Jeopardy Season 42 Update: Caleb Groen, Fighting For The Bye Finds His Thirteenth Appearance As Unlucky for Him As It Was For Adam Remsen

 

It was déjà vu all over again.

On June 26^th Adam Remsen had managed to win his eleventh game in impressive fashion with a $50,000 payday.. More importantly with that victory he had broken his tie with Tristan Williams for the third most wins in Season 42 and guaranteeing himself a bye into the semi-finals of the 2027 Tournament of Champions. The producers must have breathed a sigh of relief thinking this would put them off the hook for making a hard decision if Tristan and Adam had tied.

Then not even three weeks later they were facing the exact same scenario. Because now Caleb Groen had won twelve straight games. In Caleb's case it actually seemed like it would be a more clear cut decision because by this point Caleb had won considerably more money that Adam. Indeed with $346,968 he was actually slightly ahead of Harrison Whitaker at this same period in his run. Another win might very well put him in second place in money won behind only Jamie Ding in Season 42.

But on Friday's game things had not been nearly as easy. He did manage another impressive game with 36 correct responses and only 3 incorrect ones. However two of them had been the Daily Doubles he'd found and they'd cost him $6000. And as a result Andy Strange had managed to keep him – just barely - from getting his seventh consecutive runaway victory. He'd needed to respond correctly on Final Jeopardy to win and he did.

And it wasn't like Final Jeopardy had been his great strength throughout his run. In last Tuesday's and Thursday's games he'd responded incorrectly on Final Jeopardy and his opponents had responded correctly. It hadn't mattered either way – both games had been runaways – but after twelve games he had gotten 7 Final Jeopardys correct and 5 incorrect. To this point it still hadn't cost him – but the emphasis was on 'still.'

Now here Caleb was in the exact same place that had proven fatal for Adam Remsen a little more than three weeks earlier.  Adam had faltered on Final Jeopardy for that game and it had brought him down. Would Caleb be in the same position Adam was or as Harrison Whitaker before him and Scott Riccardi on this same day one year earlier would he live to fight another day?

So on the last Monday of Season 42 Caleb faced off against Tatiana Chichilla and Sam Ryan in his thirteenth appearance. And unlike Adam's thirteenth appearance it became clear remarkably quickly that things weren't going to go as well for Caleb as the previous twelve.

In the Jeopardy round Sam got to the Daily Double first and early in TIPPLES IN LIT. He bet the $1400 he already had:

The title of this Kurt Vonnegut novel doesn't mean a Wheaties slogan – its how a cocktail waitress in the book refers to martinis.

Sam knew it: "What is Breakfast of Champions?" Ken said that was correct, then reminded us it was a correct response not a correct breakfast.

From that point Sam never relinquished the lead. He had $6800 at the commercial break to Caleb's $2400 and finished it was with $9200 to Caleb's $5400 and Tatiana's $1800.

Tatiana had her moment early in Double Jeopardy when she found the Daily Double on her first in 18^th CENTURY EUROPE. "1714 saw the birth of this royal house in Britain when George I succeeded to the crown." She knew it was Hanover and gained $1500. She'd actually move to second place when she got the first three correct responses in Double Jeopardy. Then she started going backwards and Caleb and Sam started going back and forth.

Then Sam got to the other Daily Double ahead of Caleb still in the lead with $16,400. He had a decision to make and he wagered $6400 in POP CULTURE ANAGARAMS:

'Torchwood, an anagram of and spin-off from this BBC show, added 'Children of Earth' as a subtitle for Season 3. Sam instantly responded: "What is Doctor Who?" and jumped up to $22,800. He would finish the round with $24,000 and because Caleb blundered on two $800 clues – including one where he reversed Fletcher Christian's name to Christian Fletcher –  he became the second super-champion this season to lost his title in a runaway with Sam finished with $24,000 to Caleb's $11,400 while Tatiana finished with a very respectable $6900.

But even had he been in a place to contend it wouldn't have made a difference.  With another set of synchronicity Caleb's career on Jeopardy ended the same way it began – with another triple stumper. The category was ANNUAL EVENTS:

It celebrated its 40^th edition in 2026; the first one featured Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Jimmy Carl Black.  

No one was close to the correct answer. It was South by Southwest. (As Ken told us Gilmore and black are both Texas musicians, and the clue referred to the famous Austin music festival." Caleb was good natured in defeat: he wrote down: "What is Congratulations, Sam" as Sam dethroned Caleb with a $23,000 payday.

Now the inevitable question, just how good was Caleb? Well in twelve games he did win more money then Ryan Long did in his sixteen game run and nearly as much as Adriana Harmeyer did in her fifteen game run. And he's clearly a much better player than Adam Remsen was in his twelve games. As to the rest let's compare him to all the players who managed to win at least twelve games in the post-Trebek era at that point in their runs (aside from the one I listed immediately above):

 

Matt Amodio: $394,600

Amy Schneider: $483,000

Mattea Roach: $271,282

Cris Panullo: $380,881

Ray Lalonde: $354, 300

Scott Riccardi: $312.501

Harrison Whitaker: $330,000

Jamie Ding: $314,440

Caleb Groen: $346,968

That Caleb was doing so much better than Mattea Roach didn't shock me; that he was doing better than Jamie did slightly.  As to the other two players who won exactly 12 games he clearly did far better than Seth Wilson's $265,000 but wasn't nearly at the level of Austin Roger's $411,000.

Caleb is a lot harder to classify as a super-champion then his predecessors this year.  When he was good, he was incredible but his track record with Final Jeopardy was worse then most of the super-champions I've seen during the last five years. He finished with 7 correct and six incorrect and there's a good argument the only reason he managed to get as far as he did was because his first two games were triple stumpers. There are at least five or six potential Second Chance Tournament entries in his first four games alone and it wouldn't shock me if Tatiana ended up being included as well. (It may depend how well Sam does.)

As to whether Adam or Caleb gets the bye into the semi-finals based on money won Caleb deserves to. He did win more than Adam's $306,415. But I have no doubt this is the kind of scenario the producers were hoping to avoid going into the 2027 TOC though perhaps in the opening months of next year someone will come along who wins thirteen games and makes the decision irrelevant.

I'll be back this weekend with my official wrap-up of Season 42, with a complete roster of whose qualified for the next Tournament of Champions this season and some educated guesses on who we might see in some of the Second Chance and Wild Card Tournament. (For once the former has a lot more valid choices then the latter.)