‘Jeopardy!’: Find Out If Current Champion Mike Dawson Qualified for ToC

[The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for the Wednesday, April 9, episode of Jeopardy!]

Jeopardy! three-day champion Mike Dawson competed in his fourth game and tried to qualify for the Tournament of Champions’ wildcard spot. With a three-day total of $57,000, Dawson hoped to expand on that, but a crazy Final Jeopardy wager left him with not that much higher of a total. Four wins would put him on the cusp for the ToC. However, a loss could cut him from qualifying at all.

He faced off against Andrew Hayes, from Tupelo, Mississippi, and Courtney Martin, from Cedarburg, Wisconsin, on the Wednesday, April 9, episode of the game show.

The first round brought two triple stumpers for the contestants. The clue read, “Fan outraged that Paul Sheldon killed off this character from the famed romance series.” The $600 answer was Misery. The second one was “Solomon welcomes her in the painting seen here.” The answer was The Queen of Sheba, which no one knew.

Dawson had a big lead but fell behind when he incorrectly answered the first Daily Double of the game. He wagered all of his $4,400. “During the Civil War, more battles were fought in these 2 neighboring states than in any other,” was the clue. “What are Maryland and Virginia?” he answered. Host Ken Jennings told him it was Virginia and Tennessee. Dawson dropped down to $0.

Hayes, a law student, led with $2,400. Martin, a public defender, had $2,200. By the end of the round, Dawson tried to catch up but only had 11 questions correct to Hayes’ 12. Dawson ended the first round with $2,000. Martin had $2,600 after four right answers. Hayes had $5,800.

Double Jeopardy had seven triple stumpers. But the round belonged to Hayes as he found both DD and picked up 15 correct answers. He had a runaway win after 12 clues remained due to his small wagers on the DD.

The first DD of the round was, “With stumps 10 feet across, these trees were ‘the redwoods of the East’ until a fungus nearly eradicated them in the 1900s.” Hayes didn’t answer right away, and Jennings said his name, but he still couldn’t conjure up the right answer. “What is the Dutch Elm?” he answered. That was wrong, and he dropped from $9,000 to $8,000. The correct answer was American chestnuts.

However, he had better luck during the second DD. The clue was, “A term for Nicaraguan rebels led Stephen Fried to coin this word for a couture designer or a supermodel superfan.” “A fashionista,” Hayes answered, which was right. He added $2,000 to his total of $11,600.

By the end of the round, Hayes had 27 questions right with only one wrong, giving him a total of $25,200. Dawson answered 15 questions correctly and three wrong. He had a total of $2,400. Martin had a total of $4,200 after seven correct answers and one incorrect answer.

The final question read, “An online article about this landmark said, ‘The stones themselves look like they are crying’ & mentioned ‘Tears of… pain, hope & joy.'” Only Martin correctly answered, “What is the Wailing Wall?” She wagered $601, giving her a final total of $4,801. Dawson answered, “What is the MLK?” and wagered $2,398, leaving him with $2. Hayes also answered wrong with “What is Mt. Rushmore?” He wagered $0, making him the night’s winner.

Dawson did not qualify for ToC and had a four-day total of $57,002. Hayes will be back on Thursday, April 10, to face off against two new competitors.

“Well d**n, Andrew,” a Reddit user said of Hayes’ total.