‘Jeopardy!’s Adriana Harmeyer Explains Why Tournament of Champion Players Were Stumped by Category

Meaghan Darwish February 4, 2025, 7:30 pm

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Adriana Harmeyer for 'Jeopardy!' — Jeopardy!, Inc.

Jeopardy!‘s Tournament of Champions continues as the Semifinals kicked off with Adriana Harmeyer, Will Wallace, and Ryan Manton on February 4th.

It was an exciting match for Ryan and Adriana who went head-to-head for most of the match, with Will admittedly not delivering his best performance. “It was obviously not my game. Adriana and Ryan are amazing players, and whereas I had my buzzer locked in on my quarterfinal, I never found my rhythm this game. It threw me off and I never recovered,” Will wrote on Reddit.

Ultimately, Adriana came out on top, winning the game with 25,000 total points, outdoing Ryan’s 22,001, and Will’s 0. While Ryan started the game strong, leading the game heading into Double Jeopardy with 5,200 against Adriana’s 4,400. It was a Daily Double during the second round that allowed Adriana to gain traction, putting her ahead of Ryan.

Adriana Harmeyer, Ryan Manton, and Will Wallace for 'Jeopardy!'

Jeopardy!, Inc.

Heading into Final Jeopardy, Adriana had 22,000 against Ryan’s 12,000, which meant this game wasn’t a runaway, but certainly close heading into the final round. The category was “Countries of the World,” with the clue reading, “About 80 miles from Vladivostok, its 11-mile land border with Russia is the shortest of that country’s 14 neighbors.”

The correct response was “What is North Korea?” and both Ryan and Adriana responded correctly. But even if they had the right answers there, the match had one category that stumped them all. The category of celebrity podcasts left the players quite duped, as the players passed on responses to three of the five clues provided.

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While Adriana took a moment on Reddit to admire her fellow competitors, as she wrote, “One of the most delightful things about Jeopardy is meeting fellow competitors, and one of the worst things about Jeopardy is going out on the stage with two of those competitors, knowing that only one of you can win. Will and Ryan are both excellent players and just great people. Having watched their quarterfinals, I knew we could be in for a tough game.”

But at the end of the day, she jokingly explained, “It turns out that not only do none of us listen to celebrity podcasts, I haven’t even heard of most of them.”

What did you think of the player’s lack of knowledge when it comes to celebrity podcasts? Sound off in the comments section, and stay tuned as the Tournament of Champions continues.

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