Jeopardy! contestant reveals surprising reason he couldn’t sing out loud on show as baffled fans say ‘I had no idea!’
JEOPARDY! contestant Mike Flanagan has explained what happened during his Daily Double attempt on Thursday’s episode.
The recent Jeopardy! episode saw Mike taking on reining champion Adriana Harmeyer and scientific technician Hakme Lee.
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Thursday’s Jeopardy! contestant Mike Flanagan explained that he ‘choked’ during one Daily Double as he gave the incorrect answer of ‘Favorite Son’Credit: Jeopardy!
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Mike explained that he was attempting to sing the song in his head and was unable to do so out loud due to copyright issuesCredit: Jeopardy!
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Mike said the moment will ‘haunt him to the end of his days’ as he came in third behind Adriana and HakmeCredit: Getty
At one point, Mike, a non-profit executive from Winchester, Massachusetts, scored a Daily Double in the “Pulitzer Prize-Winning Biography” category.
Being in third place with a total of $4,800, Mike placed a $2,000 bet.
The clue read, “Also a CCR song, the title of this memoir by Vietnam vet Lewis Puller Jr. refers to having a legendary general as a dad.”
As host Ken Jennings read the clue aloud, Mike was seen closing his eyes and rocking his head up and down.
After appearing to move along to a beat, he then paused before incorrectly answering, “What is favorite son?”
Ken then replied with the correct response, which was “Fortunate Son.”
MIKE’S RESPONSE
On Reddit, some viewers discussed the episode, with Mike himself chiming in to explain what happened during the Daily Double.
The contestant defended himself after one person wrote in the thread, “HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW FORTUNATE SON, MIKE.”
Mike said he had “choked” during the question and wasn’t able to sing the song aloud due to copyright infringement.
“Hey, this is Mike. You are totally right here. This one will haunt me to the end of my days,” he explained.
Jeopardy!’s Ken Jennings accused of ‘screwing over’ contestant with ‘tricky’ question as fans say it’s ‘not fair
“All I can say is that I prepped really hard for many things, but I did not (could not?) prepare for the moment where everything stops and all eyes are on you and you have to do math and then get the clue.
“If you rewatch (I don’t recommend it, but it you were inclined) you’ll see me nodding. That’s me singing the song—’It ain’t me, It ain’t me. . .’ but also knowing I can’t sing it out loud because of copyright.”
Mike also said the contestants were told not to sing anything out loud the morning of the airing, adding that he “just choked and ran out of time.”
“Again, no excuses. This was a choke. If it had not been a DD, Adriana would have swooped in and nailed it, I’m sure,” Mike added.
Jeopardy! Universe
Jeopardy! first aired in 1964 until 1975. Then the nighttime version began in 1974. Since then, many spinoffs of the game show have emerged. Here they all are:
Jeopardy! – (syndicated) 1974 to present, weekdays on ABC at 7 pm ET.
Tournament of Champions – 1984 to present, features the top champions who have appeared on the show since the last tournament.
Second Chance Tournament – 2022 to present features hand-selected non-winners from the season prior, where the prize is entry into Champions Wildcard.
Champions Wildcard – 2023 to present, features all one, two and three-day champions from the season prior worth entry into the Tournament of Champions.
Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament (syndication) – 2023 to present, features past greats invited by producers to vie for a slot in Masters.
Jeopardy! Masters (primetime) – 2023 to present, features the six highest-ranked Jeopardy! champions competing against each other.
Celebrity Jeopardy! (primetime) – 1992 to present, has celebrities compete against each other to raise money for charity.
Pop Culture Jeopardy (streaming) – 2024 to present, will feature teams of three tasked with pop culture trivia on Amazon Prime, host and airdate TBD
Jeopardy! has done away with specialized tournaments like its College Tournaments, Kids Week, and Professor’s Tournament to gear towards a more sports-like model, with Masters being the top of the Jeopardy pyramid.
Other versions of Jeopardy! have fizzled out throughout the years as well, like Sports Jeopardy!.
The game ended with Adriana securing her 11th win with $19,800, Hakme coming in second with $6,200, and Mike ending with $5,126.
On Friday, Adriana continued her impressive streak and grabbed her 12th win against Susan Ayoob and Kaitlin Tarr.
SCREWED OVER?
While Mike may not have guessed correctly for his Daily Double, some viewers thought he was snubbed during another moment in the episode.
In the Daily Double 3, Ken asked Mike to select a category, opting for “Foreign Words and Phrases.”
“In the KFPU (‘Kung Foo Panda’ Universe), Dustin Hoffman voices this role, Mandarin for ‘Master,'” the prompt read.
Mike quickly buzzed in with the answer, “What is Sifu?”
Ken said the answer was incorrect, which made Mike clearly disappointed.
After the other contestants were unable to answer, Ken then noted how close Mike’s guess was to the correct answer, which was, “What is Shifu?”
Many viewers thought Mike was given an unfair shot, with one tweeting out, “Mike got screwed with sifu/shifu.”
“I didn’t think it was fair to call his answer incorrect,” another wrote on Reddit.
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Adriana Harmeyer ended up securing her 12th win at the end of the week, continuing on her impressive streakCredit: Jeopardy!
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Another moment from Thursday’s episode had fans slamming Jeopardy! as they believed Mike’s answer should have been counted as correctCredit: Jeopardy!
