There’s a little bit of a controversy brewing after the Season 41 finale of Jeopardy!, and champion Scott Riccardi is trying to shut it down.
The engineer from New Jersey was on a 16-game winning streak until a Final Jeopardy question in the July 25 episode cost him the whole game. Some fans are theorizing that he intentionally gave a wrong answer, and Scott just weighed in on the drama.
Did Jeopardy! star Scott Riccardi purposely lose?
The Final Jeopardy question that stumped Scott fell under the extremely vague category of “20th century names.” The clue hinted at publisher William Randolph Hearst.
“According to one obituary, in 1935 he owned 13 magazines, eight radio stations, two movie companies, and $56 million in real estate,” read host Ken Jennings.
Scott incorrectly guessed that Howard Hughes was the answer to the clue, and it cost him the game. Meanwhile, fellow competitor Charlotte Cooper got the question correctly, as did Jonathan Hugendubler, who became the new Jeopardy! champion.
The moment left the longtime viewers feeling puzzled, and they questioned if Scott intentionally answered incorrectly. After 16 weeks, why did William Randolph Hearst leave him stumped? The fact that the stunning loss happened during the Season 41 finale also seemed suspicious. However, Scott replied to fans on Reddit to clear up any confusion.
“My mind unfortunately went straight to Howard Hughes mostly due to overestimating the importance of the movie companies part of the clue,” Scott wrote. “Any previous FJs that had come to mind immediately had worked out, so I trusted my initial response on this.”
He continued, “Hearst wasn’t on my mind at all until the moment Charlotte’s answer was revealed, and even then it didn’t immediately strike me as correct until Ken confirmed it.”
According to Scott, Hearst just happened to be a blind spot in his vast wealth of knowledge. The winning streak had to end at some point, and this just happened to be how it went down. No funny business here.
Scott concluded his message with a “thank you” to the fans who have been following his journey on the show. He walked away with $455,000 and will return for the Tournament of Champions. In the meantime, we’ll assume he’s brushing up on factoids about all of the Williamses in 20th-century publishing.
Jeopardy! returns with new episodes on September 8. Check your local listings.
TELL US – WERE YOU SURPRISED BY SCOTT’S LOSS ON JEOPARDY!? DO YOU THINK A PLAYER WOULD LOSE ON PURPOSE?
