Unfortunately for Ben Chan, close does not count in “Jeopardy!”
The assistant professor of philosophy at St. Norbert College in Wisconsin lost on Tuesday’s episode of the TV game show, bringing his nine-game win streak to an end.
Chan was ahead entering Final Jeopardy!, but for his response seeking the names of two lovers in a Shakespeare play from the Latin words for “blessed” he wrote “Who are Beatrice & Benedict?”
However, the correct response was the characters Beatrice and Benedick.
Being one letter off cost him, as he bet $12,201 of his $17,400 total, bringing his amount under Lynn Di Vito who, despite also getting the response wrong, bet a lesser amount of money. Di Vito wagered just $3,000 of her $14,800 to finish with $11,800.
Upon realizing he lost, Chan let out a deep sigh and bent over lowering his head to height of the podium.
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Chan weighs in on Reddit
The Green Bay, Wisconsin, resident wrote on Reddit that he “was sooo close!” He blamed the error on bad flashcards that he made.
“The ‘Benedict’ misspelling is common, and it worked its way onto a couple of my flashcards. (Of note: the misspelling is contained in Irene Franck’s On the Tip of Your Tongue, which serious J! nerds will know as a favorite of Karl Coryat),” he wrote under the handle JeopardyBenBen in the Jeopardy! game thread.
In his written response, Benedict was crossed out and rewritten. Another Reddit user asked him what made him cross it out.
“I was worried that my first Benedict was illegible — I should have been making it less legible :0,” he responded.
Chan won $252,600 during his nine-game winning streak, all of which were runaway victories. Runaway wins are when a contestant is so far out ahead there’s no way for the next closest contestant to catch them, even if they were to wager their entire earnings for Final Jeopardy!
Chan has qualified for the Tournament of Champions, which will be held later this season.
Two missed Daily Doubles
Besides the wrong response in Final Jeopardy!, it was two incorrect responses to Daily Double questions that were costly to Chan.
The first one cost him $4,200 in the first round, as he tried to make it a true Daily Double. That brought him back down to zero after building a $3,800 advantage.
The second miss cost him $3,000 in Double Jeopardy! as he tried to retake the lead from Di Vito, a retired museum educator from Colorado.
Otherwise Chan got 27 answers correct compared to 14 for Di Vito and nine for the third player, Danny Leserman, a policy communications manager from Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
“Lynn played a perfect game!,” Chan wrote on Reddit. “Especially happy for her, since she is an incredibly knowledgeable fan of the show.”
During his run, Chan won three games in episodes that aired in April, but subsequently tested positive for COVID-19 and was not able to travel for tapings. He returned for the May 15 episode and continued his winning streak until his defeat in Tuesday’s episode.
Contact Kevin Dittman at kdittman@gannett.com.
