Jeopardy! contestant Cameron Berry shares how he was able to beat Alex DeFrank’s win streak

The production schedule of Jeopardy! may have played a role in Alex DeFrank losing his winning streaking to contestant Cameron Berry

The production schedule for Jeopardy! reportedly played a role in Cameron Berry dethroning Alex DeFrank.

The four-day champion lost his winning streak in the March 20 episode of the ABC trivia game show. The inventory specialist from Brooklyn, New York faced off against Cameron, a data analyst and college administrator from Brighton, Massachusetts and Hillary Hess, an export policy analyst from Arlington, Virginia on Thursday.

Cameron ended up securing the win with $24,600 and maintained the lead throughout the game. Alex’ score throughout the game left him in third place and ended finished second with $8,000. According to The U.S. Sun, Alex got over 75% of the questions right in previous games which was a difference from the Thursday game.

An insider, who was at the taping for the March 20 episode, told The U.S. Sun that Cameron spoke about how the “lucky” production schedule most likely contributed to assisting him on the first win.

Cameron beat Alex on the Jeopardy! episode that aired on March 20 (
Image:
NBC)
According to the outlet, the game Alex lost was his fifth consecutive game as Jeopardy! films five episodes in one day. So Alex played the first game of the day in the morning and the final game that lost was in the evening. Cameron on the other hand, while Alex was playing, had time to rest, prepare and study how Alex played which is something the insider said Cameron confessed was to his advantage.

“All day, I was studying Alex’s buzzer pace,” He told host Jennings after the game per the insider.

A fan on the Jeopardy subreddit made a note of the fatigue Alex must have felt affecting his game on the thread for March 20th episode. The fan captioned: “Fatigue strikes again.”

Steve Luck, an IT manager from Royal Oak, Michigan, who played in March 21st game confirmed Alex filmed all his wins and his lost in one day: “That was all one filming day for Alex. Stamina definitely plays a role. Small plug: Watch Cameron, me, and a really nice guy named Josh battle it out on tomorrow’s show.”

Alex lost the game on March 20 after winning four games (
Image:
NBC)
A third fan mentioned how “fatigue is still definitely a factor, as we know from the first-hand testimony from many champions on this subreddit alone.”

Past champions like Adriana Harmeyer who won 15 games, talked about feeling fatigued on the Inside Jeopardy! podcast episode in June 2024. She stated that taping schedule as she taped her last 13 games “within less than 72 hours of each other” took a “toll” on her and she became “a little slower” with the buzzer.

“My brain is taking a little bit longer to piece things together. Yeah, that’s a big factor.” the archivist from Indiana added.

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