For The Next Tournament of Champions in Jeopardy So Far The Future Is Female
Recapping Amy Hummel’s Five Game Run This Past Week on Jeopardy
When Season 39 came to a conclusion last July many fans were irked that Jeopardy would ‘allow’ a Tournament of Champions with only one female participant. While these fans clearly didn’t comprehend how you qualified for the Tournament of Champions, the fact remained that season there had been exactly one female contestant who had qualified for the Tournament Hannah Wilson, who won 8 games and just under $230,000.
Well, we’re less than a month into regular play in Season 40 and already we have more female contestants who have qualified for the next Tournament of Champions (whenever it happens) then in all of Season 39. Because less than a week after Alison Betts was defeated having won five games, Amy Hummel has punched her ticket in to that same tournament having completed a five game run of her own. Lisa Ann Walter won Celebrity Jeopardy earlier this year so if the rules that applied to this year’s apply to the next one that means so far the Tournament of Champions is an all-female affair.
Amy and Alison are essentially what we call very good Jeopardy players as opposed to the super-champions we’ve become accustomed to over the past three years. In that sense, it is as much luck as it is skill that leads to them winning five or more games, and much of the time it involves the failures of their opponents as there own success. This has certainly been true of Amy since the start of her run last Wednesday. There were few signs of it in her first appearance as she slowly worked to the lead in the Jeopardy round of her first match and while she did build a substantial lead in Double Jeopardy she then undid almost all the good work on a Daily Double late in the round that cost her $4000. Fortunately there were not enough clues left on the board to seriously threaten it and she went into Final Jeopardy with a relatively good lead with $13,200 to her opponents $9400 and $8600.
The Final Jeopardy category was HISTORIC TRANSPORTS: “Decorated with an illustration of the Montgolfier’s’ craft, the smoking room aboard this could be accessed only via an airlock.” All three players knew the correct response: “What is the Hindenburg?” and Amy won her first game with $18,900.
In her first defense of her title, she was challenged severely in the Jeopardy round by Tyler Jarvis who led throughout. However early in Double Jeopardy she pulled ahead helped by the first Daily Double in VOCABULARY: “Italian gives us this word for an outline of what could happen, also an old word for screenplay.” She knew it was a scenario, gained $3000 and built a lead she would never relinquish. She was helped by the fact that many clues went either unanswered by everyone and her dominance of the round. She had $18,800 at the end of Double Jeopardy, just enough to run away with the game.
The next game was tougher as challenger Dan Byrne led through the latter half of the Jeopardy round. But again early in Double Jeopardy she got to the second Daily Double ahead of Tyler.in BURIED AT ARLINGTON: “Interred in 1993, this Howard University law school grad led the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational fund early in his career.” She knew it was Thurgood Marshall gained $1500 and she built a large enough lead never relinquished. It wasn’t quite a runaway this time but she managed to get Final Jeopardy correct.
In her fourth game she really got lucky. She played decently against Ferdinand Percente in the Jeopardy round and they were tied at $3400 apiece at the end of it. In Double Jeopardy, however, everything went Ferdinand’s way. He got to both Daily Doubles made them both pay off for $9000 in total and only a late run by Amy kept Ferdinand from completely running away with the match. Even then going into Final Jeopardy the outlook wasn’t good: he had $21,600 to her $13,800.
The Final Jeopardy category was NICKNAMES. “Surfing legend Duke Kahanamoku has been called by this 2-word nickname that describes any dominant person or expert. Amy wrote down: “What is Big Kahuna?” That was correct and she nearly doubled her score. Ferdinand wrote down major domo and as a result Amy had come from behind.
Her fifth game against Bryan Carrasco and Laura Bligh started out in the Jeopardy round with everybody playing brilliantly. At the end of it Amy and Laura were tied with $4800 apiece and Bryan was only behind by $600. Bryan got off to a fast start in Double Jeopardy and had $10,200 when he found the Daily Double. He wagered everything and lost. Almost as if it were a signal, all three players began to collapse. Everyone started making mistakes and no one could give a correct answer in a category called THE GAP ON THEIR RESUMES. It was only because Amy got a $1200 clue in that category correct the same time Laura got it wrong that she was able to move into a tie for the lead with $7600.
The category for Final Jeopardy was FICTIONAL GROUPS. “Maybe because he was too Baroque, Bernini was rejected as a name for a member of this group created in 1983.” Bryan knew it was the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (all of whom are named for Renaissance artists) He doubled his score.. Laura wrote nothing down but she lost nothing. Amy knew it was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and bet everything to win her fifth game and cross over the $100,000 mark.
But luck eventually runs out for everyone and that luck ended yesterday. Going in against Weckiai Rannilla and Nils Cousin, Amy spent much of the Jeopardy round battling for her life. When it was over she was in third with 43000 to Weckiai’s $5600 and Nil’s $6000.
Amy spent much of Double Jeopardy trying to ring in ahead of Weckiai (Nils didn’t do much) and was at $7400 when she got to the first Daily Double in KISS & TELL: “The title character of this Puccini opera kisses her son goodbye before taking her own life with her father’s dagger.” Amy struggled before guessing: “Who is Carmen?” instead of Madama Butterfly. She dropped to $3400.
She got the other Daily Double two clues later in -OLOGIES. With little choice, she bet the $4200 she had: “Remove 2 letters from the study of weather to get this, the study of weights and measures.” Again she guessed: “What is meterology?” It was actually metrology.
Amy managed the moral victory of building back up to $3600 but she was had little chance of prevailing in Final Jeopardy. Weckiai had $11,400 and Brian was at $6400. Final Jeopardy dealt with EXECUTIVE ORDERS: “On November 15, 1961 JFK suspended the 8-hour workday at this agency, saying its work need to proceed ‘with all possible speed’.” Amy guessed: “What is the CIA?” Logical, she was thinking of Cuba but it was wrong and she lost all but a dollar. Nils also wrote down the CIA and Weckiai was thinking similarly with NORAD. It was actually NASA, in conjunction with the space race and Kennedy’s promise to man on the moon. Weckiai lost $1401 but that was enough to make her the new champion and end Amy’s run after five wins and $100,994.
Amy’s run may not seem remarkable in comparison with the one the more recent Jeopardy viewer has been accustomed to in the post-Trebek era but it has always been closer to the norm. It’s easy to forget since the galvanizing arrival of James Holzhauer five years ago which has led to the super-champions seeming to come every other day how rare they were in the fourteen years when Ken Jennings was simply playing the game rather than hosting it. Those who have wondered whether the recurrence of so many Jeopardy Tournaments would lead to supersaturation have forgotten — or more likely not have been watching long enough to know — that Jeopardy has been made far more of players like Amy Hummel and Alison Betts than they have Mattea Roach or Cris Panullo. It doesn’t make them any less good then the super-champions but it makes us realize just how difficult it is to win on Jeopardy as well as make us appreciate those super-champions even more.
And as this week marks the 2024 Jeopardy Masters debut, we will have a chance to appreciate these Masters again along with the new blood. I’ll begin reporting on that this week.