James Holzhauer’s historic run on “Jeopardy!” has come to an end, according to a leaked video clip of a show expected to air this week.
The footage, a minute long, captures the Final Jeopardy segment as the contestants reveal their responses. After making what host Alex Trebek described as a “modest” wager, Holzhauer is bested by Emma Boettcher, who was leading by $3,200.
Holzhauer offered the correct response, “Who is Kit Marlowe?” but his surprisingly low bet left him in second place.
“His wager, a modest one for the first time,” Trebek said, as Holzhauer’s $1,399 wager was revealed.
Boettcher was leading at the time, with $26,600, and bet a whopping $20,201 to give her the win.
“Oh gosh! What a payday,” Trebek said, after the bet was revealed. “What a game! Oh my gosh!”
Holzhauer, who had strung together an astounding 32 consecutive wins, for a grand total of $2,464,216 in winnings, turned to give an elated Boettcher a high-five.
The leaked clip first started making the rounds on social media on Sunday, resulting in Sony Pictures, which produces “Jeopardy!,” scrambling to make copyright complaints, the New York Post reported.
The apparent loss by Holzhauer left him short of overtaking “Jeopardy!” legend Ken Jennings, who put together 74 wins in 2004, winning a total of $2,520,700.
Ironically, Holzhauer took to Twitter on Sunday before the leaked clip went viral to say that his 4-year-old daughter was rooting for his win streak to end.
He was responding to a Washington Post article saying longtime “Jeopardy!” viewers are now rooting against him — the intended message was to “appreciate greatness.”
“Some people, particularly longtime ‘Jeopardy!’ viewers, are now rooting against James Holzhauer. This is preposterous. We’re supposed to begrudge him because he plays the game at the highest level ever? You want to see his genius disappear?” Post Sports tweeted, plugging the article.
Holzhauer replied: “My kid cried about the possibility of her dad losing, so I told her we could have a party the day after it inevitably happens. Now she cries when I win.”
My kid cried about the possibility of her dad losing, so I told her we could have a party the day after it inevitably happens. Now she cries when I win https://t.co/wuBEJtcP4J
— James Holzhauer (@James_Holzhauer) June 2, 2019
More from the newspaper on Holzhauer’s remarkable run:
Holzhauer’s response accuracy is 97 percent. He has thrown 11 perfect games — in which he never gave a wrong answer — including three in a row in Games 22 to 24; he also had back-to-back games of 44 for 44 and 43 for 43. He is 71 for 75 on Daily Doubles and 31 for 32 on Final Jeopardy.
The show may very well see a massive television audience Monday evening just to find out if what was seen in the clip is actually true.
There are some skeptics!
It was all over Reddit until the Mods deleted everything. Seemed fairly legit. That would have to be a pretty elaborate hoax.
— Ken Schannen (@kenschannen) June 1, 2019
Either way. the uncharacteristically low wager from Holzhauer stuck in the crawl of social media users, prompting plenty of online discussion.
https://twitter.com/Sammy6569/status/1135488542438809600
https://twitter.com/DupontCircleDC/status/1135153362985476096
That low wager seems fishy and his daughter wanted him to lose https://t.co/Eg1BjxfNSf
— Tzuriel Kastel (@TzurielKastel) June 3, 2019
He wagered the correct amount that would have won it for him should Emma answer incorrectly. If she answers correctly, he loses anyway. It was a smart bet. But she answered correctly, so it doesn’t matter.
— Ken Schannen (@kenschannen) June 2, 2019
If this is accurate- and there’s no reason to doubt it- I’m guessing he did not want to win. The wager was too low. He wasn’t trying to win. https://t.co/PIAvsqDcln
— George Carl (@georgecarl1955) June 3, 2019
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The longest-tenured writer at BizPac Review, Tom grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills.
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