When Season 39 came to a
conclusion last July many fans were irked that Jeopardy would ‘allow’ a
Tournament of Champions with only one female participant. While these fans
clearly didn’t comprehend how you qualified for the Tournament of Champions,
the fact remained that season there had been exactly one female contestant who
had qualified for the Tournament Hannah Wilson, who won 8 games and just under
$230,000.
Well, we’re less than a
month into regular play in Season 40 and already we have more female
contestants who have qualified for the next Tournament of Champions (whenever
it happens) then in all of Season 39. Because less than a week after Alison
Betts was defeated having won five games, Amy Hummel has punched her ticket in
to that same tournament having completed a five game run of her own. Lisa Ann
Walter won Celebrity Jeopardy, so if the rules that applied to this year’s
apply to the next one that means so far the Tournament of Champions is an
all-female affair.
Amy and Alison are
essentially what we call very good Jeopardy players as opposed to the
super-champions we’ve become accustomed to over the past three years. In that
sense, it is as much luck as it is skill that leads to them winning five or
more games, and much of the time it involves the failures of their opponents as
there own success. This has certainly been true of Amy since the start of her
run last Wednesday. There were few signs of it in her first appearance as she
slowly worked to the lead in the Jeopardy round of her first match and while
she did build a substantial lead in Double Jeopardy she then undid almost all
the good work on a Daily Double late in the round that cost her $4000.
Fortunately there were not enough clues left on the board to seriously threaten
it and she went into Final Jeopardy with a relatively good lead with $13,200 to
her opponents $9400 and $8600.
The Final Jeopardy
category was HISTORIC TRANSPORTS: “Decorated with an illustration of the Montgolfier’s’
craft, the smoking room aboard this could be accessed only via an airlock.” All
three players knew the correct response: “What is the Hindenburg?” and Amy won
her first game with $18,900.
In her first defense of
her title, she was challenged severely in the Jeopardy round by Tyler Jarvis
who led throughout. However early in Double Jeopardy she pulled ahead helped by
the first Daily Double in VOCABULARY: “Italian gives us this word for an outline
of what could happen, also an old word for screenplay.” She knew it was a
scenario, gained $3000 and built a lead she would never relinquish. She was
helped by the fact that many clues went either unanswered by everyone and her
dominance of the round. She had $18,800 at the end of Double Jeopardy, just
enough to run away with the game.
The next game was tougher
as challenger Dan Byrne led through the latter half of the Jeopardy round. But
again early in Double Jeopardy she got to the second Daily Double ahead of
Tyler.in BURIED AT ARLINGTON: “Interred in 1993, this Howard University law
school grad led the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational fund early in his
career.” She knew it was Thurgood Marshall gained $1500 and she built a large
enough lead never relinquished. It wasn’t quite a runaway this time but she
managed to get Final Jeopardy correct.
In her fourth game she
really got lucky. She played decently against Ferdinand Percente in the
Jeopardy round and they were tied at $3400 apiece at the end of it. In Double
Jeopardy, however, everything went Ferdinand’s way. He got to both Daily
Doubles made them both pay off for $9000 in total and only a late run by Amy
kept Ferdinand from completely running away with the match. Even then going
into Final Jeopardy the outlook wasn’t good: he had $21,600 to her $13,800.
The Final Jeopardy
category was NICKNAMES. “Surfing legend Duke Kahanamoku has been called by this
2-word nickname that describes any dominant person or expert. Amy wrote down:
“What is Big Kahuna?” That was correct and she nearly doubled her score. Ferdinand
wrote down major domo and as a result Amy had come from behind.
Her fifth game against
Bryan Carrasco and Laura Bligh started out in the Jeopardy round with everybody
playing brilliantly. At the end of it Amy and Laura were tied with $4800 apiece
and Bryan was only behind by $600. Bryan got off to a fast start in Double
Jeopardy and had $10,200 when he found the Daily Double. He wagered everything
and lost. Almost as if it were a signal, all three players began to collapse.
Everyone started making mistakes and no one could give a correct answer in a
category called THE GAP ON THEIR RESUMES. It was only because Amy got a $1200
clue in that category correct the same time Laura got it wrong that she was
able to move into a tie for the lead with $7600.
The category for Final
Jeopardy was FICTIONAL GROUPS. “Maybe because he was too Baroque, Bernini was
rejected as a name for a member of this group created in 1983.” Bryan knew it
was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (all of whom are named for Renaissance
artists) He doubled his score.. Laura wrote nothing down but she lost nothing.
Amy knew it was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and bet everything to win her
fifth game and cross over the $100,000 mark.
But luck eventually runs
out for everyone and that luck ended yesterday. Going in against Weckiai
Rannilla and Nils Cousin, Amy spent much of the Jeopardy round battling for her
life. When it was over she was in third with 43000 to Weckiai’s $5600 and Nil’s
$6000.
Amy spent much of Double
Jeopardy trying to ring in ahead of Weckiai (Nils didn’t do much) and was at
$7400 when she got to the first Daily Double in KISS & TELL: “The title
character of this Puccini opera kisses her son goodbye before taking her own
life with her father’s dagger.” Amy struggled before guessing: “Who is Carmen?”
instead of Madama Butterfly. She dropped to $3400.
She got the other Daily
Double two clues later in -OLOGIES. With little choice, she bet the $4200 she
had: “Remove 2 letters from the study of weather to get this, the study of
weights and measures.” Again she guessed: “What is meterology?” It was actually
metrology,
Amy managed the moral
victory of building back up to $3600 but she was had little chance of
prevailing in Final Jeopardy. Weckiai had $11,400 and Brian was at $6400. Final
Jeopardy dealt with EXECUTIVE ORDERS: “On November 15, 1961 JFK suspended the
8-hour workday at this agency, saying its work need to proceed ‘with all
possible speed’. Amy guessed: “What is the CIA?” Logical, she was thinking of Cuba but it was
wrong and she lost all but a dollar. Nils also wrote down the CIA and Weckiai
was thinking similarly with NORAD. It was actually NASA, in conjunction with
the space race and Kennedy’s promise to man on the moon. Weckiai lost $1401 but
that was enough to make her the new champion and end Amy’s run after five wins
and $100,994.
Amy’s run may not seem
remarkable in comparison with the one the more recent Jeopardy viewer has been
accustomed to in the post-Trebek era but it has always been closer to the norm.
It’s easy to forget since the galvanizing arrival of James Holzhauer five years
ago which has led to the super-champions seeming to come every other day how
rare they were in the fourteen years when Ken Jennings was simply playing the
game rather than hosting it. Those who have wondered whether the recurrence of
so many Jeopardy Tournaments would lead to supersaturation have forgotten – or
more likely not have been watching long enough to know – that Jeopardy has been
made far more of players like Amy Hummel and Alison Betts than they have Mattea
Roach or Cris Panullo. It doesn’t make them any less good then the
super-champions but it makes us realize just how difficult it is to win on
Jeopardy as well as make us appreciate those super-champions even more.
And as this week marks the
2024 Jeopardy Masters debut, we will have a chance to appreciate these Masters
again along with the new blood. I’ll begin reporting on that this week.
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