A new super-champion has emerged on Jeopardy! On Wednesday night’s episode, Adriana Harmeyer reached a staggering 11-game winning streak, putting her in league with some of the greatest to ever do it — 17 of them, to be exact. So how far can she go?
We’ll have to wait to find out just how impressive Harmeyer’s streak can and will be as the season continues, but for now, she’s boasting cash winnings of $258,700, putting her in 15th place in all-time Jeopardy! regular play winnings. She broke the season’s supposed curse, indeed!
She had some competition this time around, of course, particularly from Orlando, Florida-based student Enzo Cunanan.
The first round was a bit of a wash for Harmeyer’s co-competitors Cunanan and attorney Connor Townsend. She doubled Cunanan’s number of questions answered correctly (and he got the Daily Double wrong — apparently, he didn’t hear about how Mazatlán was directly in the path of the 2024 solar eclipse), so Harmeyer barreled into Double Jeopardy with a sizable lead of $7,600 to Cunanan’s $4,000 and Townsend’s $2,000.
The second round is where Cunanan managed to eat away at her lead, thanks in no small part to a correct Daily Double guess (apparently he was up on his Richard III trivia that day in addition to his Henry VIII scholarship he talked about earlier). That added $4,000 to his points and shot him to the lead — but it was temporary. Harmeyer found the second Daily Double of the round, and even though she made a teeny tiny wager again (betting just $1,000 on her knowledge of Europe’s Rivers), her strength in the final stretch was keeping everyone else from getting the upper hand on her again by zipping through question after question.
Still, it wasn’t a sure thing. Heading into Final Jeopardy, Harmeyer had $20,600, but Cunanan was right on her tail with $16,400, which meant Townsend was also still in play with $9,600.
Fortunately for Harmeyer, she was willing to risk just enough dough to keep her on top after both she and Cunanan correctly answered the Final Jeopardy clue. (In the category “Famous Names,” the clue was: “Vying with Eiffel, this engineer wanted to create big; an admiring account said the Obelisk of Luxor is too short to be a spoke,” to which they both correctly guessed George Ferris.)
Harmeyer wagered $12,400, which brought her to $33,000, which was just above the highest score Cunanan could get (though he didn’t double his money, instead wagering $15,000 and bringing his total to $31,400).
With that, Harmeyer has officially entered the elite squad of 11-game winners.
On Reddit, fans were thrilled by her victory, with one commenter predicting that she’ll be one to watch in the next Tournament of Champions: “Adriana knows her stuff and she will be feared in the pre-ToC speculation period, Daily Double difficulties or no,” they wrote.
Meanwhile, another took caution about whether she’ll be able to match ranks with some of the GOATs of the game, writing, “At this point Adriana HAS to be considered an early favorite for the TOC and even a Masters contender. While I’m not yet fully convinced she could be too competitive against the likes of James [Holzhauer], Yogesh [Raut] and especially Victoria [Groce], she certainly is proving herself worthy of the title of being a future Master!”
We’ll have to wait and see whether Adriana Harmeyer can make it to 12 (and beyond) next time!
Jeopardy!, weeknights, check local listings