Jeopardy!’s Scott Riccardi Breaks Silence After Conspiracy Theory Claims He Lost On Purpose

Jeopardy! superchampion Scott Riccardi explained his final incorrect answer after fans spread a conspiracy theory that he lost his last game on purpose. Scott’s 16-day streak came to an end after he entered the Leaderboard of Legends in two categories (number 8 for highest winnings in regular-game play with $455,000 and tying for number 10 with Ryan Long for most consecutive games won with 16).

During his last game, Scott answered the Final Jeopardy! question incorrectly, which cost him the game. The category was “20th Century Names.” The clue was, “According to one obituary, in 1935 he owned 13 magazines, 8 radio stations, 2 movie companies, and $56 million in real estate.”

Both of Scott’s challengers, Jonathan Hugendubler and Charlotte Cooper, answered correctly with William Randolph Hearst. However, Scott wrote Howard Hughes, and lost the game to Jonathan, ending his 16-day streak on the last day of Jeopardy! season 41.

Since Scott was such an extraordinary competitor, many fans believed that he lost his last game on purpose, taking to social media to discuss the conspiracy theory. Some fans felt that the question was too easy for Scott to have gotten wrong, and that he threw the game because he didn’t want to play anymore.

Jeopardy! superchampion Scott Riccardi explained his final incorrect answer after fans spread a conspiracy theory that he lost his last game on purpose.

In a Jeopardy! Reddit thread, Scott didn’t respond to the conspiracy theory directly, but he did address his loss, beginning with offering congratulations to his two competitors, winner Jonathan and Charlotte. He then explained why he got the Final Jeopardy! question wrong, stating that he trusted his gut when the answer first came to him.

Scott wrote, “As for Final Jeopardy, my mind unfortunately went straight to Howard Hughes mostly due to overestimating the importance of the movie companies part of the clue; any previous FJs that had come to mind immediately had worked out, so I trusted my initial response on this.”

Scott revealed that he didn’t realize his answer was wrong right away. He said, “Hearst wasn’t on my mind at all until the moment Charlotte’s answer was revealed, and even then it didn’t immediately strike me as correct until Ken confirmed it.”

Scott then admitted that he wasn’t prepared to answer a question about William Randolph Hearst correctly. He wrote, “Truthfully, I was just especially unprepared to respond correctly to a clue about Hearst.”

Scott explained, “I made a mental note before flying out that I was consistently forgetting to consider, of all things, Citizen Kane and the Tower of London as responses whenever they came up in archived practice clues; in the green room that week, I reminded myself about the Tower of London but could not remember the other half of that mental note.”

Scott also confessed that he struggled with remembering information about Hearst. He wrote, “Also, before I started my prep for the show in earnest, I had found that I was having a hard time properly retaining info on what I found to be a confusing amount of three-named Williams in publishing (William Randolph Hearst, William Lloyd Garrison, and William F. Buckley, to name a few), never circling back to that thought after I got the call to be on the show.”

Scott concluded by explaining why he got the question wrong, writing, “So several information near-misses and a poor understanding of the timeline in the clue really piled up to prevent me from getting what I now understand to be a very gettable clue.”

Hi everyone, Scott here. Congratulations to Jonathan for the amazing win! It’s truly deserved and I can’t wait to see him return next season; he is a powerful competitor and all-around wonderful guy. Kudos to Charlotte as well for a very strong showing in tonight’s game. I apologize that I didn’t have any earlier opportunities to be active in these discussion threads, but I’m thankful for all the kind and insightful comments throughout what has been a completely surreal experience for me. I hope I didn’t overstay my welcome on the Alex Trebek stage for everyone who watched. There were too many talented challengers to be able to list them all here, but I’m hoping to be a proud supporter of each and every one of them in the hopes that they make up a sizeable subgroup of Second Chance competitors.

As for Final Jeopardy, my mind unfortunately went straight to Howard Hughes mostly due to overestimating the importance of the movie companies part of the clue; any previous FJs that had come to mind immediately had worked out, so I trusted my initial response on this. Hearst wasn’t on my mind at all until the moment Charlotte’s answer was revealed, and even then it didn’t immediately strike me as correct until Ken confirmed it. Truthfully, I was just especially unprepared to respond correctly to a clue about Hearst. I made a mental note before flying out that I was consistently forgetting to consider, of all things, Citizen Kane and the Tower of London as responses whenever they came up in archived practice clues; in the green room that week, I reminded myself about the Tower of London but could not remember the other half of that mental note. Also, before I started my prep for the show in earnest, I had found that I was having a hard time properly retaining info on what I found to be a confusing amount of three-named Williams in publishing (William Randolph Hearst, William Lloyd Garrison, and William F. Buckley, to name a few), never circling back to that thought after I got the call to be on the show. So several information near-misses and a poor understanding of the timeline in the clue really piled up to prevent me from getting what I now understand to be a very gettable clue. I’m sure I have other scattered thoughts about this game and all the others; I’ll try to address what I can within a reasonable time. Glad to have had the chance to be a meaningful part of this season!

Edit: Thank you for all the thoughtful replies! It’s truly appreciated.

What Conspiracy Theory Means For Jeopardy! & Scott Riccardi

It’s Hard To Believe That A Superchampion Can Lose

Any time that a Jeopardy! superchampion’s streak ends, fans find it hard to believe that they got a question wrong or didn’t earn enough money to win, and so the conspiracy theories follow. In Scott’s case, many fans thought that the Final Jeopardy! was too easy for him to have missed, which led to their shock and skepticism, but he explained very clearly why it happened.

Just because some fans knew the Final Jeopardy! answer and thought that it was simple doesn’t mean that Scott did. These Jeopardy! conspiracy theories are actually a testament to how amazing of a player Scott was because fans simply couldn’t believe that he’d ever make a mistake answering what they perceived to be an easy question.

Our Take On Jeopardy! Fans Claiming Scott Riccardi Lost On Purpose

Scott Wouldn’t Throw A Jeopardy! Game

I don’t believe the conspiracy theory that Scott threw his last Jeopardy! game. He has too much love and respect for the show to do something like that. Plus, he was in the lead going into Final Jeopardy! If Scott really wanted to lose the game, he could’ve simply not buzzed in for some of the questions.

I remember when the streaks of Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer came to an end, and many people believed that they threw their final games as well. It seems to be a pattern with Jeopardy! fans that they can’t accept that the superchampions can legitimately lose. The superchampions seem to be infallible, but their streaks do inevitably end.

I related to Scott because I had the same answer that he did for Final Jeopardy! I understand how he made that mistake, and I believe that he didn’t mean to do it. Scott is now one of my all-time favorite players and a new legend of the game, and I can’t wait to see him compete again in the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions and, hopefully, Jeopardy! Masters season 4 as well.

Source: Jeopardy!/Reddit