[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the March 27, 2024 episode of Jeopardy!]
You don’t see comebacks like these anymore! But when Jeopardy! champ Jennifer Quail is at the podium, you should perhaps expect it. Quail staged a stunning 11th-hour win in the Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament on Wednesday, March 27, beating out quizmasters Brandon Blackwell and Alex Jacob. But was her Final Jeopardy record indication that she could take home the win?
Quail is a wine-tasting consultant from Dowagiac, Michigan who has been live-tweeting Jeopardy! every day for years. She’s s Season 36 eight-game champion and 2021 Tournament of Champions first runner-up. She’s appeared in 14 total episodes, including the March 27 game, and she’s answered Final Jeopardy correctly in 13 of them. Her 13th correct final answer won her the game in her first JIT appearance.
Competing against Quail were Blackwell, a writer and TV personality originally from Jamaica, New York, and Jacob, an online trivia league host from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Blackwell first competed as a teen on Jeopardy! and went on to continue his TV trivia career on The Chase. Jacob’s trivia league is popular among Jeopardy! fans; he said in fun fact that there’s someone in the tournament who partakes in his league for training. These quizmasters couldn’t beat Quail’s smart wagering.
Blackwell had a serious lead for most of the game. He found the first Daily Double within a couple of moves in Round 1, then doubled his score to $22,800 with the third Daily Double. Quail found the second Daily Double, which took her score from $10,100 to $10,600. Heading into Final Jeopardy, the scores were Blackwell at $23,600, Alex at $14,200 for Alex, and Quail at $11,000.
Quail’s only chance to beat Blackwell would be to risk it all in Final Jeopardy and hope that he would answer wrong. As long as he didn’t wager $0 or another small amount, Quail could still win it all. It was a long shot, but the hail Mary paid off.
The final category was “Old Words.” The clue: “First appearing in an English dictionary in 1623, mesonoxian means pertaining to this word.” The correct answer was, “What is midnight?” Quail’s score jumped to $22,000, Blackwell’s went down to $18,799, and Jacob wound up with $0. Shocked joy came over Quail’s face when in reaction to the improbable yet thrilling win.
On the Jeopardy! Reddit discussion board, Quail explained her logic behind the move.