'Jeopardy!' fans call out impossible clue that stopped player from dethroning reigning champion
"Jeopardy!" contestants are known to have loyal fans who are invested in their victories and losses. That's why it isn't surprising when viewers are outraged about seemingly impossible clues costing a player a chance at being the champion. Fans called it the "worst clue ever" on the show and argued that it dearly cost Sarah Rubenfeld, who was looking like the top contender to dethrone Riccardi in the game.
In the episode, the reigning champion at the time, Riccardi, played against Rubenfeld, from Houston, Texas, and Senay Goitom, from Madison, Wisconsin. While Riccardi was storming away towards the lead with more than $430,000 in winnings, he found the first Daily Double of the game under the "Kid Lit En Español" category and added $7,000 to his winnings.
The show's host, Ken Jennings, then read the clue, “A word meaning boring gave us this name for a boring burg that we can’t find in our atlas.” Stumped by the clue, Rubenfeld failed to give an answer before the buzzer went off. “Yeah, that’s a tough one,” Jennings said before revealing the correct answer, "Dullsville," as per TV Insider. To add to the player's misery, the blank response dropped her down to $0, almost extinguishing her chances of challenging Riccardi for the win.
While she took the loss well, fans had a lot to say about he unusual clue. "DD2 today may be one of the worst clues I have ever seen. Unbelievable that this passed quality standards, especially with the right answer ending in -ville," one fan @GutsyMan wrote in a discussion thread on Reddit. Several others chimed in to express their outrage as well. "Especially as I don’t know anyone who actually says the word Dullsville," added @HeavyScar5722. Another fan suggested that the clue was misleading, and it cost Rubenfeld a chance to win. "Agreed - very misleading. Sarah got screwed on that Dullsville clue, which was more frustrating bc we'd been waiting for a challenger to TDD, she threw down, and had she gotten that, the game would not have been a runaway. Scott deserves his flowers, but it would be nice to see Final Jeopardy involving some actual jeopardy," suggested @QueenLevine.
As Rubenfeld suffered an unfortunate loss, Riccardi went on to win the game to land himself in the "Jeopardy!" record books. However, his reign finally came to an end on the finale of Season 41 of the show. After 16 wins and a whopping collection of $455,000 in prize money, Riccaidi went up against Jonathan Hugendubler, from Baltimore, Maryland, and Charlotte Cooper, from San Francisco, California, looking for a 17th consecutive win.
However, Hugendubler started off with a flyer and continued to chase the champion all the way to the "Final Jeopardy!" He answered the final clue correctly and wagered enough to be close to the lead. With everything hinging on Riccardi's answer and wager, the reigning champion got the answer wrong and wagered too much, which dropped him to second. Everyone in the studio gasped as Hugendubler dethroned the 16-game winning champion.
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