[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for the Thursday, July 24, episode of Jeopardy!]
While most Jeopardy! fans are focused on Scott Riccardi‘s amazing 15-game streak, others were angry over a Daily Double clue that they deemed “the worst ever.” Did it affect Riccardi’s game, who is now eighth on the all-time winning chart in regular gameplay, according to the Leaderboard of Legends? Read on to find out.
Riccardi, from Somerville, New Jersey, played against Senay Goitom, from Madison, Wisconsin, and Sarah Rubenfeld, from Houston, Texas, on Thursday, July 24. The super champion currently has a total of $430,400. Will he reach $500,000?
Riccardi, an engineer, completely obliterated his opponents during the first round. By the time he found the Daily Double on clue 15, he already had $7,000 while the other two game show contestants were in the red. Riccardi wagered $3,000 in “Kid Lit En Español.” The clue read, “Nublado con proegabilidades de albóndigas.” “What is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs?” he answered correctly, giving him $10,000.
During the interviews, Rubenfeld, an attorney, shared an amazing story. Her great-aunt got her whole family out of Austria during the Holocaust. She then became a spy in Berlin during the Cold War.
“Either of those could be an epic movie, and she did both of them,” host Ken Jennings said.
By the end of the round, Riccardi had $13,000. Rubenfeld was in second with $1,400. Goitom, a software engineer, finally got out of the red with $600.
In Double Jeopardy, Rubenfeld found the first Daily Double of the round. She had $3,800 and made it a true Daily Double. In “I’m Bored,” the clue was “A word meaning boring gave us this name for a boring burg that we can’t find in our atlas.” Rubenfeld didn’t give an answer before the buzzer sounded.
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“Yeah, that’s a tough one,” Jennings said. The correct answer was “Dullsville.” Rubenfeld dropped down to $0. Fans weren’t too happy with the 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,” a Reddit user said.
“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,” a fan replied.
“This is a quibble, but I think it dates to the 60s, so I’d say maybe it was more of a phrase that came out of hippy jargon?” a third wrote.
“It’s old hipster slang, which they should have indicated in the clue,” said another.
“What quality standards? lol. Sarah should be invited to Second Chance, if not for facing such a poor DD clue she would have put up a very impressive score against Scott,” wrote a fan.
The last DD of the game didn’t go any better. Riccardi found this one with a total of $21,400 in his bank. He wagered $5,000 in “A Sense of Henri.” The clue read, “This Florence-born woman, a major force in 16th c. Europe, was the wife of French King Henri II & the mother of Henri III.” Riccardi folded his arms and hesitated to answer. At the last second, he said, “Who is Maria Theresa?” which was wrong. He dropped down to $16,400, since the correct response was Catherine de’ Medici, but he still maintained the lead.
By the end of the round, Riccardi held the lead with $20,400. Rubenfeld had $7,600. Goitom finally out of the hole with $1,800.
The final clue in “Theories” read, “A version of this theoretical economic process was ‘horse and sparrow’ – if you fed the horse enough oats, the sparrows fed afterwards.” The correct response was trickle-down economics. Goitom wrote, “What is consumer surplus?” He wagered $1,800, giving him a final total of $0. Rubenfeld got it half right with “What is trickle down?” The game show accepted it. She wagered $0, giving her $7,600. Riccardi answered correctly and wagered $3,690, giving him $24,090.
Scott Riccardi has a 16-day total of $455,000. He is now tied for consecutive games won with Ryan Long, who accomplished that in 2022. If he wins tomorrow, he will break the tie and become the tenth-place contestant. Riccardi has to beat 19 games to move into ninth place. He had $77,496 to go until he becomes seventh place overall in regular game play.
Tune in tomorrow for the last game of the season to see if Riccardi can get his streak going.
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