‘Jeopardy!’ Contestant Dazzles Fans With Amazing Runaway Win
Jeopardy! might have another super-champ in the making as Neilesh Vinjamuri returned to the Alex Trebek Stage on Monday night (July 22) to cement his second win in a row in dominating fashion.
On Monday’s episode, Vinjamuri, a software engineer from Lionville, Pennsylvania, faced off against Monica Anderson, a master control operator from Sterling, Virginia, and Sean Duffie, a Spanish & civics teacher from Kentwood, Michigan.
After knocking off three-day champ Jay Fisher on Friday, Vinjamuri returned to the podium and picked up right where he left off. In the first round, he answered 15 clues correctly and led the way with $9,000. Duffie stood in second place with $3,600, while Anderson trailed with $2,000.
Things only got better for Vinjamuri from there, as he dominated the Double Jeopardy round, picking up both Daily Doubles to give himself a runaway. Heading into Final Jeopardy, Vinjamuri had answered 28 clues correctly (and only one incorrect response) and amassed $26,100 compared to Anderson’s $7,600 and Duffie’s $5,200.
Vinjamuri was also the only one to answer the Final Jeopardy clue correctly. The clue read: ““Love” is within the titles of 3 of his most famous books; a fourth, “The Rainbow”, calls love “the flower of life.””
The Pennsylvania native correctly answered with “Who is Lawrence?,” adding another $3,000 to his winnings to give him a total of $29,100 and a two-day total of $41,100.
Jeopardy, Inc!
Fans were super impressed with Vinjamuri’s performance and took to the Jeopardy! Reddit forum to share their thoughts.
“Neilesh’s depth and breadth of knowledge is pretty impressive. Congrats!” wrote one commenter.
“I thought it was pretty wild how he seemed to get the daily doubles without even searching the board. Just answered the most questions and picked the most categories,” said another.
“Yes he pulled some impressive answers,” added one user.
Another wrote, “Neilesh is very strong and competitors better take advantage of the few categories he might be weaker in like pop culture.”
“Loving watching Neilesh, now I hope he gains confidence in himself in his future DD wagers,” added another.
“Neilesh seemed nervous for a while during Friday’s episode before taking over that game. Seems like those nerves are gone and the rest of this week’s competitors may have been in for a tough time,” said one fan.
Vinjamuri’s opponent, Duffie, also commented on the thread, writing, “Neil was outstanding, we actually didn’t know he was the returning champ until very close to the first episode filming of the day. He was super kind and a great competitor.”
What did you think of last night’s episode? Could Vinjamuri be the next super-champ? Let us know in the comments below.
Jeopardy!, weeknights, check local listings
Watchlist Easy access to only the shows you care about — all in one simple place
Alerts Only important notifications — when a show is returning, when it becomes available to stream, and more.
Special Offers Exclusive products we release related to your favorite shows and streaming services