[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the January 6 episode of Jeopardy!.]
After Drew Goins’ preliminary look in September 2024, followers clamored to see him return to Jeopardy!, and that’s precisely what occurred within the second and remaining week of the Second Probability Event. Actually, he even obtained a little bit of redemption after he beforehand missed out on a Taylor Swift query.
Goins, a journalist from Honolulu, Hawai’i, confronted off in opposition to Steve Miller, a retired medical transcriptionist from Eugene, Oregon, and Jonquil Garrick-Reynolds, a theatrical wardrobe technician from Ottawa, Ontario. The three hoped to advance to the January 9 finals after which be a part of Will Yancey within the Champions Wildcard occasion (starting January 13).
Early on, Goins had management of the sport, main at each breaks within the Jeopardy! spherical and doubling his rating with the primary Every day Double; in “Historic Historical past,” he appropriately answered, “The 1973 Arab-Israeli Battle occurred throughout these 2 durations, one Jewish & one Islamic, each of which contain fasting” (What are Ramadan and Yom Kippur?).
It was throughout his interview in the midst of the primary spherical that host Ken Jennings requested a few “run-in with some offended Swifties” after his first episode. “I obtained a Taylor Swift query unsuitable, went residence anxious that the Swifties would come rip me out of my mattress one evening, however it seems the offended Swiftie was my brother, who’s right here at this time,” Goins shared. “The evening earlier than taping, he had ready a complete follow board for me,” and whereas the purpose could have been to simply get by way of it and he had extra stuff to check, “It was totally Taylor Swift.” Jennings prompt he may need a second likelihood right here, since “That’s what Second Probability is for.”
Properly, Goins definitely did, with the final clue of the Jeopardy! spherical in Albums studying (and getting fun): “In 2014 Taylor Swift gave us this album named for a special yr.” Goins rang in and excitedly answered, “What’s 1989?” Jennings mentioned in response, “Redemption for Drew. That’s appropriate. And the gang goes wild.”
Whereas Goins was main 11,600 to Miller’s 3,400 and Garrick-Reynolds’ 2,600 heading into Double! Jeopardy, it wasn’t a runaway for him. That was partly as a consequence of Miller’s play on this spherical, together with doubling his rating with the second Every day Double of the sport. In “Alliteration on the Map,” he appropriately answered, “What’s Corpus Christi?” for “Mustang & Padre Islands lie between this Texas city & the Gulf of Mexico.” That gave him 16,400 to Goins’ 18,800 on the time. However Goins obtained the third Every day Double and nonetheless led going into Remaining Jeopardy! with 33,400 to Miller’s 18,400 and Garrick-Reynolds’ 9,800.
All three gamers appropriately answered, in “twenty first Century Enterprise,” with “What’s Tinder?” for the clue, “An early model of this app was known as Matchbox, however that identify was too much like one other firm that supplied the identical service.” Goins superior with the second-highest successful complete all season, 36,801.
“Glad to see drew is lastly out of the woods with that epic redemption arc. no extra dangerous blood from the offended swifties!” one fan wrote on the Reddit thread after the episode, and Goins replied, “’Unhealthy Blood’! I studied! I get that!”
Jeopardy! participant Sam Cameron chimed in to the thread to share his ideas from the inexperienced room of the taping. “This was such a crackerjack match to look at,” he wrote, “and it didn’t disappoint upon a rewatch. The gutsy Every day Double payoffs, the too-perfect Taylor Swift clue – Steve and Jonquil performed SO properly and stored it aggressive proper by way of the tip, however it’s powerful to cease the form of freight practice that Drew was driving this sport. Severe congrats to all three gamers, what a unbelievable strategy to kick off the week!”
Participant Zoe Grobman, additionally on this week’s schedule, added, “Jonquil was the primary competitor I met, whereas ready for the elevator on the resort. She’s an absolute sweetheart and razor sharp, the kind of one who makes you instantly root for her. I remembered Steve from his unique sport. He joined us for final weeks tapings the day earlier than as properly. Drew I hadn’t met earlier than tape day however he rapidly received everybody over along with his infectious vitality. In different phrases, after they introduced at this time’s opponents I felt dangerous that solely one among them might win.”
Grobman additionally shared that the video games have been taped on Election Day. “There was a nervous vitality within the air. It was truthfully an enormous aid for us to have to show off our telephones and entertain one another as a substitute of doomscrolling on-line,” she wrote. “Throughout FJ I quipped within the inexperienced room that you just wish to be sure to spell Tinder appropriately to keep away from the confusion with…erm…a special app, so after all all of us loved seeing Drew miss the E – however what a tremendous Fireplace Image! He was instantly joking about it himself when he got here again to the inexperienced room. A terrific sport by all three gamers.”
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