Jeopardy! fans call out 'way too easy' clue as 10-day winner joins elite club (2024)

JEOPARDY! contestant Adriana Harmeyer reached the double digits on Tuesday with a tenth win and $225,700 total, the only downside being a remarkably easy final clue.

Adriana is now a super-champion or a contestant to win ten or more games straight - there have only been 17 others in Jeopardy! history.

The West Lafayette, Indiana, archivist was back for more after what Ken Jennings called her "narrowest victory to date" last episode.

She faced off against Math teacher Scott McCann and audiovisual archivist Sarah Hartzell.

While she came in with the longest streak in over a year, she came out with icon status.

After the Jeopardy! round, surprisingly, she trailed with $3,400, while Scott led with $5,000 and Sarah had -$600 after a Daily Double miss.

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"Close game," Ken remarked as the ice-cold champ faced heated competition from Scott.

In Double Jeopardy!, Sarah missed the second Daily Double, while Adriana missed the third, dropping $3000 from her lead.

Nonetheless, she rallied and held a slim lead going into Final Jeopardy with $14,400 while Scott nipped at her heels with $10,200 and Sarah $5,400.

The U.S. GEOGRAPHYclue read, "Of the 10 U.S. States with 2-word names, this one stretches the farthest south."

Everyone was correct with "New Mexico," and Adriana added $6,600 to win $21,000 for a tremendous ten-day total.

'WAY TOO EASY!'

Fans flooded social media, celebrating Adriana's sudden ascent to super-champion status (or "stay-tus" as Ken put it), though they wished she'd reached it on a harder final clue.

"Wow, I thought FJ was way too easy! I was trying not to overthink it," one Redditor wrote.

"I was sure that New Mexico was a trick, thought maybe South Carolina had some islands that went down the coast and they were trying to be sneaky," wrote another.

"I was watching this episode with my mom, who does not know much about geography. Even she thought this was easy," wrote a third.

Others put their grievances about the jarringly easy clue aside to rejoice in the milestone moment.

"Sweet, first double-digit champion in almost 2 years! Go Adriana!" a fourth fan wrote.

"How long has it been since we’ve seen double digits? I like it," wrote a fifth.

"Yaaaaaaaas Adriana!! Super champ status!!" wrote a sixth as a seven agreed, "Adriana is killing it"

The champ now boasts the longest winning streak since 13-day winner Ray LaLonde last January.

'AUTHENTIC' ADRIANA

Adrianais a clinical assistant professor and archivist of University History in Purdue University's Archives and Special Collections.

She's been going strong since arriving two weeks ago, and now boasts the longest streak and earnings of Season 40 by far.

Everyone is loving her run since there hasn't been a big streak for so long, and she's just crushing it.

"Adriana is impressive, likable, and fun to watch. I'm going to predict a 20-game run. Hoping for even more. Go, Adriana!" one fan recently wrote on X.

"Adriana is killing it and I love her retro vibe, like she stepped off the set of the Mary Tyler Moore show," wrote another.

"Adriana is so cool I bet she doesn't even sweat," wrote a third.

A fourth posted that she's also a welcome change from the trivia titans from tournament season.

"I much prefer contestants like Adrianna over Yogesh.

"One would assume that much if not most of Adriana's knowledge comes from her studies and work.

"I prefer seeing her do well over someone like Yogesh, who you know studies lists all day long and have never really experienced life.

Adriana gives off a vibe of authenticity."

STRATEGY 'ALEX WOULD HAVE LOVED'

Adriana has also opted for arare strategy that fans rarely get from a big winner in the post-Holzhauer era.

She is a traditional player who competes top-down (heaven forbid!) and has not been Daily Double-hunting.

She has only found ten of the 27 hidden clues, refusing to bounce across the board, and when she finds them, she bets light.

"Adriana is a sneaky ice-cold player. She's not DD-hunting that much and not very aggressive with her wagering but by the end of DJ, she has a runaway game!" one fan recently wrote on Reddit.

"Just pure buzzer skill and huge knowledge base. I hope she continues her streak, I would love to see how far she can take this!"

Instead, she's relied on pure knowledge alone, going 238 correct and 28 incorrect on clues overall and eight for 10 on Final Jeopardy!.

Producers talked about the refreshing gameplay style on the podcast Inside Jeopardy! on Monday.

“Yeah, we haven't really had someone who’s played as straight-ahead as Adriana," Buzzy Cohen pointed out.

"I know Alex [Trebek] would have loved a player like Adriana," producer Sarah Foss said.

"Because there was nothing he appreciated more than a player who took a category in order."

Her Q&A stories have shed light on her Jeopardy! journey, including not making the cut as a Teen contestant.

She honed her chops on a '90s CD-ROM version of Jeopardy! starting when she was seven. She only stopped playing the game after the disc broke in half.

She credited herlate grandmotherwith getting her into Jeopardy! and has been wearing her cameo necklace as a lucky charm.

'FUN INTERNET QUIZ'

Adriana said in a recent interview that she took the show's online test on a limb and was blindsided to be contacted a few weeks later.

"I had taken the online test a couple of times before, but this time I'd went online one evening and took the test for fun."

"I didn't expect anything to come out of it - I just thought of it as another fun internet quiz."

Herhusband Neal has been in the audience for her record run, she also revealed in another interview.

"Watching her in that way was an absolute privilege," he shared.

Adriana is the frontrunner for the next Tournament of Champions, which will be in 2025.

So far, the other qualifiers for the next ToC (all female) are five-day winnersAlison BettsandDr. Amy HummelandCelebrity Jeopardy!'s Lisa Ann Walter.

That said, with four wins,Grant DeYoungandAmar Kakirdewill likely join the fray as well.

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She will face two new challengers tomorrow night to go for win 11; to wit, no contestant has ever lost on game 11.

Jeopardy! airs at 7 pm ET on ABC - check your local listings.