‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Call Out Issue With Final Clue & Contestant’s Costly Mistake

ABC

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Tuesday, December 10 episode of Jeopardy!]

Jeopardy!’s bungee-jumping returning champ Bill McKinney pulled off a second win on Tuesday night after a turbulent match that resulted in low scores for all parties involved. An opponent struggled despite the advantage of finding all three Daily Doubles (which Ken Jennings made abundantly clear), and fans also pointed out that the Final Jeopardy question was a bit of a deja “clue.”

McKinney, a VP of restaurants & bars originally from Boston, Massachusetts, entered with a one-day total of $22,000 after an all-out runaway last episode, outplaying two-day champ Dave Bond. He faced Dan Sand, a law student from Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, and Sara Walker, a family & sports medicine physician from Brighton, Michigan.

In the Jeopardy! round, no player decisively pulled ahead. Sand immediately located and flubbed the “Who Wants History?” Daily Double which was seeking “Pizarro,” finishing the round with $2,000. The champ had $4,000, and Walker had a narrow lead with $4,800.

In the Double Jeopardy, Sand missed the second Daily Double dropping $3,000 drawing a blank on the “Adjectives” clue seeking “Adamant.” He found the last one, and Jennings remarked, “So far they haven’t gone your way.” “They have not,” Sand admitted, wagering and gaining $2,000 on the “A ‘W’ For Science” clue seeking “Wavelengths.” Given his up-and-down Daily Double journey with no one fully taking control, the scores into Final Jeopardy wound up with McKinney in the lead at $12,000, Walker at $8,800, Sands at $7,800.

The “Presidential Candidates” clue was, “The running mates of this candidate included John Kern, Arthur Sewall, and Adlai Stevenson.” It was a triple-stumper as no one correctly responded “William Jennings Bryan.” Dropping half his score, McKinney survived the scare to win with $6,000 for a two-day total of $28,000.

Fans took to the Reddit thread for the episode celebrating the ongoing champ for winning a topsy turvy game and observing that the Final Jeopardy clue was also used as a Daily Double earlier this season.

“Wasn’t Jennings Bryan a DD answer this season? Also very curious triple stumper. I was deciding between Bryan and Clay,” one fan wrote.

“On September 11, 2024, yeah,” confirmed another.

A third also noticed as much, “A clue that covered similar territory to today’s FJ was a DD just three months ago, although in the DD they gave the subject’s first name in the clue.”

In that episode, a Daily Double was indeed also seeking “Williams Jennings Brian.” The clue was phrased just slightly differently: “Twice to one William & once to another William, this William ran & lost 3 times.”

Other fans in the thread pointed out that Sands made a costly mistake, not with his Daily Double woes that seemed to consume much of the game but with his near-all-in wager from a second place position in Final Jeopardy. The wager was ill-advised because if he had opted to bet more conservatively, he still would have won the game.

“Given how close Sara’s score was to Bill’s, a better strategy for Dan would have been a bet of no more than $1,400, which would likely give him the win on a Triple Stumper,” wrote a fourth.

“I like Bill,” a fifth simply stated.

What did you think of the game? Did you know Final Jeopardy? Do you think Bill McKinney can keep it up and win his way into the (2026) Tournament of Champions given the 2025 ToC cutoff is up? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!