JEOPARDY! champ Adriana Harmeyer pulled out a breathtaking 15th win on Tuesday, which Ken Jennings made abundantly clear he was unsure she’d do.
Adriana once again won the nail-biter game off her Final Jeopardy prowess, leaving the audience and fans at home gasping.
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It was anyone’s game going into Final Jeopardy which was looking for ‘Beirut’Credit: ABC
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Ken Jennings singled out Adriana Harmeyer, who ‘looked at this one for a long, long time’
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A stoic Adriana needed to get it correct, and she did, making for a thriller 15th winCredit: ABC
Ken, 50, opened June 18’s match by praising her “phenomenal” strength in Final Jeopardy, having gone 12 for 14 on the crucial clues.
This stat proved clutch as the West Lafayette, Indiana archivist faced Drunk History’s Mark Gagliardi and speech teacher Colleen Matthews.
In the Jeopardy! round, Adriana stormed ahead once more with $6,800, Mark had $2,800 after a $2200 true Daily Double miss, and Colleen $3,400.
During the interviews, Colleen shared that she moved to a New Mexico school based on a murder mystery book, which elicited gasps.
In contrast, Adriana shared that she and her husband had their first date over drinks (specifically tea).
In Double Jeopardy!, things got competitive as both challengers put their game faces on and amassed big scores.
‘LONG, LONG TIME…’
Colleen got to both remaining Daily Doubles, but she got them both incorrect—the second especially painfully, as she knew the author.
Colleen also nearly got into first place on the last clue but mixed up her Flemish cities – that said, it still was no runaway for Adriana.
Even after the three big misses, Colleen had $10,600, Adriana narrowly led with $13,600 and Mark had $7,200.
The “GEOGRAPHIC NAME’S ALMOST THE SAME” clue was, “Legend says in 1876 a dragon built for the “Ring” cycle had its neck sent to this Mideast capital, not the right German city.”
Mark was very incorrect, dropping to $5, and Colleen aced it as “Beirut” and took the lead with $14,400.
It all hinged on Adriana as Ken singled her out with a surprising remark.
He pointed out how she looked unsure during the 30 seconds and didn’t write anything down until the end.
“Adriana has been lights out on Final Jeopardy, but she looked at this one for a long, long time,” he bluntly said.
Adriana revealed that she did, indeed, come up with “Beirut.”
“At the last second, she did!” Ken exclaimed as the audience gasped.
Adriana added $10,000 to win $23,600 for an incredible 15-day total of $349,600.
“She just keeps going!” Ken added as she shook her head and smiled in disbelief herself. “Great game from all three.”
‘UNBEATABLE!’
Fans flooded social media, amazed by Adriana’s remarkable streak, and pointed out that her wins are thrills because she often doesn’t have a runaway but gets Final Jeopardy every time.
“That game was very stressful because we love Adriana,” one Redditor wrote.
“Wow, even without runaways, Adriana seems unbeatable right now at this point,” wrote another.
“It’s so fun to watch because usually, the super champs have runaways daily, but Adriana is just that good at FJ, so it doesn’t matter,” wrote a third.
“In regular play, Adriana is the 2nd person in the show’s history to have at least 11 consecutive FJ’s correct (James Holzhauer is 1st at 27),” observed a fourth.
“The only way I see Adriana losing at this point is if she is trailing going into FJ and the leader doesn’t miss cause Adrianna is nearly perfect in FJ. There is no way I see her losing from the lead,” wrote a fifth.
“What I really like about Adriana is the fact that her play-style feels relatable to watch as a viewer,” a sixth fan agreed.
“There’s no DD seeking, all in wagers, or any crazy stuff like that. It’s simply buzzing in quickly and just knowing the content really well.”
A seventh wrote, “Colleen is kept from winning the game because she missed two of the Daily Doubles. She had a higher Coryat than Adriana as well. Thus is the power of eleven consecutive FJ gets!”
Yet another predicted, “Adriana will surely get a Masters spot next time between ToC, JIT, and producer pick.”
And one more joked, “They’re going to have to rename the Second Chance Tournament the ‘Contestants who came in 2nd to Adriana’ tournament lol.”
SLAY-DRIANA HARMEYER
Meanwhile, Adriana first arrived on May 31’s episode and has held court all of June, making her Season 40’s first super-champion.
Fans are going wild, as it’s been nearly two years since there’s been a 10-plus-day winner, the previous being 13-day champ Ray LaLonde.
Adriana has now outlasted Ray and now has the longest streak since 21-day champ Cris Pannullo in fall 2022.
However, Adriana plays nothing like Cris, who went a vicious 48/49 out of 66 Daily Doubles.
Instead, 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.
She’s only found 14 of the 42 hidden clues in her streak, and she doesn’t bounce across the board to find them.
She relies on pure knowledge, going an astounding 305 correct and 33 incorrect on clues overall and 13/15 on Final Jeopardy.
“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.”
“It has been refreshing to see this and to watch her be so successful in doing it, and wanted to know what a category means before she gets to the heart of clues.”
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.
‘WRONG’ ABOUT STEREOTYPE
In a new interview on Monday, Adriana spoke on her newfound TV fame.
She blasted the stereotype surrounding her home state of West Virginia.
Adriana spoke to The Parthenon about the Appalachian stereotypes surrounding education.
“They’re wrong, like, they’re completely wrong. I personally don’t see any reason to let things stop me,” she said.
“There are excellent people everywhere, and I hope that more people will try to do things that they’re interested in.”
Adriana will go for her 16th win on Wednesday’s episode, which would tie her with Ryan Long for the 10th-longest streak ever.
Jeopardy! airs at 7 pm Eastern on ABC – check your local listings.
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Adriana Harmeyer looked astonished and the audience gasped when she prevailedCredit: ABC
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She’s gone a bewhildering 13/15 in final as one fan wrote, ‘Adrianna is nearly perfect in FJ. There is no way I see her losing from the lead’Credit: ABC
