'Jeopardy' contestant hits the lowest score ever and people cannot believe how bad it really was
Ken Jennings has been known for his winning streak as a contestant before becoming the host of “Jeopardy!” while others who had records of their own are remembered for winning big. But among contestants on the show, Patrick Pearce has the distinction of bagging an amount so low that his is considered the worst performance ever. The day was already one to remember as it was the debut of LeVar Burton as the host, according to a report in Collider. Unfortunately, that was overshadowed by an infamous turn of events.
Pearce clearly did not have a good time as the contestant right from the start. After getting a few answers wrong, his earnings already dipped below zero and crashed down to -$1400, but it seemed like his fortunes were turning around from that point. He answered some of the questions correctly and got his prize money above zero, which was crucial. Unfortunately, his luck ran out soon, and things started getting worse. He was at $600, which was a lot less than his competitors, but better considering where he was earlier. From that point, it almost became hard to watch. Difficult questions that he wasn’t sure about plagued him, and his prize money plummeted. There was nothing he could have done either. Due to the low amount in his purse, he had to adopt a high-risk, high-reward strategy, which did not pay off.
In the end, he finished the game with a score of -$7400, the lowest in the history of the show. The previous record was held by a woman named Stephanie Hull, who finished a 2015 game with a score of -$6800. Hull knows all about the impact of such a loss, as she had to take measures to heal after her debacle in 2015. One of the measures she took was getting off social media.
“I deleted my Twitter the morning before it aired, and I’m really glad of that,” Hull said in an interview with Slate. "We created a community specifically for women who had been on Jeopardy!, a Facebook group, because it turns out the people who tend to get the most negativity on the internet are women,” she added. The former contestant also revealed that she doesn’t rewatch her episode. “I have not rewatched my own episode. I don’t particularly want to rewatch my own episode. I watched it when it aired in my local market that day. And that’s the last time I’ve seen it,” she revealed.
“Imagine doing something that you’ve wanted to do your entire life, and then it turning into that, and you know you’re going to be on national TV, so you’re basically trying desperately not to cry. That’s kind of where I was,” she added. This indicates what Pearce may have felt after his disastrous stint.
