Jeopardy! fans rage Drew Goins got ‘short end of the stick’ after brutal loss in ‘thrilling’ Champions Wildcard finals

JEOPARDY! fans are furious that breakout star Drew Goins suffered a brutal loss on today’s Champions Wildcard finals and fume he ‘got the short end of the stick.’

The first of the two-day Champions Wildcard Tournament finals aired on Thursday and fans were shocked over the results after a “thrilling” final round.

Drew has garnered a passionate fanbase that has only continued to grow as season 41 continues and viewers were hoping he’d make it all the way in the postseason to the Tournament of Champions.

For Thursday’s game, the journalist from Hawaii went up against returning champs Mehal Shah, a software engineer from Seattle, Washington and Will Yancey, a lecturer of history from Banquete, Texas.

Drew, Mehal and Will all earned their spots in the two-day finals after dominating the preliminaries and semifinals of the tournament.

To kick things off, Will wagered $1,000 on the first Daily Double of the game under “Our Colorful World.”

However, he missed the clue: “This Maryland suburb of Washington, D.C. got its name from a stream lined with sparkling flecks of mica,” failing to write down “what is Silver Spring?” – losing $1,000.

By the time the Double Jeopardy! round approached, Will made up for his loss by garnering $4,800.

It was Mehal though who was in the lead with $5,200 while Drew remained in third with $2,800.

Will was able to find the second Daily Double under the category “ALLITERATIVE LIT.”

Will Yancy on a game show.
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Will Yancey during the Jeopardy! Wildcard finalsCredit: Jeopardy!

Mehal winning the first Champions Wildcard final game.
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Mehal wins the first of two games during the Champions Wildcard finalsCredit: Jeopardy!
Host Ken Jennings, 50, then read the clue: “Feeling familiar, Henry V says, ‘We few, we happy few, we” this group.’”

The contestant accurately replied with “What is Band of Brothers?” – adding $3,800 to his score.

Rounding out his trio of Daily Double findings, Will also snagged the third one under the category “JANUARY BABIES.”

“In 1929 at age 21 she finished second behind Jean-Paul Sartre in an advanced philosophy exam,” Ken read.

Jeopardy! abruptly stops airing as furious fans complain they ‘missed’ breakout star Drew Goins snagging runaway win
Will lost $3,000 when he failed to respond with “Who was Simone de Beauvoir?”

Heading into Final Jeopardy!, Mehal was in the lead having scored $15,200.

Will remained in second with $11,600 while Drew was closely behind with $10,800.

BETTIN’ BIG

Ken introduced the last category as “World Geography” as the players placed their wagers – where Drew can be seen dancing to the famous Jeopardy! think music.

Mehal and Drew both accurately wrote down “What is Ural?” as Mehal made the biggest wager of the trio.

After betting $12,000, he secured the largest amount of points heading into tomorrow grand finale by winning with $27,200.

Drew pushed up to second with $17,600 while Will dropped to third with $5,600.

Jeopardy! Contestant Rules

Passing Jeopardy!’s online Anytime Test is hard enough, but there are also many rules players must follow once they make it to the stage:

The returning champion is always at the leftmost podium and keeps playing until they lose.
Contestants don’t have to say “who is” or “what is” in the first round but must do so in Double Jeopardy! and Final Jeopardy.
Contestants can change their responses as long as Ken Jennings or the judges haven’t made a ruling.
The minimum wager for a Daily Double is $5. The minimum wager for Final Jeopardy! is $0.
Written responses in Final Jeopardy! do not have to be spelled correctly, but they must be phonetically correct (the judges decide this).
If there’s a tie after Final Jeopardy, the tied players enter a bonus clue shootout, and whoever buzzes in first correctly wins.
If all three contestants wager everything in Final Jeopardy! and are incorrect, leaving them with $0, there will be no returning champion (it’s happened before—six times).

Though Drew’s Jeopardy! journey is still not over as he can make a comeback tomorrow, fans were still disappointed he lost while praising Mehal for his gameplay.

“Nooooo Drew I was rooting for you! I’m glad he still has a chance tomorrow,” one viewer wrote.

Another said: “Between three players who have had ample time to get used to buzzing in at the right time, Drew got the short end of the stick, but the FJ get and his past dominant games could indicate a big comeback tomorrow.

“Will’s not out of this either: if he was able to find all three DDs in this game, it’s certainly not impossible that he could repeat that in game two. Anything could happen tomorrow, basically!”

“This is top level Jeopardy! Thank you, Drew, Mehal, and Will, for making this a thrilling final,” an admirer exclaimed.

Tomorrow’s Champions Wildcards final part two will mark the conclusion of the tournament.

The winner will go on to face other top players in the game at the most prestigious showcase of the franchise, the Tournament of Champions.