‘Jeopardy!’ Players Criticized for Avoiding High-Scoring Clues on Board

Meaghan Darwish July 25, 2024, 7:31 pm

Davey Morrison, Krista Boyd, and Phil Gatton for 'Jeopardy!' — Jeopardy!, Inc.

Jeopardy!‘s latest game left fans wanting for more from the players as the latest competitors avoided high-scoring clues on the clue board in the July 25th game.

One-day champion Davey Morrison, an actor and screenwriter from Utah faced off against Kentucky-based IT portfolio director and musician Phil Gatton, and Minnesota-based legislative fiscal analyst Krista Boyd for a match that was really no competition. The game was an essential runaway for Davey who achieved his second victory with a final score of $13,512.

Davey and Krista were the only ones to deliver the correct response in Final Jeopardy for a clue in the category “Famous Women,” which read, “Adding to her nickname, one legend claimed that earlier in life, she was saved from drowning by family friend Mark Twain.” The correct response was “Who was ‘The Unsinkable’ Molly Brown?”

Jeopardy!, Inc.

Still, entering Final Jeopardy, it was a runaway for Davey who led with $13,000 against Krista’s $1,200 and Phil’s $2,000. And it was no coincidence as viewers criticized Krista and Phil’s avoidance of 2,000-point clues and other potentially higher-scoring options on the board which wasn’t fully cleared by the end of the rounds.

“Leaving 4 clues on the board is certainly a ‘record’ for one of Ken’s hosted games, right? At the very least, it’s probably the most left on the board this season,” one fan pointed out on Reddit.

Another viewer followed up with the significance of these underutilized clues, as they noted, “According to thejeopardyfan, there have been a total of 25 unplayed clues so far this season, including 4 today. So today’s game accounted for 16% of all unplayed clues so far. Yikes.” While they pointed out that Davey “played well” it was “a rough game for the challengers.”

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One problem, another viewer pointed out was Krista and Phil’s refusal to choose clues on the bottom of the board. “I found it weird that no one was going for those $2k clues left on the board, ensuring a runaway. Correct me if I’m wrong but even without Davey losing any additional money it would have been possible for one of the other contestants to close the gap late (very unlikely though).”

“Exactly. Once Ken announced a minute left and the challengers still having control, they needed to be going to the bottom of the board, not the small clues,” a fan responded.

Do you agree with these fans’ criticism of the latest match’s competitor gameplay? Let us know in the comments, below, and stay tuned for more as Jeopardy! continues.

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