[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the March 16 episode of Jeopardy!]
Going into the March 16 episode of Jeopardy!, Stephen Webb had a couple of streaks going: He was a seven-day champ who had thus far won $175,282, and he hadn’t found a Daily Double in the last three games. So how did he do when it came to both?
Well, even host Ken Jennings remarked on Stephen’s woes when it came to Daily Doubles at the start of the show. “Although our champion Stephen Webb is performing very well here on the Alex Trebek Stage, his skill at tracking down Daily Doubles does not seem to be quite at the same level of mastery,” he said. “Consider this: In his last three games, Stephen has not managed to find a single one of the Daily Doubles available. And yet, he won each of those games very convincingly, so take heart, Andrew and Sarah, he’s good, he’s very good, but the key to defeating him may lie in the three Daily Doubles in the game ahead.”
And the latest episode became the fourth straight game for Stephen without finding one. Instead, it was one of the new contestants, Sarah Mathews, who found all three (and got them all correct); she broke a tie with Stephen with the first and ended the Jeopardy! round in first.
Though Sarah got both Daily Doubles correct in Double Jeopardy!, Stephen still ended it in first, with $22,4000 over Sarah’s $17,600, while Andrew Brady was out since he was in the red, with -$2,000. (Jennings again remarked on Stephen’s lack of Daily Doubles while commenting on his score with, “he did it the hard way, didn’t find a single Daily Double again, for the fourth day in a row.”)
Both Stephen and Sarah got the Final Jeopardy! question, in the category 1980s Movies — “A writer & producer of this movie said he wanted it to be like a Western or James Bond film, ‘only it takes place in the ’30s’” — wrong. (The correct answer was Raiders of the Lost Ark.) But Sarah’s wager of $15,000 dropped her to $2,600, while Stephen ended the game with $9,599. His eight-day total is now $184,881.
Following the episode, Stephen went on Reddit to share his reaction to the streak he wants to put an end to, starting with a GIF from Futurama, I’m so tired of partying, so very tired” from Slurms MacKenzie. “How I felt after my fourth straight game without a Daily Double, which has to be some kind of record,” he wrote.
One viewer noted, “[Stephen] needs to be more aggressive in the DD finding Stat! If he ever needs to extend his win,” with another adding, “this was an incredibly frustrating game to watch! Players (especially Stephen) starting at the top of columns or going back to the previous DD category instead of DD hunting.”
But another fan had a different perspective: “It’s pretty cool to see a champ continue winning without getting any boosts from Daily Doubles though. There’s a novelty factor to it that I think is pretty fascinating.”
Viewers on Twitter have also shared their reactions to Stephen’s troubles with Daily Doubles and Jennings’ responses.
why does ken keep coming for stephen during every intro? ???? #jeopardy
— ami | gap the series (@lalisasyves) March 16, 2023
Grudge match between Stephen and Sarah, especially after that consecutive category-run then Daily Double. #Jeopardy #mkt343 #DailyDouble
— Henry (@hjwthinks) March 16, 2023
Also on Reddit, in reply to a question about how his performance lines up to his expectations ahead of his run on Jeopardy!, Stephen shared, “I played a game of ‘what would I do with the winnings from these scenarios,’ and I sorta stopped at 2 days and about $40k in winnings, if that tells you anything. I did not come into it thinking I’d be one of the higher seeds in the Tournament of Champions.”
Jeopardy!, Weekdays, Check local listings