'Jeopardy' contestant loses out on $12,000 prize money — all because of how she said one word

Not long ago, the host and a contestant on "Jeopardy!" landed in hot water over a sexist question and an answer that made things more awkward. But apart from that, even the games on the show are such that a mere mispronunciation could deprive contestants of prizes. That happened to none other than former champion Zoe Grobman, who appeared on the show's "Second Chance Tournament". According to a Reddit post from Grobman, she lost about $12,000 in the show's Daily Double game due to an honest goof-up. 

In that episode, returning contestants Josh Heit, Grobman, and Enzo Cunanan went head-to-head to win big.

While Grobman's performance wasn't good enough to win, a big factor was her fumble during the third Daily Double from the category, “Potent Quotables.” In a comment on the unofficial Reddit thread of the episode, Grobman wrote, “Josh and Enzo were both incredibly quick on the buzzer and were beating me out early on." She also admitted, “I had a moment where I knew I had to redouble my focus to try to get in more."

As per TV Insider, Grobman got the clue, “This pale dry sherry gets title billing in a Poe tale." While she had the correct answer she mispronounced it as  “What is amontillado?" This cost her dearly as she lost out on adding $6,000 to her winnings.

As per Grobman, she thought that she had a chance to win but she probably got nervous. “These games taped on Election Day and the collective anxiety was certainly in the air,” Grobman wrote in the Reddit thread. “In retrospect, I’m grateful for the legal requirement to have our phones off and away which allowed us to have as much semblance of normalcy as it is possible to have when you are taping Jeopardy! with a Rolling Stone photojournalist present,” she added.

Furthermore, she shared that it had been two months since the Daily Double mix-up and she had a lot to say about it. "So suffice it to say that I have some strong emotions about a mispronunciation costing me at least $12,000 and two more games of Jeopardy. That said I have no regrets about going big on that daily double. It was absolutely the right move to make against two buzzsaws and if I’d bet small I wouldn’t have won whether or not I remembered how to say Amontillado. Live by the DD, Die by the DD," she wrote.

Grobman further explained that she knew it was over for her following the Daily Double loss. "I was well aware that not only did I have to earn back a lot of money, but I also had to allow Josh to earn enough money so that Enzo would have to bet enough in FJ to put him below double my score if wrong in order for me to have any shot of winning.”

This strategy ended up working as Zoe headed into Final Jeopardy with $6,600, while Enzo had $15,600, and Josh had $9,600. Unfortunately for Zoe, Enzo got the correct Final Jeopardy response, and Grobman wasn't in a position to outdo him. “When Josh missed FJ I had a shocked moment where I thought I might have somehow actually pulled this off. Unfortunately for me, Enzo managed to change his answer in time,” Grobman revealed.

Nevertheless, Grobman said that she had a great time and appreciated the other contestant's performance. She further thanked the host and the staff as well for making them feel comfortable on a high-stress day.