Jeopardy! super-champ Cris Pannullo erases fan fears he’s ‘rusty’ after a long hiatus by scoring his 12th win
JEOPARDY! super-champ Cris Pannullo has returned in full force on Tuesday after an unbelievably long time.
He won his 12th match and erased fan fears he’d be “rusty” since tournament season aired instead for five weeks and change.
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G.O.A.T contestant Ken Jennings is hosting regular Jeopardy! againCredit: ABC
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Cris Pannullo returned to form and his go-to sweaterCredit: ABC
The returning champ faced Etienne Lepine, a software engineer from Lafayette, Colorado, and David Stiasny, a pediatrician from Highland Park, Illinois.
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Cris, a customer success operations manager from Ocean City, New Jersey with a professional poker past, won game after game since coming to the table in early fall.
But if it felt like just yesterday that Amy Schneider won the 2022 Tournament of Champions, that’s because it was.
And if it’s felt like forever since Cris has played, that’s because it has been.
The game show paused his terrific tear for the winner’s tournament and new, prior Second Chance Tournament on October 17th.
So Cris’ 11th win was a longer break than any Jeopardy! 10-plus game-winner has waited. It was at least five weeks if not two months, given the delay between taping and airing.
One fan hilariously tweeted as the game began: “Oh, Cris! I forgot about him. Looking forward to watching again today.”
Another wondered: “Will Cris pick up the dominance he had before the tournaments? Or will he be rusty?”
“Cris is the ‘customer success manager’ — that’s right, now I remember!” tweeted a third fan.
‘WELL-FOUGHT GAME, BUT…’
Neither Ken Jennings, 48, nor Cris wasted any time. Cris won his 10th runaway game total, meaning by Final Jeopardy no one could catch him.
Cris first wagered a big $5000 on a Daily Double and got it.
He led at every commercial break and by the last round had $29,400 while David had $10,400 and Etienne $8,400.
Ken admitted: “Well fought game by all three of you but a big lead for Cris.”
The Final Jeopardy clue under “Musical Theater” read: “The pair at the center of tumult in this long-running show were originally to be a Jewish girl & a Catholic boy.”
Both Cris and David missed it and Chris dropped $5,221 but won with $24,179.
Cris grinned and shook his head as it was revealed he wrote “Tony and Tina’s Wedding” – the correct response being “West Side Story,” though his long intermission proved no curtain call.
The star has a huge 12-day total of $380,881 and will go for his 13th win tomorrow which would tie the 10th longest Jeopardy! streak ever.
‘HE’S BACK’
One fan applauded on Reddit: “Welcome back Cris Panullo, welcome back regular Jeopardy!, welcome back runaway games. It’s been a while for all of them!”
Another wrote: “Loved the Tournament of Champions but Jeopardy Cris is back in my life and I’m not mad about it. ”
A third celebrated: “Cris is BACK baby. Been a bit since a runaway!”
“Refreshing to see regular Jeopardy! again and I am glad to have Cris back. I was enjoying his run immensely,” wrote a fourth fan.
As a fifth person wrote: “Really missed regular Jeopardy. I can’t even really articulate why I don’t like tournament play as much, but I don’t. And yay Cris!”
“He’s Back,” a sixth simply declared.
WAITING IN THE WINGS
With a 94% accuracy on clues, often going right for the bottom of the board – fans have called Cris a “machine.”
He has a rabbit named Lentils with his girlfriend Heather of 10 years, correcting Ken quite sternly earlier that no, you cannot feed rabbits the beans he’s named after.
The immensely good contestant typically flashes a thumbs up as his winnings are shown at the top of each game.
Cris stopped by the Inside Jeopardy! podcast when his streak was halted and told producer Sarah Foss:
“I plan on enjoying my time off, spending time with [my girlfriend] Heather and [our rabbit] Lentils and visiting family”.
Nearly every other super-champ doesn’t have their run interfere with special yearly tournaments – they just have to keep competing until they lose.
After Amy Schneider’s 13th win, she had two weeks off from competing in what would become a 40-game $1.3M run (second-longest to only now-host Ken).
But that was three weeks shorter than Cris due to this year’s new tournament format.
Ken will hop aside from the iconic game show in January so that co-host Mayim Bialik can take the reins.
As Season 38 wrapped, he and actress Mayim – now handling Celebrity Jeopardy! – were officially announced as the permanent replacements for the late, great Alex Trebek.
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Cris Pannullo has returned 5 weeks since his last episode – longer than any Jeopardy! super-champ has waited in historyCredit: ABC
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One fan wondered: ‘Will Cris pick up the dominance he had before the tournaments? Or will he be rusty?’ – the correct response was the first scenarioCredit: ABC
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He won his 12th game and his 10th runaway one day after Amy Schneider won the Tournament of ChampionsCredit: AP
