Jeopardy! priest Kevin Laskowski pulls off rare season 41 move and secures ToC spot after ‘botching’ pricey Daily Double

JEOPARDY! champion Kevin Laskowski has pulled off what’s become an incredibly rare move for season 41 as he secures a highly-coveted invite despite ‘botching’ a pricey Daily Double.

After winning Wednesday’s game, the three-day champ will officially compete on the upcoming Tournament of Champions – a feat few players have been able to pull off this year.

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Episcopal priest Kevin Laskowski wins his third game of Jeopardy!Credit: Jeopardy!

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Ken Jennings smiles during the interview segment of Wednesday’s gameCredit: Jeopardy!
The Episcopal priest from Falls Church, Virginia went into today’s game already a two-day champ with earnings of $39,400.

He went up against Julia Schan, a stay-at-home mom from Pleasanton, California and Drew Wheeler, a high school social studies teacher from Athens, Georgia.

Drew was off to an impressive start an garnered an early lead which only increased when he found, and correctly guessed, the first Daily Double.

Heading into the first break, Drew had the lead with $2,900 while Kevin and Julia were far behind with $600 and $200, respectively.

However, Kevin was able to make up a lot of ground by the Double Jeopardy! round.

The returning champ was in second with $3,400, just $100 behind Drew while Julia upped her score to $1,600.

Kevin was next to find the second Daily Double in the $1,600 clue under “E BOOKS” and nearly lost everything in a shocking wager.

“This nonfiction Pulitzer winner is subtitled “Poverty and Profit in the American City”; the title happened to many families,” host Ken Jennings read.

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Jeopardy! players from left to right: Kevin Laskowski, Drew Wheeler, Julia SchanCredit: Jeopardy!
The contestant was unable to correctly guess: “What is Evicted?” – dropping his score $3,000.

Julia found the third Daily Double but like her opponent, she also missed it – costing her just $1,000.

After her opponents ended up making several bold wagers that they lost, Julia moved her way to the top to gain the lead heading into Final Jeopardy!

As host Ken, 50, revealed the last category as “State Songs”, the players placed their wagers.

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“Its 15 official state songs include 2 that mention moonshine and 3 played in 3/4 time,” Ken revealed.

Kevin and Drew both correctly wrote down: “What is Tennessee?”

Drew ended his game in second with $8,700 while Kevin prevailed with $13,599 after a series of costly mistakes.

Despite having the lead going into the final round, Julia was the only one to get her answer wrong – dropping her down to third with $3,599.

The third win for Kevin earned him a milestone achievement that few others have pulled off during season 41.

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).

Typically, Jeopardy! players need to win five consecutive games in order to score a Tournament of Champions invite – the spinoff special that brings back past winners to score an even bigger prize.

However, due to so few people being able to achieve that, contestants who win just three games this season will be able to go to the prestigious tournament.

“Ayyy Kevin’s in the TOC let’s go,” one viewer celebrated.

While another offered more insight: “So, that leaves one TOC spot unclaimed and returns the CWC to two open spots.

“(Or one, we still don’t have 100% confirmation on Adam but, sheesh, could he really have missed by $200?). Only six qualifying games left.”

“They all botched their Daily Doubles but especially Kevin yikes. That one hurt,” a fan commented.

“In the slowest season in modern history, we can all rejoice there’s a champ who made it to day three. Congrats Kevin!” another wrote.

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The church worker garnered up nearly $53,000 in his three-day totalCredit: Jeopardy!

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Ken Jennings hosting last year’s Tournament of ChampionsCredit: Getty