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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Wednesday, December 4 episode of Jeopardy!]
Jeopardy!’s bolo-tie-boasting champ Stevie Ruiz clinched his second win on Wednesday — thanks partly to another surprising wager. But unlike his savvy $413 Final Jeopardy bet that won him his first game (his lunch order, who knew!), an opponent’s strategically questionable move took her out of the running.
Ruiz, an assistant front office manager from Montauk, New York, entered with one-day winnings of $17,987 off his well-played conservative wager in the previous match. He faced Gloria Nastas, a retired healthcare policy analyst from Troy, Michigan, and Kimberley Debus, a Unitarian Universalist minister from Takoma Park, Maryland. Ken Jennings reminded the players we’d seen a carousel of one-day champs recently, setting the stage for another potential upset.
In the Jeopardy! round, Ruiz pulled ahead, bolstered by a Yeezus-era Kanye West Daily Double, he had $7,600. Debus, who scored laughs with a peppy story about an Ethel Merman impersonation, held $3,000, and Nastas had $1,200.
In Double Jeopardy!, Ruiz aced the second Daily Double, adding $2,000 to his leading score by knowing the “Movie Creatures” clue was “Creatures From The Black Lagoon.” Suddenly Debus crept up and mounted a serious second-place score. She had $10,600 to Ruiz’s $16,800 when she found the last Daily Double with less than a minute left. Then, things hit a serious snag.
“Oh dear,” she said upon landing on it. “Less than a minute, Kimberly,” Jennings reminded her. “Let’s do $4,000” she said, surprising fans. The “Real Sob Story” clue was, “She sobs a lot, but imprisoned unjustly & sexually harassed by Frollo, she has just cause.” Debus did not have a guess, dropping her to $6,600.
Soon after, as Debus seemed to wallow in the moment using some of the remaining minute to lament over finishing the category from the miss, Ruiz got control back, sealing his runaway and the time ran out with three clues left. He sailed into Final Jeopardy with $18,000, Debus with $8,600 and Nastas with $1,600.
The “20th Century” Final Jeopardy clue was, “This country’s national radio launched in 1925; 14 years later, it fell into a long silence following a piano nocturne.” Ruiz and a spirited Nastas were correct with “Poland.” The former wagered $0 to win with $18,000 for a two-day total of $35,987. “Very nice!” Jennings closed.
Fans on Reddit were stunned by Debus’ Daily Double wager, pointing out it was too conservative to have given her the lead even if correct—and with under a minute left, it was so large that a miss meant elimination.
“I’m sorry for Kimberly, who played well and was a fun contestant. But that DD3 wager must be one of the most ill-advised we have seen all season,” one Redditor wrote.
“Very often a trailing contestant is seemingly afraid to go big, but probably feels compelled to bet at least something. That leads to situations like in this game, when correct answer doesn’t really give you any extra advantage and incorrect answer greatly reduces your chances, sometimes to zero,” wrote another.
“With how badly the category had gone to that point AND with Ken giving the one-minute warning, I thought for sure Kimberly would default to a 2,000 wager or less. Alas, she didn’t,” wrote a third.
“Less than a minute left in the round, and the woman in second place is stalling and taking her time. In the end it would not have mattered, but that was not smart. Gave herself no chance to make Final Jeopardy relevant,” wrote a fourth on YouTube.
“It felt like the game screeched to a halt towards the end of DJ–from clues 18 to 24 (including DD3), there was only 1 correct response. Ouch,” wrote a fifth Redditor. “Stevie played very well, but Kimberley was cleaning up on the 2000 row–she got 4/5 of the revealed clues there!”
The second victory for Ruiz means he’ll be bringing his “Fast Fashion” to Champions Wildcard, if not the Tournament of Champions if he wins one more.
What did you think of the game? Were you surprised by Kimberly Debus’ Daily Double wager? Think Stevie Ruiz can keep it up? Have you watched Pop Culture Jeopardy!? Let us know in the comments section below!
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