Jeopardy! fans were left mystified by how two-day champ Donna Matturri won Monday’s episode.
Donna and newcomer Ryan Clary were correct on Final Jeopardy, but they both seemingly fudged their numbers and underbet, leaving Donna the winner by default.
ABCDonna had $18,800 and Ryan had $11,600 and both they correctly guessed ‘The Hindenburg’[/caption]
ABCHowever, Ryan oddly didn’t go all in, which was his best chance to win[/caption]
ABCEven more bizarrely, Donna didn’t bet enough to protect herself if he did so[/caption]
Donna is a librarian from Columbus, Ohio who came in with a one-day total of $17,400 having written out 5-day champ Ben Goldstein.
She faced Caroline Gulick, a Realtor from Reno, Nevada, and Ryan, a cheesemonger from Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Going into Final Jeopardy, Donna had $18,800, Ryan had $11,600, and Caroline $7400.
Final Jeopardy! under “20th Century Events” was read by host Mayim Bialik, 47.
The clue was: “It was immediately reported ‘the flames are still leaping maybe 30, 40 feet from the ground the entire 811 feet length of’ this.”
Caroline bet $0 and revealed she drew a blank.
Ryan was correct with “What is the Hindenburg?” but he wildly only wagered $10,222 instead of going all-in in a non-runaway situation.
He was left with $21822 instead of a possible $23200.
Donna was also correct, but she only wagered $4000, leaving her the winner by $122 with $22,800.
She looked thrilled, holding her hands over her face in surprise while her two-day total of $40,200.
‘BOTH CONTESTANTS MADE WEIRD BETS’
Fans were frustrated as Ryan would have won had he gone all in, and Donna wound up frustrating people as she was lucky he didn’t.
Donna’s bet was lower than warranted (an ideal bet would have been $4,401 to cover for Ryan going all-in), leaving herself vulnerable had he bet correctly.
One person wrote to Reddit: “To the future contestants: Don’t forget to learn how to bet properly in Final Jeopardy.”
“Crazy that both contestants made weird FJ bets,” wrote another.
“It looked to me like Donna just made an arithmetic error, thinking that $4000 would be enough to prevent Ryan from passing her,” justified a third.
“I completely missed that, because of Donna’s (likely) math error, Ryan would’ve won with an all-in wager,” wrote a fourth.
“If he’d gone all in, he’d have won..” wrote a fifth as a sixth agreed: “Questionable wagering by both Donna and Ryan.”
That wasn’t the only gameplay faux pas that frustrated fans, however.
In Double Jeopardy, there was a rare event in which the two Daily Doubles bookended the round.
This only happened because the players avoided the category “Scientists” like the plague, which wound up having the remaining Daily Double.
In a warned-against move, the contestants circled back on a category where an earlier Daily Double was already found instead of first hunting for the last one.
Meanwhile, plenty of fans are excited that Ken Jennings is returning to host this coming Monday.
He will helm episodes airing from July 3 until July 28 -at which point Jeopardy! will take its summer hiatus.
Season 40 will burst out of the gates with Ken’s $250K ToC, which will span 10 weeks and be expanded to three tiers.
It will all kick off instead of regular episodes in early September when Jeopardy! returns.
That said, Mayim is exiting hosting early this season to support the WGA writers’ strike, which Ken is not standing in solidarity with.
ABCOne fan wrote: ‘Donna just made an arithmetic error, thinking that $4000 would be enough to prevent Ryan from passing her.’ Another wrote: ‘Weird FJ bets’[/caption]
ABCA third blasted: ‘To the future contestants: Don’t forget to learn how to bet properly in Final Jeopardy’[/caption]
ABCThe fan-preferred Ken Jennings is returning to finish out the season in lieu of Mayim BIalik this coming Monday[/caption]
