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Jeopardy! champion admitted to ‘embarrassing’ Wildcard Tournament error and final clue ‘stumped’ Ken Jennings

jeopardy host ken jennings face shot from celebrity jeopardy episode
Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings felt a final clue may have been a bit too difficult for the contestants. Pic credit: ABC

During the recent Jeopardy! Champions Wildcard Tournament, a contestant revealed his error from the game and that the final clue may have been too difficult for them.

The show’s host, Ken Jennings, was even stumped by the clue and informed people in the studio about it, but only after the cameras stopped rolling.

Former show winner Joey DeSena, a development engineer from North Carolina, appeared as a contestant on Thursday night’s episode.

He competed against Mehal Shah, a software engineer from Seattle, Washington, and Eamonn Campbell, a lawyer from Manchester, Vermont.

Joey later described his two opponents as “tremendous competitors (and more importantly, great people)” whom he enjoyed getting to know.

In additional online remarks, he shared with fans about his behind-the-scenes error and other insights from the game show.

Jeopardy! champ revealed his ’embarrassing’ error during Double Jeopardy

Joey indicated his error arrived during the January 16 episode’s Double Jeopardy round when the clues and questions became more challenging.

Jennings revealed the round’s categories: “Short Stories, Common Bands, Travel USA, The Jete Set, Make Mine Math, and More or Less.”

Once the episode aired, Joey shared on Reddit: “Embarrassingly, we were about three clues into the category before I realized The Jete Set was about ballet, and not just asking about random French words.”

screenshot of reddit comments about jeopardy tournament
Former Jeopardy! champion reveals an error he made in a category. Pic credit: @Roo24680/Reddit.com/r/Jeopardy

Despite this “error,” Joey still ended that round in the lead with $24,000 he’d racked up throughout the game.

Joey revealed he felt better after Ken’s off-camera remarks about Final Jeopardy

In another part of Joey’s Reddit comments, he indicated that the host mentioned the difficulty of the episode’s Final Jeopardy! clue, once filming stopped.

“First thing Ken said as the credits started to roll was that FJ was tough, and he didn’t know it either. I can’t tell you how much better that made me feel!” Joey said.

screenshot as former jeopardy winner reveals ken jennings remarks off camera
The former Jeopardy! winner said even host Ken Jennings admitted a final clue was tough. Pic credit: @Roo24680/Reddit.com/r/Jeopardy

In a spoiler alert, the Final Jeopardy category was “Trees,” and the clue was: “Order Arecales, this tree gets its name from Roman times; a leaf from one was placed in a victor’s hands after a contest was won.”

None of the contestants had the correct question, “What is a palm tree?” on their screens. However, Joey had already tallied enough money with $24,000, so his wager of $0 made him the game’s winner.

He’ll move on to the semi-finals, while Mehal’s $19,600 total and $0 wager allowed him to remain in the tournament. Eammon wagered all his $9,600 on his incorrect final question, which means he is no longer part of the competition.

In another sweet insight, Joey said he typically doesn’t like writing shoutouts on his screen for the Final Jeopardy question reveals but chose to do so this time so his young daughter “might see it years in the future and smile.”

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