[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Wednesday, October 11, 2023 episode of Jeopardy!]
The winner of Jeopardy!‘s October 11, 2023 episode came in hot and never stopped.
Sam Stapleton, a college consultant from Los Gatos, California, came in swinging by getting four out of five clues in the Saturday Night Live category right, one of them being a Video Daily Double, at the top of the game. With that, he doubled his $2,600 to $5,200 (and made his Jeopardy dreams come true when saying “let’s make it a true Daily Double” to host Ken Jennings), and no one else had even gotten to choosing a clue yet.
The rest of Sam’s playing stayed just as impressive. The college consultant was squaring off against Robert Won, a math professor from Washington, D.C., and Karla Fossett, a senior content administrator from Saco, Maine. Sam maintained his lead for the entire game, though his competitors did catch up at times. Going into the first break, the scores were Sam with $7,000, Robert with $2,600, and Karla $1,000, and going into Double Jeopardy the scores were Sam with $8,600, Robert with $6,600, and Karla with $2,000.
By the time Final Jeopardy came around, Sam had secured a runaway game with $30,800 in winnings. Karla had made it to second place with $7,600 and Robert was in third with $4,600. The highest wagers they could make (doubling their scores) still wouldn’t reach Sam’s total, so he only needed to stay away from large wagers to become the victor. Robert came in second with $4,600, betting nothing, and Karla unfortunately wound up with $0 after betting it all. Sam also wagered $0 in the final round, which fans made note of on the Jeopardy Reddit board discussion about the episode.
As these players are competing in the Champions Wildcard tournament, prize money is guaranteed for the winners. One Reddit user felt betting $0 in a runaway game took away some of the fun.