‘Jeopardy!’: Ken Jennings Exclaims ‘Wow,’ Not Once But Twice!

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Ken Jennings has been around the block a few times, so it’s not easy to catch the Jeopardy! host off guard. However, during the Monday, July 7 episode of the game show, the quizmaster let out not one, but two surprised “wows” thanks to two very impressive contestants.

Returning champion Scott Riccardi, an engineer from Somerville, New Jersey, came back to defend his title after two scintillating wins, bringing with him a two-day cash total of $68,000. He wrapped up Friday, July 4, game with an impressive $54,000, which “in fact, [was] the second-highest score we’ve seen all season, behind only Will Yancey in Champions Wildcard,” commented Jennings. (When asked what he planned to do with his winnings, the music-loving Riccardi said he would buy a marimba.)

At the start of the game, Riccardi pulled into an early lead when he hit a Daily Double and risked his entire amount of $2,200 on “Watery Responses.” The clue read, “Sort of like ‘Between the Devil and the deep blue sea,’ this phrase with two not-great options means ‘no matter what.’” Riccardi quickly responded, “What is ‘Come hell or high water?’” Jennings was quick to praise the returning champion, “That’s the phrase!” Riccardi’s total was then $4,400, well above the challengers, tutor and bowling alley attendant Ashley Caval Curto’s total of $1,400 and lawyer Vince Carter’s sum of $400.

After the break, Riccardi might have had the most impressive bank, but it was Carter who stole the show with his personal story. He delivered what Jennings called the “perfect Jeopardy! anecdote” when he told a witty account about bowling with an archduke. “He was a classmate when I did my year abroad in Madrid,” said the South Pasadena resident. “One day we were chatting over a beer afterwards, and the question of his last name came up, and he said, ‘Oh, it’s Habsburg.’” Apparently, his grandfather was the last emperor of Austria. Even Jennings was impressed with Carter’s bowling buddy’s royal lineage, “Wow. The Habsburgs.”

But the real kicker? Carter continued that as impressed as he was with his friend’s family ties, his royal friend was equally impressed with his. “And as interested as I was as a history student that he was a Hapbsburg, he was just as interested that my uncle had worked on Knight Rider.”

After the break, director James Gunn made an appearance in the appropriately titled “DC Universe With James Gunn” category, where he shared a story and an answer, “I went online and searched: What’s the dumbest DC character of all time and I found a character who first appeared in Detective Comics #300 named Polka Dot Man. I love him so much that I made him part of my Rogue’s Gallery in this 2021 movie.”

Riccardi answered incorrectly with, “What is Suicide Squad?” When no one else responded, Jennings explained that Riccardi had missed a key word. The correct answer was THE Suicide Squad. 

By the end of the first round, Riccardi had pulled ahead with $8,800, while Carter had $4,800 and Ashley had $3,200.

In Double Jeopardy!, after a rapid-fire round in which all the contestants had a chance to prove their mental mettle, Riccardi found the first Daily Double of the round in the category “20th Century Lit” for $2,000. He wagered $5,000, which would have pushed his total from $13,200 to $18,200: “Chapter I of Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged’ begins with this famous four-word question.” Riccardi answered with no problems, “Who is John Galt?” The answer gave him the lead he needed to pull far and ahead of his competitors.

Third-place player Curto found the second Daily Double, which was in the category of “Some Econ” for $2,000. She bet $4,000 of her $8,400 total and a chance for the second place spot with the answer, “Milton Friedman held that this portmanteau that hit the U.S. economy in the 1970s marked the end of ‘naive Keynesianism.’” She got the answer correct, bringing her total to $12,400 and moving up ahead of Carter with the question, “What is Stagflation?”

At the end of Double Jeopardy, just before the contestants entered Final Jeopardy, Carter received a bit of good news. The judges accepted his response of “trade balance” to an earlier clue, allowing his total to increase by $1,600. All three contestants advanced to Final Jeopardy, with Riccardi at $25,000, Carter in second place with $14,000, and Curto in third with $11,600.

The Final Jeopardy category was “Movie Music,” with the clue, “The last two Best Song Oscar winners whose titles were the same name as the movie they were in had this man in the leading role.” Curto went first with a wrong answer of Timothee Chalamet. She wagered $7,400, which dropped her total from $11,600 to $4,200.

Carter wrote, “Who is Daniel Craig?” which was correct, as he starred as James Bond in both Skyfall and No Time to Die. His wager of $11,001 brought his total to $25,001, giving him a one-dollar lead over Riccardi.

The nail-biter ending was then handed over to Riccardi, who needed a correct answer to retain his status as Jeopardy champion. “Who is Daniel Craig?” appeared on his podium, confirming his title was safe for now. With a wager of $3,001, Riccardi’s total rose to $28,001, securing his third consecutive win and a three-day total of $96,001, a number that earned another “Wow” from host Jennings.

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