‘Jeopardy!’ contestant slammed for ‘bonehead wager’ that cost him the game

A “Jeopardy!” contestant lost big on Wednesday night’s episode, and fans have been quick to let him know what he did wrong.

Going into the Final Jeopardy round, a man named John was in second place with $14,200, trailing $9,000 behind the contestant in first place. He was the only player to answer the clue correctly, but thanks to his decision to not bet any of his winnings, he failed to win the game.

With a category of “American Immigrants,” the clue read, “His 1904 will stipulated that ‘All the sums hereinbefore specified for prizes shall be used for prizes only.’”

Evan, who was in third place with $6,000, and Kendra, who was in the lead, both guessed “Nobel.” Alfred Nobel died in 1896, and while he did work in America, he never immigrated.

John was the only one who answered correctly with “Pulitzer.” Joseph Pulitzer, another man with a famous prize named after him, was alive to write a will in 1904. He came to the U.S. in 1864, having been recruited to fight in the Civil War.

Host Ken Jennings confirmed that the answer was correct, then said, “So you’re going to add to that?” After seeing John’s choice to not wager anything, he corrected himself, saying, “Oh, you won’t. You bet nothing. Interesting.”

After Kendra’s answer was revealed to be wrong, viewers saw that she’d bet $5,201, which left her with $17,999 — a winning amount — despite having answered the final question incorrectly.

While Jennings seemed surprised at John’s choice, fans were downright flabbergasted.

“A bonehead wager by John!” one person exclaimed in the comment section of the “Jeopardy!” YouTube page. “He got the correct response and was within striking distance of Kendra, but wagered nothing. This victory was snatched from him.”

Another noted, “It must hurt to lose, but it must really hurt to lose because you were timid.”

“John’s about to get lit up for making such a poor wager,” one fan wrote, and another person joked, “I’ll start.”

A particularly dramatic comment read, “O most direful hap betide the unhappy wretch whose wager gives him no chance of winning! You have to figure out that Kendra needs to wager $5201, and a miss would drop her to $17,999. So, you have to wager enough to get to $18,000. Why show up for the game at all if you’re going to make a wager that gives you zero chance of winning?”

On X, formerly Twitter, someone theorized, “Maybe he was tired of being on the show.”

“Goodness gracious!” read another reaction. “Another MAJOR boo-boo by this #Jeopardy contestant. Can’t he count? All he needed to do was double his total and deduct the total of the leader to know how much he needed to win, if he gets the reply correctly and the leader doesn’t.”

Since the season premiere last month, “Jeopardy!” has been pulling contestants from previous seasons and using old clues, as well as clues that were previously written but never used in a show. This was a way around the writers strike, which concluded last week.

John originally appeared on the show in 2020, winning one episode before losing his second.