DANGER! Contestant Katie Palumbo lost on Tuesday after defeating controversial three-day champion Yogesh Raut.
Fans were concerned about the “poorly worded” final clue of the sequel and that it couldn’t go any further.
The 1-Day Champion faced Stephanie Pakula, an aerospace engineer from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Vince Bacani, a risk manager from Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Katie is a museum interpreter from Amawalk, New York who mummified champion Yogesh on Monday with $23,100.
While the term “Giant Killer” usually comes from Jeopardy! Obsessed with describing a player beating a veteran player, Katie can safely be called that.
Yogesh caused an internet frenzy during his brief stint, and some die-hard fans were even relieved that she had slapped him onstage given his bout of “arrogance.”
The former frontrunner caused a stir by boasting about how smart he was in his interview parts, aside from his wild buzzer technique.
He shamelessly admitted to beating James Holzhauer at high school trivia, being recognized by a now-deceased contestant and even beating host Ken Jennings, 48, at a trivia convention.
Yogesh also didn’t clap for Katie when she hit him, which was an outing of sorts.
Unfortunately, Katie couldn’t turn her disgruntled win into a winning streak – she missed a crucial $6,000 daily double and was barely in the mix on her second Final Jeopardy.
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Vince had $14,000, Katie had $7,400 and Stephanie was $1,000 behind.
Final Danger! under “Geographical Mnemonics” it says: “MIMAL, sometimes referred to as a silhouette of a chef or elf, represents Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri and those two states.”
‘WE WILL SEE…’
Without a map on-screen, participants looked confused and spent much of the 30-second window staring thoughtfully upwards.
Neither of them could go, “What are Arkansas and Louisiana?”
Ken told them all, “No, that’s the states, let’s see, west of the Mississippi, looking like a chef in profile — his pants and shoes are Arkansas and Louisiana.”
Vince let out a frustrated grunt but only lost $1,000 to win by $13,000.
Katie bet $5000 which would not have been enough to win even if it had been correct.
Katie ended up with $2,400, Stephanie with $101 and Vince emerged as the 1-day winner with $13,000.
‘I NEVER HEARD ABOUT THIS’
Fans were bothered by the question’s phrasing and the fact that it was the second straight game that all three players in Final Jeopardy missed.
One Redditor wrote, “Under the pressure of being on the show, if you’ve never heard of it before, it can be disconcerting trying to figure out exactly what’s being asked here.”
Another agreed: “I’ve never heard of MIMAL, it might be a regional thing. I’m from Pennsylvania and I deduced the answer.”
A third agreed: “I’m from one of the 5 states and while I’m familiar with the cooking meme I’ve never heard the 5 states grouped or referred to that way.”
“At least Katie can still say she hit the man who hit Ken and Brad [Rutter] at a trivia contest,” celebrated another, referring to the infamous Yogesh.
“THIS HAPPENS COMMONLY”
In Yogesh’s last duel, the winner was Katie on Final Jeopardy! stormed! at $25,600 while Yogesh was at $23,800 and Jimmy Davoren trailed by $11,400.
Under the “Business Milestones” category, the final note read: “These were first sold in 1908 at a price that equates to approximately $27,000 today.
None of the participants could give the right answer: “What is the Ford Model T?”
However, Katie was in the right direction with “cars”.
While not specific enough, her small bet of $2,500 kept her in the lead and made her the winner with a daily total of $23,100.
Fans were thrilled with the result, but were also extremely upset by the vague nature of this hint.
“Anyone else think tonight’s last @Jeopardy question was poorly written?” wrote one on Twitter.
“Yeah, I thought so too!!!!!! Seriously! She had to write Model t?” wrote another.
“If Katie had lost that last jeopardy she would have every right to protest,” wrote a third of that latest round.
Another defendant tonight: “That last question was poorly worded (again). It’s hard to argue that ‘cars’ is wrong and ‘model T’ is right.
“Why did you say these were sold first? They should say that this model sold first,” wrote a fifth.
Every day, the Final Jeopardy clue is printed in the New York Times, and in a rare move, the clue has actually been edited to say “this” instead of “this.”
NYT ran: “THIS WAS FIRST SOLD IN 1908 AT THE PRICE TODAY ABOUT $27,000” Jeopardy.com.
MAYIM’S TURN
Co-host Mayim Bialik, 47, is expected to return to the game show in late February.
With her Call Me Kat schedule giving her wiggle room, Mayim will begin her hosting duties with a new teen tournament.
Fans will get more from Ken as he releases the new Jeopardy! Masters spinoff set to air in the spring.
The Six Champions Special has invited Amy Schneider, Matt Amodio, Sam Buttrey, Andrew He, Mattea Roach and James Holzhauer to participate as contestants.
The 20-game, 10-episode special pits all players against each other in a round-robin with no elimination.
