JEOPARDY! contestant Karen Miller has opened up about the Daily Double wager heard around the world.
On Wednesday’s episode, she lost by betting $10,000 from a runaway position – or guaranteed win.
ABCJeopardy! fans called Karen Miller’s Daily Double wager the ‘biggest blunder ever’[/caption]
ABCShe dropped $10000 with five clues left and an ensured victory – she tweeted ‘I did what I did, I’m sorry lmao’[/caption]
Reigning champ Melissa Klapper faced Zach Wissner-Gross, a vice president of math curriculum from Roslyn Heights, New York, and Karen, a veterinary student from Christiansburg, Virginia.
Karen had a gigantic lead when she landed on the last Daily Double with $21.8K whereas Melissa had $7.1K and Zach $6.4K.
In other words, she had a runaway game – meaning she could enter Final Jeopardy and win by betting $0 and could just coast at that point.
The clue under: “Hans Solo” read: “This artist the younger was working on yet another portrait of Henry VIII when he died in 1543.”
Karen shockingly wagered $10000 and could not get to “Hans Holbein” and just shook her head.
Going into Final Jeopardy Karen instead had $11.4K, Melissa had $8.7K, and Zack had $7.2K.
Final Jeopardy! under “American Novelists” read: “He served with an airman named Yohannan in World War II & despite what readers might think, he said he enjoyed his service.”
Ken even lamented to Karen that she now needed to know it: “She had a big lead before tangling with that last Daily Double, she needs to get Heller here.”
Only Melissa and Zach were correct on “Joseph Heller,” so the big bet and miss by Karen cost her dearly.
Melissa won with a 3-day total of $59K – Karen ended in third, and Jeopardy! fans lost their minds.
‘ONE OF THE BIGGEST ERRORS EVER!’
One person tweeted: “The worst ever bet by Karen, who had the game pretty much in the bag. What a way to lose!”
“This person made the worst daily double bet of all time – costing her sure win and putting her in third place. Who is Karen,” wrote another.
“One of the biggest daily double blunders I’ve ever seen,” wrote a third.
“I’ve watched Jeopardy! regularly for 35+ years and can’t remember anything that stupid,” ripped a fourth.
“@JeopardyKaren what did I just watch? One of the greatest errors in judgment I’ve ever seen on the Jeopardy stage,” a fifth mercilessly penned.
One Reddit user wrote: “I admire Karen’s courage, but she pretty much had a lock game, so probably not the best idea wagering a whopping 10K with so few clues remaining.”
To which someone else replied: “Not just ‘pretty much’–she did have a lock game. She had $21800, her nearest opponent had $7100, and there was only $2400 left on the board.”
Even on Facebook someone asked: “What do you think? Was that the worst single wager in the history of Jeopardy?”
To which people said it was and replied: “How…why….what the HELL was she thinking??”
Many people posted that she “pulled a Clavin,” referencing the classic episode of Cheers where Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger) competed on the game show (featuring a real Alex Trebek and the actual set) and fumbled all his winnings on a Final Jeopardy! gamble.
‘I DID WHAT I DID’
Karen went long on Twitter after the fact: Ok I’m gonna run down the episode step by step and then I will look up who ‘Cliff Clavin’ is.”
“I was kind of thinking ‘I can lose ten grand and still be in the lead, and I’m here to have fun and entertain the audience, and I always said I would wager big, and also I can’t think of any other numbers, so ten grand it is.’”
“THE ONLY NAME I could think of was Justin Bieber,” she wrote.
But of course she didn’t say Justin Bieber, and added: “‘It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it.’ -Maurice Switzer. So I said nothing.”
She continued, echoing the reception of ruthless fans: “BUT THE WAGER, KAREN. YOU IDIOT. YOU EMBARRASSMENT. YOU ABSOLUTE BUFFOON. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING???”
She said she was thinking “this” and added a GIF of Homer Simpson with a cymbal-banging monkey in his brain.
“Ultimately, I did what I did, and I had THE MOST FUN, and at the end of the day (I’m sorry Mom, I know you hate that phrase) it’s a game, and it’s a show, and it’s a game show.”
“And my sincerest gratitude to my fellow contestants, to the staff of @Jeopardy, to @KenJennings, and to my guests in the studio audience.”
Karen even replied to some fans fans personally – one tweeted at her “Karen, what are you doing?!? What a dumb Daily Double wager.”
She replied: “I DON’T KNOW KEVIN I just don’t know I’m sorry lmao.”
‘IT’S TOUGH UP THERE!’
One fan applauded her honesty and wrote under her thread: “A master class in handling an oopsie moment with grace and humor. I appreciate Karen’s sense of humor. She knows that Jeopardy! wager was bad.”
Margaret Shelton from the 2022 Tournament of Champions tweeted defending few understand the pressure of it all.
“Everybody who wants to talk s**t about a contestant’s wager on Jeopardy!, beat it. It’s tough AF up there, and we all do our damnedest to win. You get up on that stage and show me how it’s done. Shout me out, k?”
Karen sweetly replied: “Margaret……. I love you”
Someone else then tweeted, however, that this was wagering 101: “As someone in the pool waiting for his turn, that moment was rough.”
In happier news, Melissa’s third win made her the longest-running female contestant this season and she’s one game away from being the first female qualifier for the 2023 Tournament of Champions.
ABCKaren tweeted: ‘BUT THE WAGER, KAREN. YOU IDIOT. YOU EMBARRASSMENT. YOU ABSOLUTE BUFFOON. WHAT WERE YOU THINKING???’[/caption]
ABCA former champ wrote: ‘Everybody who wants to talk s**t beat it’ as another fan admitted they’re in the waiting pool and this was ‘tough’[/caption]
GettyOn a classic episode of Cheers, Cliff Clavin lost with a runaway by betting too big – fans said this was a modern day version[/caption]
