Jeopardy! contestant Jeff Weyhmiller was left stumped by a Daily Double on the Ken Jennings-helmed show, prompting pleas from fans to writers over the incident
Jeopardy! fans defended a contestant after he was stumped by a clue(Image: Jeopardy!/Hulu)
Jeopardy! fans made a plea to writers of the popular trivia game show after one contestant’s “especially brutal” clue that may have cost him the game.
On Friday, May 22, Jeff Weyhmiller, a nuclear power instructor from Holland, Michigan, managed to find all three Daily Double clues on the board, but was stumped by the questionable wording of his second DD attempt. Fans rallied behind Jeff after Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings explained why his answer was incorrect.
The Season 42 contestant’s disappointing run comes as one Jeopardy! player passed $700,000 after a 25-win streak, joining the ranks of the all-time greatest players.
Jeff, who captured viewers’ hearts after revealing that he has read his wife to sleep every night for the last 23 years, was stumped by a Daily Double question in the ‘Cabinet Members’ category.
The clue read, “Just like Kiefer Sutherland on the TV show, the 2010 choice as this was the HUD secretary, Shaun Donovan,” to which Jeff answered, “What is Housing and Urban Development?”
Jeff was left stumped by a tricky clue(Image: Jeopardy!/Hulu)
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Unfortunately, the answer was incorrect, costing Jeff his $5,000 wager and bringing him into the red. The correct answer was “Designated Survivor,” as Ken explained, “No, he was the HUD Secretary, but he was chosen as Designated Survivor.”
Jeopardy! fans took to Reddit to rally behind Jeff, pleading with writers to change how certain clues are worded in the show.
“I felt so bad for Jeff. He looked so deflated after missing the second DD,” one fan wrote,” as another replied, “It was especially brutal because he seemed relieved when he thought he knew the correct response, but unfortunately he had misread the clue and zeroed in on the wrong thing, and I think that really threw him.”
Ken Jennings explained the reasoning behind the answer(Image: Jeopardy!/Hulu)
A third viewer suggested, “Either pick a cabinet member who was the actual designated survivor post-2016 and then compare them to the Kiefer Sutherland show, or make the reverse chronology comparison more clear.”
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A fourth agreed, “Yes, for wagering clues, the writers should take extra care to make sure the subject matter of the clue is a good fit with the category. DD2 was really a TV clue and to make a contestant bet on it blind with this category was a bit of a bait-and-switch.”
Despite Jeff’s Daily Double snag, he ended the game with $2,700, while returning champ Chris D’Angelo scored a runaway win with $25,000. One fan wrote, “s/o Jeff for not backing down!”
