Harrison Whitaker spent much of November
– and the entire period of eligibility for the 2027 Tournament Champions from
this point – in one of the greatest runs of a Jeopardy player in history.
Perhaps when Ken Jennings mentioned this on December 1st he was
inadvertently foreshadowing what was to come by the time the game was over.
The more ominous portent came
when Harrison found the Daily Double on the very first clue of the Jeopardy
round and got it incorrect. For the first time in his entire run he was
starting the game in the red. As is his want he got out of the hole very
quickly and established a lead that he never relinquished for the Jeopardy
round. However his opponents Brendan Thomas and Libby Jones were doing well.
Early in Double Jeopardy Libby
made her presence known taking the lead after four consecutive correct
responses. She and Harrison went back and forth for the lead and she got to the
last Daily Double ahead of him. Unlike both Harrison and Brendan she responded
correctly and took the lead back. Harrison took back on the very next clue and
built from there but he could not shake Libby the way he had in the last six
consecutive games. By the end of Double Jeopardy he was still ahead with
$21,000 but Libby was right behind him with $17,200 and Brendan loomed as a
potential spoiler with $3600.
It came down to Final Jeopardy.
The category was POSTAGE STAMPS. "A 1959 4-cent stamp depicts an eagle and
a maple leaf beneath the name of this project."
Brendan's response was revealed
first. "What is the St. Lawrence Seaway?" He was correct. (I had no
idea that the U.S./Canada collaboration was completed by 1959; architecture and
geography have never been my strong suits. He nearly doubled his score to
$7199. Libby was next. She also wrote down St Lawrence Seaway. She wadded $7601
to her total giving her $24,801.
It came down to Harrison who has
always had a good poker face. He wrote down: "What is the Ambassador
Bridge?" As Ken pointed out its in
Detroit not that far from the Canadian border. His wager of $13,499 was
essentially irrelevant as Libby Jones brought an end to the magnificent run of
Harrison Whitaker after 14 wins and $373,999.
As I predicted in Tuesday's
article I was skeptical that Harrison could reach the top ten in total
victories by a Jeopardy player. This turned out to be accurate. As Ken pointed
out 12 other players had managed to win 15 or more games and Harrison was
unable to become one of them finishing 13th on the all-time list
trailing Adriana Harmeyer (who Harrison seems to have a relationship with
according to Ken.) So by that standard let's see where Harrison finished
compared to the 12 other players that are ahead of him on that leaderboard on
their fourteenth game (again eliminated James Holzhauer for the sake of mercy)
Ken Jennings: $471,759
David Madden: $333,301
Julia Collins: $284,100
Jason Zuffranieri: $399,543
Matt Amodio: $440,600
Amy Schneider: $571,200
Mattea Roach: $320,081
Ryan Long: $260,100
Cris Panullo: $487,923
Adriana Harmeyer: $326,000
Scott Riccardi: $390,902
Harrison Whitaker: $373,999
He's clearly superior then
Adriana and Ryan (he won more then both of them in their runs though they each
won more games than him). As I mentioned before he was clearly a better player
in his run that Mattea and Julia Collins both of whom, while excellent players in their own
right were not nearly as dominant in their wins as Harrison was in his. And he's basically even with such greats as
Scott Riccardi and David Madden. That he's not nearly at the level of the five
biggest money winners in Jeopardy history is hardly surprising considering how incredible
those five were.
However its worth comparing him
to the three players immediately behind him in games won when it comes
to money earned:
Ray Lalonde: (13 wins) $386,400
Matt Jackson: (13 wins): $411,612
Austin Rogers (12 wins) $411,000
Harrison Whitaker (14 wins)
$373,999
It's hardly surprising Harrison
ranks behind Austin and Matt: in his entire 14 game run Harrison only topped
the $40,000 mark twice. Matt by contrast won $50,000 or more 4 times in
his run and Austin won $65,000 or more in consecutive wins.
Make no mistake when Harrison was
good, he was very, very good. In what was his final win he managed 26 correct
responses with no incorrect ones and he gave 30 correct responses in 13th
victory. But it was clear after his most dominant win on November 21st
when he won $50,000 that his momentum was starting to flag. He started
responding incorrectly on Daily Doubles at a more frequent rate and when he did
he lost a lot of money. And while he managed six consecutive runaways after
narrowly winning his eighth game (which even he expected to lose) last week his
margins began to grow increasingly on the narrow sign.
Because it was preempted in many
locations for college football last Friday few saw how close he came to defeat
in his fourteenth win. His challenger Wilder Seitz got to all three Daily
Doubles ahead of him and both times in Double Jeopardy then went against
him. The former where he was trailing
Harrison by $8000 was the most critical to date. The category was CLOTHES IN
BOOKS:
"Completes the Wilkie
Collins description of a woman's attire: "Bonnet, shawl and gown all
of…" Clearly Wilder had never read Collins' novel The Woman in White (I
had) and he guessed: "What is black?" (the natural alternative). Had
that response gone correctly he would have been ahead of Harrison at the end of
Double Jeopardy and because both he and Harrison knew the correct response he
likely would have won.
It is almost always Final
Jeopardy that does in even the best Jeopardy champion. These exact
circumstances have played out to almost every single super-champion since Ken
Jennings famously lost to Nancy Zerg with few exceptions. In most occasions
they will be in the lead when their nearest challenger comes from behind to
take them down. On rare occasions such
as with James Holzhauer or David Madden (to take the most successful cases)
they will be trailing in Final Jeopardy and despite responding correctly their
opponent does as well leading to their defeat. Harrison was no different in
that regard and in that sense has nothing to be ashamed of. Not that his track
record as a Jeopardy super-champion leaves him with much to be embarrassed by.
It says a lot about where we are
at this point in Jeopardy history that the long-time viewer like myself
can now pick out the type of super-champion is at this point. While I might be prone to overgeneralizing I now
see three basic archetypes:
1. Those who completely dominate
a game from beginning to end and leave both their opponents in the dust by the
time the Jeopardy round is over. Amy Schneider, Matt Amodio and Cris Panullo
are the clearest examples of that since the post-Trebek era began.
2. Those who while they play well
frequently do not runaway with their matches and need to get Final Jeopardy
correct in order to win. Ray Lalonde and Adriana Harmeyer are the most recent
examples.
3. Those who runaway with most of
their games but not by incredible margins. Mattea Roach and Ryan Long fit this
model.
Harrison fits most comfortably
into the final group particularly in the second half of his run. And it is likely
for that reason that he was so gracious in everyone of his victories, always
going out of way to applaud every contestant he defeated with each successive
victory. Harrison does have a charming and self-effacing nature in his play
(most Jeopardy champions do, honestly) but in his case in what was his last
full week he knew how close he was skating to the edge. Harrison knew how much
luck was involved in his run. Anyone who remembers what turned out to be his
eighth victory he couldn't come up with a correct Final Jeopardy response and
wrote down "Well its been fun." He was fortunate it wasn't a triple
stumper on that day.
Harrison will be waiting a long
time to return for the Tournament of Champions: it's not just that he'll have
to wait until the winter of 2027 but considering that he won 14 games he will
almost certainly get a bye into the semi-finals just as Scott Riccardi has for
the 2026 Tournament of Champions and Adriana Harmeyer did for last year. I'll be both looking forward to his return and
pulling for him just as I will be Scott Riccardi in this year's Tournament of
Champions.
Barring another player manages to
qualify for next year's Tournament of Champions my next piece on Jeopardy will
be in two weeks' time when I begin my play-by-play of the 2025-2026 Jeopardy
postseason. I'll be back with the results for Week 1 of the Second Chance
Tournament.
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