ was tough, and he didn’t know it either. I can’t tell you how much better that made me feel!”

Joey had a personal reason for writing a shout-out on his screen which he does not typically do, he said he wrote on one of his screens in Final Jeopardy for his daughter to be able to see in the future and smile. However, because DeSena performed well during the game he has moved on to the semi-finals of the tournament. Joey’s positive attitude and optimism on the experience helped him pull the win for the game show. Did you watch this episode? How do you feel about Joey DeSena? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.