‘Jeopardy!’ Contestant Speaks Out After ‘Most Exciting Interview Story Ever’

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Wednesday, March 12, episode of Jeopardy!]

Although there was a returning champion on Jeopardy!, fans think that the most exciting part of the episode was another contestant’s interview story. She told host Ken Jennings that she saved a man from drowning.

Returning champion James Corson from Frederick, Maryland, faced off against Kristen VanBlargen from New York, New York, and Brian Nieves from Gambrills, Maryland.

VanBlargen took an early lead when she found the first Daily Double of the game. Under the category “Bestselling Fiction,” the clue read: “John Updike put his most famous character to bed in this 1990s bestseller that won a Pulitzer Prize.” “What is Rabbit at Rest?” VanBlargen answered, bringing her total to $1,600.

However, for the next two questions she answered, she was incorrect, so she went down to $0. By the first commercial break, Corson and Nieves were nearly tied with $3,200 and $3,000, after consecutively answering questions correctly.

During the interviews, Nieves, a substitute teacher, revealed that an episode of The Amazing Race was filmed at his college, and he got to meet the host, Phil Keoghan. Corson, a nuclear engineer, shared that he bought stamps with former host Alex Trebek on them and promised his wife that if he ever made it on Jeopardy!, they would send out Christmas cards with him on the game show and use the stamps.

VanBlargen is a writer and “self-described hero.” She told Jennings that she was hanging out at a reservoir in North Carolina with some friends. “I decided to go swimming but didn’t have a bathing suit with me. My friend and I decided to swim across to the other end without clothing on, came back, and a man who had consumed too much whiskey was drowning, so we took him and brought him to shore,” she said.

“This guy was having the evening of his life!” Jennings said. VanBlargen assured the host that the man was alright, and he thanked her for helping the drowning man.

Reddit users thought that VanBlargen’s story was the most interesting interview ever on the game show.

“Kristen might have had the most exciting interview story ever. Action, danger, nudity! Then James talks about stamps, that’s me IRL,” one fan said.

By the end of the first round, Nieves was in the lead with $5,000. Corson wasn’t too far behind him with $4,600. VanBlargen trailed with $800.

VanBlargen made it a stiff competition as she answered multiple questions correctly, bringing her to $6,400. Nieves found the first DD in Double Jeopardy!. He wagered $6,000 from his $6,600 bank and got the question wrong, bringing him down to $600 and third place. Corson found the second DD of the round and made it a true Daily Double. “In a 1930s interview, Lead Belly urged folks to ‘stay’ this. ‘keep their eyes open’; Now it’s common slang,” the clue read. “What is woke?” Corson answered correctly. He took the lead with $11,600.

It was a fight for first place as Corson and VanBlargen correctly answered question after question. By the end of the round, Corson was in the lead with $18,800. VanBlargen was in second with $14,000. Nieves had a total of $6,600. But, anything can happen in Final Jeopardy.

The category for Final Jeopardy! was “Author’s Other Works.” The clue read: “In an 1833 story by her, an alchemist’s assistant drinks a potion giving internal life but ends up seeing all he loves die.” “Who is Shelley?” Nieves answered correctly. He wagered $4,600, giving him a final total of $11,200. VanBlargen also answered Mary Shelley. She wagered $4,801, giving her a total of $18,801. Corson answered correctly as well, wagering $10,000, and ending with a final total of $28,800, making him the night’s winner.

He will be back on Thursday, March 13, to try and win his third-straight game against two new contestants.

VanBlargen opened up about her opponents on Reddit after the game. “After facing Brian and James in rehearsals and spending the first half of the day in the green room with them, I knew they were the two players I least wanted to go up against—which says a lot, considering how stacked our taping day was,” she said.

“When the crew said our names, I decided I wasn’t going to win. The first board should have been perfect for me: literature (my strongest area), film, etymology, food, and bodies of water (a topic I had studied extensively in the six weeks leading up to the show). But despite finding the first Daily Double early on, I got off to a rough start. I buzzed in on Barton Fink, blanked on the title, and then said a movie that didn’t even fit the category. I became frustrated when I couldn’t buzz in on the literature clues. The only times I managed to buzz in were when no one else knew the answer—myself included—leading to frequent negs.”

“I was still more confident on the buzzer in DJ, and I’m happy with how I did, even if it didn’t go my way. My biggest regret is that my time as a Jeopardy! contestant came to an end just as I was finding my rhythm,” she concluded.

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