‘Jeopardy!’ Contestant Speaks Out After Stunning Runaway Win

Spoiler Alert

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[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for the Friday, October 17,  episode of Jeopardy!]

A Jeopardy! contestant had a stunning runaway win after a new champion was crowned the night before. They spoke out about their mistakes in the game.

Cindy del Rosario, from Denver, Colorado, returned for her second game on October 17. She played against Dargan Ware, from Bessemer, Alabama, and Sondra Venable, from New Orleans, Louisiana. Del Rosario has a one-day total of $23,201 after defeating 18-year-old Delaney O’Dea.

Ware, an attorney and writer, and Del Rosario, a hospice and palliative care nurse, were tied at $2,600 when Del Rosario found the Daily Double. In “Don’t Tell Me To Calm Down,” she made it a true Daily Double. The clue read, “As the title of a 1972 Eagles song, this phrase is pretty innocuous; as an imperative to calm down, it may raise some hackles.” Del Rosario stared blankly and then guessed, “What is ‘Hotel California?’” She was wrong and dropped down to $0. The correct response was, “Take It Easy.”

Ware took the lead with $3,200 by the first commercial break. However, he messed up on clue 22, which was in “Daddy, is there really a…” The clue read, “No: This expert British murder solver, here portrayed by Angela Lansbury.” “Who is Jessica Fletcher?” Ware responded. He was wrong. Venable, a standardized patient, buzzed in and correctly answered, “Who is Miss Marple?”

Ware posted on Reddit about his answer. “I feel like I let the group down a bit lol. If I didn’t blow that Angela Lansbury question (my mother is never letting me live this down, because MSW is her favorite show), we would have hit 50k combined Coryat. I wonder what the percentage of shows that get there is,” he wrote.

“I’m typically bad at facial recognition, so my basic reaction was ‘ugh picture – omg I know who that is – buzz – never paid attention to the question’ lol.”

He still had the lead by the end of the round with $5,200. Venable had $4,200. Del Rosario trailed with $3,000.

In Double Jeopardy, Ware found the first DD on clue two. He made it a true DD wagering $6,400. In “History,” the clue read, “For 4 days in 1863, New York City was the scene of riots over inequitable exemptions in this process.” “What is the military draft?” he answered. Ware doubled up to $12,800.

He found the second DD on clue six. With $16,00 in his bank, Ware wagered $4,000 in “Philosophy ABCs.” The clue read, “F: Non sequiturs & vicious circles are types of these, from the Latin for ‘deceit.’” “What are fallacies?” Ware answered correctly, giving him a lead of $20,000.

By the end of the round, Ware had a huge lead with $35,600. Del Rosario was in second place with $11,400. Venable had $7,400.

The category for Final Jeopardy was “20th Century Science.” The clue read, “Calling it ‘a particle that cannot be detected’, physicist Wolfgang Pauli 1st proposed this in 1930; it was detected in 1956.” The correct answer was the neutrino. Only one of the contestants got it right.

Venable wrote, “What is a quark?” She wagered $4,001, giving her $3,399. Del Rosario had the correct response and wagered $3,401, giving her a final total of $14,801. Ware also answered “quark” and wagered $9,400. He still won the game with $26,200.

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