Contestant Kyle Harvey is criticizing himself for not getting the Final Jeopardy! clue on the episode that aired on April 14

A Jeopardy! contestant laments on a Jeopardy! subreddit about his wrong answer on Final Jeopardy (
Image: Jeopardy!)

Kyle Harvey is ‘kicking himself’ for not getting the Final Jeopardy clue in tonight’s episode.

The civil engineer from San Antonio, T.X. faced off against Jade Snelling, an archivist from Blacksburg, V.A. and three-day champion Andrew Hayes, a law student originally from Tupelo, M.S. on Monday’s (April 14) episode. Kyle was holding his own on the ABC trivia game show and maintained a second place lead in the game not far from Andrew. Before entering Final Jeopardy!, The Texas resident had $13,200 while Andrew was at $17,600 and Jade had $5,600.

The category for Final Jeopardy! was “American Authors” and the clue read: “Like a character in one of his novels, this author hid in a meat locker during an Allied bombing.” Kyle unfortunately got the answer wrong, and wrote: “Who is [Joseph] Heller?” Kyle had wagered $1,999 and was brought down to $11,201. The correct answer was “Who was Kurt Vonnegut?” which Andrew and Jade got correct. Jade score went up to Jade $8,800 and Andrew ended up winning the game as his already high score increased to $26,401 with his $8,801 wager. Andrew became a four-day champion with a total amount of $98,603.

On the Jeopardy! subreddit for the April 14 episode, Kyle took to the comments to reflect on the game and share his frustrations with himself at not getting the Final Jeopardy! clue correct, especially as he was familiar with Vonnegut and his novel Slaughterhouse Five.

Kyle guessed author Joseph Heller instead of Kurt Vonnegut ( 
Image:
Jeopardy!)
Kyle began his post by congratulating Andrew for his fourth win and being closer to earning a spot at the Tournament of Champions (TOC). He also mentioned that while there wasn’t a lot of time to “mingle” with the other contestants, the small bit of conversation he had with Andrew in the green room had Kurt saying he seemed like a “really nice guy, easy to root for.”

He went on to say that his worry when competing was making a “catastrophic mistake that would haunt” him forever when he eventually lost. But that wasn’t the case as he called the moment “a pretty soft landing.”

“I got myself in position to win with an Andrew miss in Final but it just wasn’t to be and not having uncovered any of the Daily Doubles and missing Final myself it’s not like I can say I really deserved to win anyway,” Kyle said.

“Regarding that Final, I have been KICKING myself since tape day. I completely missed two huge clues that would have led me immediately to Slaughterhouse Five, and therefore Vonnegut; the meat locker (in the moment I processed it as ‘somewhere odd’ which led me to Catch-22 since it’s more of a comedy), and the bombing being done BY the Allies,” Kyle continued, highlighting his Final Jeopardy mistake.

“I know Slaughterhouse Five and Vonnegut really well so I’m kind of aghast at having whiffed so bad. It wouldn’t have changed the result at all so there’s some solace in that but I feel I’m usually pretty solid at Final Jeopardy at home so it would’ve been nice to nail the only real one I’ll ever get, especially one that in hindsight looks rather straightforward,” he added.

Kyle concluded his lengthy post by saying, all in all he had “as awesome of an experience” as he imagined. He elaborated that he got to be on his “favorite show” which he said many can’t say that as people have tried for years and decades to get on and they never do which has made him “appreciative” of the opportunity. Kyle further said, “[I] tried my hardest to prepare in the weeks leading up to tape day to make sure I was worthy of the spot.”