Jeopardy! crowns Champions Wildcard winner as fans 'disagree with the standings' after 'worst player

Publish date: 2024-05-07

JEOPARDY! contestant Emily Sands has won the new Champions Wildcard tournament, but fans felt the other results needed a shuffle.

Despite Jilana Cotter's "monster comeback" in the two-part final, Aaron Craig - who didn't even compete in Final Jeopardy - placed second winning a bundle more cash.

Jeopardy!‘s two-game Champions Wildcard finals came to a fiery finish on Wednesday.

Emily - a project manager from Chanhassen, Minnesota - had the edge with a giant $30,400 from the previous game.

Aaron - an attorney from Toronto, Ontario - had $10,000.

Jilana - a senior data analyst from Dade City, Florida, who suffered two fatal mistakes in game one - had almost no shot with $3000.

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Their scores reset to zero to be combined with the previous episode at the end.

Jilana fought as hard as possible to compensate for her disadvantage, picking up $3,200 on a Daily Double and a giant $10,000 on another.

Aaron didn't fare as well and wound up in the red, so he was removed from the tournament's deciding Final Jeopardy clue.

Going into Final Jeopardy after a score change, Emily had $16,200, and Jilana incredibly led with $24,000- meaning it wasn't game over- while Aaron was off-stage.

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The clue under: "EXPLORERS" read: "Perhaps inspiring a line 2 centuries later, in 1774, he wrote that he was headed “farther than any other man has been before me.”

Aaron returned to the stage and was awarded his previous $10,000 from game one as a technicality as he pumped his fist.

His -2700 was not deducted from his combined total, and the crowd awkwardly clapped while the other final wagers and responses were revealed.

Emily was incorrect with "Magellan" giving her $11,799 and a two-day total of $42,199. 

Ken Jennings, 49, remarked: "It's all riding on Jilana's response" - because if she were correct and had gone all in, she still could have won the special.

She did go all in but was also incorrect with "Who Is Lewis," dropping all of her $24,000 to have a two-day total of $3000. 

Emily looked beside herself as she won $100,000 and a ticket to the next Tournament of Champions.

'SHE DESERVED SECOND PLACE'

Fans took to social media, impressed that the ladies were neck and neck and that Jilana still nearly won if she had been correct in a huge comeback.

But they were bothered that she earned third place overall ($25K) while Aaron got second place ($50K) despite performing way worse.

One fan wrote on Reddit: "Jilana absolutely deserved at least second for her gameplay the last couple days - devastating she finishes third because of essentially three big misses."

A second person wrote: "It's rare that I'm equally as happy for who won as equally as unhappy for who didn't. Stings to see Jilana get cut short in second place."

A third wrote: "It looked like Aaron just stopped trying to even buzz in for the final five or so questions of today's game!?"

A fourth posted: "Poor guy didn't even get to play final jeopardy but then ends up in 2nd?!"

A fifth wrote: "In my opinion you earned more than the 3rd place score on the scoreboard suggests."

A sixth applauded: "Jilana really almost accomplished that monster comeback and I honestly thought she would."

A seventh wrote: "Jeopardy would be the most riveting show on TV if they always had contestants as good and evenly matched as Jilana and Emily.

That was a nail-biter till the very end, and I wish there’s some way both of them could have won."

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And an eighth wrote about Jilana: "She did pretty good though. And she is going to have a baby in December! Wow, she should still be proud of how far she got as she was a Second Chance winner."

A seventh wrote: "Emily was just as strong as she was two and a half years ago and we finally have another woman in the ToC!"

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