Jeopardy! contestant Donna Matturri fumbles lead in shocking final round as Tournament of Champions ‘finally’ approaches

JEOPARDY!’s Champions Wildcard continued on Monday with the Tournament of Champions fast approaching and yet another frontrunner fumbling at the finish line.

Fan-favorite contestant Donna Matturri blew her sizable lead on a Final Jeopardy! misstep that had to hurt.

Jeopardy! fans were shocked by how Donna Maturri lost the gameCredit: Jeopardy!

She was the only one not to know Final Jeopardy! was the pivotal civil rights law Title IXCredit: Jeopardy!
The Columbus, Ohio, librarian faced Dan Wohl, a high school history teacher from Brooklyn, New York, and Sriram Krishnan, a consultant from Falls Church, Virginia.

Champions Wildcard Group 2, featuring brief winners from the season prior, is in the midst of its competitive quarterfinal round.

The contest’s winner joins Group 1’s Juveria Zaheer in claiming $100,000 and a coveted ticket to the upcoming Tournament of Champions.

With the stakes never higher, the former two-day champ led after the Jeopardy! round with $4,900, Sriram $4,800, and Dan $2,200.

In Double Jeopardy!, Donna built a big lead on the first Daily Double but didn’t go all in. Then, she didn’t hunt for the other one, which Dan took full advantage of.

Scores going into Final Jeopardy saw Donna still with a big lead of $20,700, Sriram with $13,200 and Dan $6,000.

‘NOOO’

Final Jeopardy! under U.S. STAMPS read: “This Roman numeral appeared on stamps in a 2022 series for the 50th anniversary of an anti-discrimination law.”

Sriram and Dan were correct with “What is Title IX?” with Sriram doubling up to win in a come-from-behind fashion with 26,400.

Donna, however, dropped $5800 with her incorrect response of: “LXII?”

Title IX is a pivotal federal civil rights law enacted in 1972, prohibiting sex-based discrimination in federally-funded education programs.

Fans on social media didn’t hold back their surprise that the only female contestant missed the Title IX clue.

One fan wrote: “Noooo Donna!! She played a great game and so happy to see her back.”

Another wrote: “Feminism is over because the only female contestant on @Jeopardy today didn’t know what Title IX was,” alongside three crying emojis.

Others deemed the episode a teaching moment for being gutsier on Daily Doubles, which could have brought Donna a runaway and rendered Final Jeopardy moot.

“Donna is a smart and a good player but she played too conservatively. And thus, she made a fatal mistake in this game, especially in the Double Jeopardy round.

“She played too much at the top row and left a Daily Double, which left it wide open for competitors to take advantage of it.”

A fourth agreed: “Absolutely gutted for Donna. Felt like a mistake to not double up on that literature category and likely cost the runaway.”

A fourth replied: “Yes, but she still was in control of her own destiny in final jeopardy. Missed the Title IX question, unfortunately.”

A fifth posted on Reddit: “I felt bad for you missing FJ especially after leading the majority of the game. You were one of my favorite Season 39 contestants and it was good to see you back on one more time!”

‘VAGUE CHANCE AT BEST!’

Donna wrote on Reddit that the Final question actually wasn’t up her alley at all.

She replied to that previous user: “That is so unbelievably kind of you, thank you!!

“I had such a wonderful time! Dan and Sriram were just incredible to play against, and incredible in general, and I honestly never thought I’d play another game of Jeopardy after last year. This was just bonus Jeopardy!

Plus, when I saw the category for Final, I had no doubt that Sriram and Dan were going to crush it. I had…a vague chance at that category, at best.”

This comes after multiple Final Jeopardy twists last week, including no one knowing “I Walk The Line” and the leading contestant losing on a Jane Eyre clue.

BRING BACK THE BIG CHAMPS

Meanwhile, the 2024 Tournament of Champions is just days away from its February 23 premiere.

The annual $250,000 event was delayed due to this summer’s WGA strike, and in the meantime, Wildcard and Second Chance contests have ensued.

However, it’s just around the corner, already wrapped filming, and should be one for the books.

Unlike the previous Tournament of Champions, which featured stars like Amy Schneider and Mattea Roach, this year’s is all about settling the score.

The contestants include 21-day winner Cris Pannullo, the former pro poker player who amassed the fifth regular play earnings in history ($748K) last fall.

Fans were shocked by his abrupt defeat, as many thought he’d keep on winning and become the next legendary player.

The second seed is the 13-day winner and Canadian TV set designer Ray LaLonde (who won $386,200 and batted 12/14 on Final Jeopardy).

Then there’s Ben Chan, the fan-favorite who won $252,200 and set a record by winning all nine of his victories in runaways until that controversial Benedict Final Jeopardy ruling.

There’s also the beloved Hannah Wilson, whose run was cut short by none other than Chan due to a co-returning-champions rarity match when the latter fell ill mid-streak and returned during her streak.

Another major storyline is the battle of trivia bigwigs – six-day champ Troy Meyer, the top-ranked player in the invite-only online competition Learned League, is returning.

In a major twist, all three-day winners from last season will be competing as well (the contest is usually for four-day-plus winners)

That means fellow pro quizzer, the infamous Yogesh Raut – who missed overlapping with Troy by just a few episodes (and trashed Jeopardy! online after losing) will be back.

Counting last year’s Celebrity Jeopardy! winner Ike Barenholtz (Zaheer, and one more Wildcard winner), the ToC will have 27 competitors in total, the largest contestant field ever.

The winner will also get an invite to the next Jeopardy! Masters in May, which was just renewed, so fortune and perhaps even TV fame are at stake.

Regular non-tournament episodes of Jeopardy! return in April, a major break from the norm (in part due to the WGA strike), which has divided fans.

‘KEN WON THE JOB’

Speaking of shakeups, former champ Ken Jennings is now the sole host after Mayim Bialik was fired from the syndicated series in December.

Showrunner Michael Davies broke his silence on the decision on Saturday, saying while Mayim was a “superb host,” Ken “really won the job.”

“Over the past two and a half seasons, what we’ve heard from a lot of from television stations and other interested parties is that they wanted more consistency. They wanted a single host.”

“Mayim is a superb host – we hope to keep working with her on primetime versions and other spinoffs, those conversations are ongoing – but Ken really won the job.”