[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Tuesday, April 16, 2024 episode of Jeopardy!]
Alison Betts is now a four-day Jeopardy! champ. Her fourth consecutive victory was nearly thwarted by her competitor, but a snafu in Double Jeopardy, plus a stumper in the final round, led to her lucky win.
Competing in the April 16, 2024 match were Eric Reimund, a substitute teacher from Collegeville, Pennsylvania; Veronica Tabor, a study abroad advisor from Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Betts, a writer and creative executive from San Jose, California. Betts began the game with $97,500 in winnings so far, and she walked away having increased that total to $107,700.
With a score of $5,200 and her opponents far behind, Betts led the first round. But Reimund caught up in to her in the second and found both of the Daily Doubles, but he made the biggest mistake you can make in Jeopardy that made him lose the second of these clues: he forgot to answer in the form of a question.
The category was “Say it in Spanish.” The clue: “A song often heard in Spanish-speaking countries at Christmastime is this “Sabanero”, meaning “My Little Savannah Donkey.” The correct answer was, “What is burrito?” Reimund had the right answer, but failed to say “what is,” thus dropping his score from $6,000 to $2,000.
That wasn’t the end for him, however. Reimund impressively was able to catch up to Betts again to land himself in first place in Final Jeopardy. Tabor ended Double Jeopardy with $0, eliminating her from the final face-off. Neither he nor Betts answered the final clue correctly, which was admittedly surprising. The clue asked them to name the movie that features a “spirited film starring Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis as a deceased married couple.” “Oh no,” said Ken Jennings when no one could come up with, “What is Beetlejuice?”
Reimund bet all but $1, and Betts bet just $1,000, paving her path to victory. Fans on Reddit noted that had Reimund answered that Daily Double in the form of a question, that $8,000 difference could have very well won him the game.
“What stings the most is that Eric would have won if he just said it,” one fan wrote. “That gives him $8,000 more than he has, enough to not fall down to second in the event of a triple (or, double in this case) stumper.”
“Or, ironically, if he’d not retaken the lead on the last clue of DJ,” one user replied. “The double/triple stumper FJ is a rare case where it’s advantageous to be in a close second rather than first, as Alison just demonstrated.”
Another fan commented the marvelous nature of seeing this simple mistake. “9000+ episodes and we have one that turns on Jeopardy’s oldest rule: phrase in the form of a question,” they wrote. “Just when I think I’ve seen it all. Alison’s going to be very hard to stop going forward. She’s survived her scare; the confidence will be overflowing, and that momentum can become a runaway train.”
One fan cited advice from a former champ: “Matt Amodio had a point. Compulsively say ‘What’s’ and you’ll never leave it out.”
Now, fans want Reimund to come back for another shot at victory, naming the one perfect tournament in which he could play. “Eric has to be a lock for Second Chance after that; he would’ve beaten a ToC player if only he’d gotten his phrasing in,” they said. “The Amodio strategy of always saying ‘what’s’ first without having to think about it definitely pays off.”
Reimund will undoubtedly be keeping that Amodio rule in mind if he ever returns to the Jeopardy! stage.
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