[The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for the Monday, April 14, episode of Jeopardy!]
Did Jeopardy! champion Andrew Hayes win his fourth game and guarantee himself a spot in an upcoming Tournament of Champions? Read on to find out.
Hayes, from Tupelo, Mississippi, faced off against Jade Snelling, from Blacksburg, Virginia, and Kyle Harvey, from San Antonio, Texas, on Monday, April 14. Hayes’ three-day total is $72,202. Winning four or more regular-season games on Jeopardy! qualifies a player for a future Tournament of Champions. Players with five or more wins receive an automatic invitation, and those with four wins can be invited if enough five-plus game winners haven’t already qualified.
During the first round, Hayes, a law student, led with six correct responses before the first commercial break. When the game show came back, Hayes found the Daily Double after two questions. In “Quoting the Tarantino Film” category, the clue read, “‘The ‘D’ is silent, hillbilly!’” Hayes didn’t answer right away, and host Ken Jennings prompted him to give an answer. “What is Django Unchained?” he answered.
“Oh, in the nick of time, yes,” Jennings said. “I didn’t think you had it in you.” Hayes wagered $4,200, giving him a substantial lead. After the first round, he led with $11,600. Harvey, a civil engineer, had $6,000. Snelling, an archivist, trailed with $2,000.
In Double Jeopardy, Hayes found the first DD of the round three questions in. The clue read, “Lawrence Walsh, independent counsel in this 1980s scandal, called it ‘a cover-up engineered in the White House.’” He correctly answered, “the Iran-Contra scandal,” giving him an extra $2,000.
Hayes found the next DD but didn’t have as much luck with this one. The clue read, “As a noun, it’s a comfy place to sleep courtesy of our bird buddies; as a verb, it’s to hire more workers than needed by union demand.” “What is nest?” he answered. The correct answer was “to featherbed.” Hayes lost $4,000 on that question.
However, the reigning champion was still in the lead by the end of the round with $17,600. Harvey wasn’t too far behind with $13,200. Snelling had $5,600.
The category for Final Jeopardy was “American Authors.” The clue read, “Like a character in one of his novels, this author hid in a meat locker during an Allied bombing.” The correct answer was Kurt Vonnegut, which both Hayes and Snelling answered. Harvey answered with “Who is Heller?” He wagered $1,999, which gave him a final total of $11,201. Snelling wagered $3,200, for a total of $8,800. Hayes wagered $8,801, for a final total of $26,401, making him the night’s winner.
This is his fourth win, which means he qualifies for an upcoming Tournament of Champions. His four-day total is now $98,603. Hayes will face off against two new opponents on Tuesday, April 15.
“I really like Andrew. Happy to see he’s in the TOC now,” a Reddit user said.
Harvey also spoke out about the game on Reddit. “This is Kyle from today’s episode. First off, congrats to Andrew on earning his fourth victory and reaching a step away from locking in his TOC spot. Playing the first game of the day, I didn’t get a ton of time to mingle with the other contestants, but I did talk with him a bit in the green room, and he seems like a really nice guy, easy to root for,” he wrote.
“Regarding that Final, I have been KICKING myself since tape day. I completely missed two huge clues that would have led me immediately to Slaughterhouse-Five, and therefore Vonnegut: the meat locker (in the moment, I processed it as ‘somewhere odd’ which led me to Catch-22 since it’s more of a comedy), and the bombing being done BY the Allies. I know Slaughterhouse-Five and Vonnegut really well, so I’m kind of aghast at having whiffed so bad. It wouldn’t have changed the result at all so there’s some solace in that but I feel I’m usually pretty solid at Final Jeopardy at home so it would’ve been nice to nail the only real one I’ll ever get, especially one that in hindsight looks rather straightforward,” he said about the final question.
