What is a really bad game of Jeopardy?
Only one contestant was left standing for final Jeopardy, making for an awkward end to an intellectual massacre Thursday night.
The biggest loser finished the game down $6,800. Another fell into negative territory just before the final buzzer. Because final Jeopardy excludes players with a negative balance, that left just Kristin Sausville of Newark, Delaware to play the last round.
Alone.
Host Alex Trebek said it wasn’t Jeopardy’s finest half-hour:
Sausville could have bet $0 and scribbled anything on the board to win the game. Instead, she bet $2,000, got the final jeopardy question wrong and won anyway.
Sausville defended her competition on Twitter:
To anyone snarking Stephanie and Brad: you had better ace the #JeopardyOnlineTest soon. Put up or shut up. It wasn't a good game for anyone.
— Kristin Sausville (@ksausville) March 13, 2015
According to the Wall Street Journal, the last time a player played final Jeopardy solo was in 2011. Rarely, no one wins the game.
Unlike the 1997 Simpsons episode "Miracle on Evergreen Terrace," Trebek doesn’t demand payment from contestants who finish with a negative balance.
They do that on Wheel of Fortune.
Gavin Stern is a national digital producer with the Scripps National Desk.
