BREAKING NEWS : Jeopardy! speechless that Ken Jennings will be hosting the new Champions Wildcard tournament instead of the usual episodes

Jeopardy! fans speechless after player John Bussard throws away game with ‘terrible’ bet in ‘endless’ new tournament

JEOPARDY! contestant Kendra Blanchette has won Wednesday’s episode, but it was largely due to a rival’s “terrible” final wager.

John Bussard had enough money from second place to win but bet $0, and what’s worse, he was the only one correct.

Ken Jennings is hosting a new Champions Wildcard tournament instead of regular episodesCredit: Jeopardy!

Final Jeopardy was looking for ‘Pulitzer,’ and only John was correct, so he would have wonCredit: Jeopardy!

But he chose to bet nothing as fans roared: ‘Terrible wager by No. 2 contestant!’ and ‘John…come on man’Credit: Jeopardy!
Former champion Ken, 49, is hosting a two-and-a-half-month Champions Wildcard Tournament.

The special kicked off on Monday, inviting back one, two, and three-time winners from Season 37 and 38.

By Final Jeopardy!, Kendra, a three-time champion and dietician from Elk Grove, California, proudly wearing her insulin pump for type 1 diabetes visibility – had $23,200.

Evan Roberts, a chemistry teacher from Louisville, Kentucky – had $6000.

John – a Marine aviator in uniform from Ringoes, New Jersey – had $14,200.

Under “American Immigrants,” it read: “His 1904 will stipulate that ‘all the sums hereinbefore specified for prizes shall be used for prizes only.’”

Final Jeopardy was especially crucial for John as he still had more than half Kendra’s score, so he could still win.

‘INTERESTING…’

John was the only one correct with: “Pulitzer?” as in Joseph Pulitzer.

However, he decided to wager $0.

Ken remarked: “So you’re going to add to that- oh, you won’t, you bet nothing, interesting.”

Kendra, like Evan, was incorrect with “Nobel” dropping $5,201 to have $17,999.

But because John didn’t wager enough – or anything – she won.

“As it turns out, that’s enough, congratulations!” Ken said as Kendra let out a sigh of relief.

FANS REACT TO BAD BET

Internet users were left stupified because John’s wager didn’t make sense any way you slice it.

One fan wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “The zero wager made zero sense #Jeopardy.”

Another wrote: “Goodness gracious! Another MAJOR boo-boo by this #Jeopardy contestant. Can’t he count? All he needed to do was double his total and deduct the total of the leader to know how much he needed to win, if he gets the reply correctly and the leader doesn’t.”

A third wrote: “Geez, what was up with that Final #Jeopardy wager?”

A fourth wrote: “Terrible wager by No. 2 contestant!” and a fifth: “John…come on man.”

One Reddit fan wrote: “Does nobody know how to bet properly?

A second person replied: “Yeah, Kendra does, which is precisely why she won.

“John apparently didn’t realize that a 0 wager from 2nd place only works if you have more than 2/3 of the leader’s score.”

A third fan wrote: “Wowzers. Interesting end to the match. I wonder what John was thinking with that FJ wager.

A fourth knocked: “They obviously don’t teach wagering strategy at Marine aviator school. I’m speechless. I am without speech.

A fifth penned: “Kendra won because of a suboptimal wager by John. I think the two people who were wrong in FJ! forgot the category Immigrants, as I don’t think Nobel immigrated to the US.”

GET CLUED IN ON CHAMPIONS WILDCARD

Champions Wildcard has invited back a massive 108 past players and is a brand new tournament.

It includes the three winners from the Second Chance Tournament, which kicked off Season 40 last month.

Each leg of the special will feature 27 contestants, with nine quarterfinals, three semifinals, and a two-part finals where one winner will emerge.

Then, the slate will be wiped clean, and there will be three more rounds, each running for three weeks.

There will be four winners by the time Champions Wildcard ends on December 18.

Each gets a $100,000 grand prize and a 2023 Tournament of Champions slot.

The 2023 Tournament of Champions begins airing on December 19.

Kendra won instead and will advance to the semifinals of the controversially lengthy specialCredit: Jeopardy!

Champions Wildcard runs until December 18, with 4 ToC slots on the lineCredit: Jeopardy!

WHERE IS: MAYIM BIALIK?

Aside from not having new contestants or regular episodes, another big change to Season 40 is the co-host arrangement.

Ken is hosting almost the entire season solo, and Mayim Bialik is not involved as it stands.

She bowed out as a member of SAG-AFTRA, a big shakeup since she and Ken were tapped to split hosting after Alex Trebek’s death in 2020.

“It’s not for me to personally judge anyone else’s decision [but] I am a union supporter,” Mayim told Vanity Fair last Friday in her first public statement.

The other major change is the questions.

The game show is re-using clues from past seasons while without its writers, who are returning this week.

Showrunner Michael Davies explained on the “Inside Jeopardy!” podcast that it “wouldn’t be fair to have new contestants making their first appearance” on the show with material that isn’t original or that was written pre-strike.

“The material that we’re gonna be using is a combination of material that our WGA writers wrote before the strike, which is still in the database and material that is being redeployed from multiple, multiple seasons of the show.”

Davies also announced a $1000 bump in consolation prizes and said that he admires and misses the show’s beloved writers.

The news caused a scathing response from Masters winner James Holzhauer, who took to the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to call out the show at the time.

“If you don’t have time to listen, here’s the executive summary of today’s announcement,” James, 39, wrote, sharing a link to the podcast episode.

“1:00-2:00: Jeopardy’s writers are invaluable and we couldn’t produce the show without them,” he continued.

“2:00-15:00: Here is how we will produce the upcoming season without them.”

WHEN WILL REGULAR EPISODES BE BACK?

Execs also explained the updated timeline on the latest episode of the podcast Inside Jeopardy!.

Even in light of the now-resolved Hollywood Strikes, Mayim, nor regular contestants, will be back for quite some time.

This 2023 ToC will be longer than in years past and feature its own Second Chance competition, another Champions Wildcard, and finally, the actual ToC.

They shared that tournament play is the “Number one priority” and “We will have 16 weeks of regular episodes at the end of the year.”

That means we won’t see new contestants until April, with just four months of regular play this year out of 11 months.

One person reacted on Reddit: “Apparently, we’re not getting any regular Jeopardy! until April 2024. Nearly two-thirds of this season will be tournaments. So yeah, way, way too much.”

“Oh my god, is it really until April? That’s absolutely wild,” wrote another.

Because Mayim doesn’t host tournament play she will most likely return in April with new contestants.

Ken and Mayim were tapped as Alex’s replacements in 2022, and that’s not the only big change to the beloved trivia show.

EP Davies took over as showrunner in 2021 after the disgraced Mike Richards was ousted- filling a role that hadn’t changed hands before them in 20 years.