JEOPARDY! champ Adriana Harmeyer eked out an incredible come-from-behind 13th victory on Friday when many fans were convinced her run was over.

In a stunning Final Jeopardy twist, Adriana snatched the win from second place, causing jaws to drop and questions about the frontrunner’s wager.

Adriana Harmeyer entered Final Jeopardy in second place for the first timeCredit: ABC

She was the only player correct, winning her most exciting match yetCredit: ABC

Frontrunner Kaitlyn made a wager that wouldn’t have won her the game if she had also been correctCredit: ABC
Ken Jennings began the match by commending Adriana for her “three weeks” as champ—a feat few viewers had expected.

The competition was fierce, with challengers Kaitlin Tarr and Susan Ayoob putting up a ferocious fight.

In the Jeopardy! round, Adriana caught fire, amassing $7,200 and hitting a $1,000 Daily Double, while Susan had $3,000 and Kaitlin $3,800.

Double Jeopardy! saw Kaitlin take the lead but lose $3,000 on a Daily Double after confusing “viva” with “salud.”

Kaitlin regained the lead with the correct response of “malaria” on the last Daily Double, adding $2,000.

She retook the lead again on the second-to-last clue, setting up a neck-and-neck finish.

‘BIGGEST SCARE YET!’

Heading into Final Jeopardy!, it looked like the West Lafayette, Indiana archivist was history, sitting in second place.

Kaitlin had $12,800, Adriana $12,400, and Susan $10,200.

The final clue was in the category “1960s AMERICA”: “Helping draft an executive order in 1961, Hobart Taylor Jr. almost used the word ‘positive’, but instead chose this alliterative phrase.”

Susan answered with “?” and wagered everything from third place, which Ken commented was “probably the smart bet,” though that’s debatable.

Ken noted that for the first time in her run, Adriana did not lead heading into Final Jeopardy.

She correctly answered “Affirmative Action” and added $8,100, taking the lead with $20,500.

Kaitlin, who also responded with “?”, wagered only $410, leaving her with $12,390.

Adriana shook her head in astonishment as she emerged victorious in a nail-biting finish.

“Adriana Harmeyer survives her biggest scare yet!” Ken exclaimed over her 13-day total of $299,000.

‘WHAT WAS WITH THAT WAGER?’

Fans flooded social media, praising Adriana for her hardest-fought win yet while criticizing Kaitlin’s Final Jeopardy wager.

Kaitlin’s small, non-cover bet meant that even a correct answer would have resulted in a loss.

“WHAT A FINISH!!! And what was with the wager by the first-place contestant going into final?” one Facebook user asked.

“Adriana would have won even if Kaitlin had been correct, as she made a tiny bet, apparently hoping for her opponents to miss,” another Redditor wrote.

“Adriana’s gonna be tough to beat so long as she continues to get FJ correct. Granted, in this case, since Kaitlin didn’t bet enough to cover, it wouldn’t have really mattered if she had been correct,” noted a third.

“I’ve gotta be honest, I assumed Adriana was done once I saw the FJ clue. I’m very surprised she squeaked through!” rejoiced a fourth.

Other fans highlighted Adriana’s remarkable 10/13 record on Final Jeopardy, which has become her secret weapon.

“Adriana is a monster at FJ,” another said.

“85% right after 13 games is phenomenal; most super champs average in the 70s or lower,” a sixth pointed out.

Adriana can enjoy her third weekend as reigning Jeopardy! champ and will go for her 14th win on Monday’s episode.

PLAYING IT OLD-SCHOOL

Adriana has been on a roll since May 31, 2024, and is now Season 40’s first super-champion.

Fans are going wild, as it’s been over a year since there’s been a 10-plus-day winner, the previous being 13-day champ Ray LaLonde last January.

If Adriana wins a 14th game, she’ll have the longest streak since 21-day champ Cris Pannullo last fall.

However, Adriana plays nothing like Cris, who went a vicious 48 for 49 on Daily Doubles.

Jeopardy!’s Adriana Harmeyer praised for ‘sneaky’ tactic for winning as fans reveal moment that got them ‘yelling at TV’
Adriana has an old-school strategy that sets her apart from all other streakers in the post-Holzhauer era.

She is a rare, top-down player who refuses to hunt for Daily Doubles.

Instead, she’s only found 13 of the 36 hidden clues in her streak, and she doesn’t bounce across the board to find them.

This lets the other contestants find the Daily Doubles and fall on their swords by missing them with big bets.

She relies on pure knowledge, going an astounding 305 correct and 33 incorrect on clues overall.

“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!”

On the Inside Jeopardy! podcast, staffers also talked about Adriana’s refreshing, old-school style.

“Yeah, we haven’t really had someone who’s played as straight-ahead. I know Alex [Trebek] would have loved a player like Adriana.”

The other qualifiers for the next Tournament of Champions (all female) are five-day winners Alison Betts and Dr. Amy Hummel and Celebrity Jeopardy!’s Lisa Ann Walter.

That said, with four wins, Grant DeYoung and Amar Kakirde will likely join in as well.

LIFE LEADING TO JEOPARDY!

Adriana is a clinical assistant professor and archivist of University History in Purdue University’s Archives and Special Collections.

She’s married to her supportive husband Neal, whom she bonded with in 2013 over a love of learning. He’s been in the audience for her run, and they share a son.

Her Q&A stories have shed light on her Jeopardy! journey, in which she’s shared how intensely she’s been preparing for this moment all her life.

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

She also read an entire “gently used” World Encyclopedia collection – as a child.

She recalled “disappointing” failure to make the cut as a Teen Week contestant, though the wait certainly is paying off.

She also credited her late grandmother, whose necklace she’s been wearing, with getting her into Jeopardy! as they watched religiously.

During her 12th win, she shared that her dream for her earnings is to become a librarian, which made Ken laugh because it’s just so…Jeopardy.

That said, Adriana took the show’s online test for fun 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,” she said in a recent interview.

“I didn’t expect anything to come out of it – I just thought of it as another fun internet quiz.”

Jeopardy! airs at 7 pm Eastern on ABC – check your local listings.

Adriana Harmeyer looked astonished as one fan wrote, ‘Adriana is a monster at FJ’

She’s gone 10/13 on Final Jeopardy! and Ken Jennings will see her on Monday for