When it comes to actually appearing on Jeopardy! as a contestant, it’s said that perfecting your buzzer speed actually matters more than the categories that pop up on the board. That’s because the general assumption is that once someone makes it onto the Alex Trebek Stage, they have what it takes to answer the majority of the clues correctly. However, that was not the case on a recent episode, and producer Sarah Whitcomb Foss joked that they might want to forget that game ever happened, after the three contestants possibly set a particularly embarrassing record.
On the June 7 episode of Jeopardy!, Collette Lee and Kristine Rembach took on defending champion Suresh Krishnan, and the game must have featured two particularly tough boards, because more than one-third of the clues read by host Mayim Bialik in the Jeopardy! and Double Jeopardy! rounds went without a correct response. Sarah Whitcomb Foss made note of the cringey stat as she recapped the week’s games on the Inside Jeopardy! podcast with former champ Buzzy Cohen. She said:
One thing not so great about this game — and, actually, Kristine and Collette joked about it in the post-game chat — they were really hoping they wouldn’t go viral for leaving so much money on the board. In this game — this has to be a record — 23 triple-stumpers. And it’s something we never like to see.
The dreaded triple-stumper. The audition process to get on Jeopardy! is no joke. By the time contestants get the call to be on the show, they’ve often had even more time to brush up on topics they might be unsure of, making it fairly uncommon for there to be too many clues that none of the three players can figure out. Sure, triple-stumpers still happen, but on this night it happened on 23 of the 55 applicable clues. Buzzy Cohen agreed with the longtime producer, saying:
No, not good. You know, it’s the last game before lunch, maybe everyone’s a little sleepy or something? A little hungry, but, yeah, that’s a tough stat to carry with you.
Sarah Whitcomb Foss seemed to believe the players were out of the woods as far as their unfortunate stat going viral, and she didn’t think their brief mention of it on the podcast was enough to tip the scales. To be safe, however, they moved on quickly, as she and Buzzy Cohen both agreed:
We’ll forget it ever happened.
Yikes! That’s not exactly how you want to be remembered — or not remembered, as the case may be — by two pretty important people in the Jeopardy! realm. However, as far as going viral, I’m sure fans of the quiz show have seen worse in the ridiculous answers the contestants sometimes give — like the player who confused Michael Caine for Mick Jagger, or the TWO contestants who responded with “Diana Ross” for a Final Jeopardy! clue asking for a 95-year-old singer (who was 77 at the time).
As for triple-stumpers, one recent Final Jeopardy! clue that got the best of that episode’s contestants had Taylor Swift fans standing proud, as they were able to figure out the correct answer from lyrics in folklore’s “The Lakes.”
However, it wasn’t just the final clue that got these contestants, it sounds like the whole episode was full of tough questions.
Check local listings for Jeopardy! airtimes in your area to see if you can guess the correct answers to any future triple-stumpers, and also be sure to take a peek at our 2023 TV schedule to see what premieres are coming soon.