‘Jeopardy!’ Champ Harrison Whitaker Faces Disaster: Did He Survive?

Spoiler Alert

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What To Know

Harrison Whitaker faced significant setbacks during his sixth Jeopardy! game.
The game was filled with risky Daily Doubles and incorrect answers that put the champ in peril.
The episode was described by fans as a tense and dramatic “rollercoaster.”

[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for the Tuesday, November 18, episode of Jeopardy!]

As Harrison Whitaker returned for his sixth Jeopardy! game on November 18, the champion came face-to-face with disaster. Did his streak continue?

Whitaker, from Teer Haute, Indiana, faced off against Tony Antoniades, from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and Lydia Boshart, from Raleigh, North Carolina, during game six. He has a five-day total of $116,600.

Whitaker, a researcher, had the lead of $4,800 when he found the Daily Double. He made it a true Daily Double in “Strait.” Host Ken Jennings chuckled at Whitaker’s risky wager.

The clue read, “The third-largest suspension bridge in the U.S. spans the Straits of Mackinac, which connect these 2 Great Lakes.” “What are Michigan and Superior?” he answered.

“Michigan is right, but Huron is the other,” Jennings revealed. Whitaker dropped down to $0 and third place.

During the interviews, Whitaker revealed that he volunteered to be a bouncer one night for a friend and found out that the company was run by Princess Beatrice.

Whitaker only answered seven of the last 15 clues in the round correctly. He just made it to second place with $2,600. Boshart, an aspiring linguist, was in the lead with $4,000. Antoniades, a teacher, had $2,400.

In Double Jeopardy, Whitaker started off the round by answering two clues wrong, putting him in the negatives. He just got back in the positives when he found the first DD. With $1,000 in his bank, Whitaker wagered the allotted $2,000 in “All Kinds of Literature.” The clue was “Using unpublished material by the original author, dead for 50+ years, 2015’s ‘Trigger Mortis’ is a tale of this spy.” “Who is James Bond?” he answered correctly, giving him $3,000.

Boshart found the second Daily Double in “State Animals.” She wagered $5,550 out of her $5,600. The clue read, “Not surprisingly, Maryland’s state dog is this one with a body of water in its name.” “What is a Bay Terrier?” she answered. It was incorrect, so she dropped down to $50. The correct response was the Chesapeake Bay Retriever.

It was a battle for first place between Whitaker and Antoniades at the end of the round. Whitaker got the last clue wrong, which dropped his total slightly. He ended with $11,400. Antoniades had $10,800. Boshart had $1,250.

The category for Final Jeopardy was “17th Century Names.” The clue was “He turned 30 in the first year of the 17th century & had notions that planets don’t move with constant speed along their orbits.” The correct response was “Who is Johannes Kepler?” which only two of the contestants got right.

Boshart had the right response, wagered everything, and ended with $2,500. Antoniades’ answer was “Who is Galileo?” He wagered $8,299, dropping him to $2,501. Whitaker also had the right response. He wagered $10,201, giving him a final total of $21,601.

He has answered all of his Final Jeopardy questions correctly. This gave him a six-day total of $182,600. Whitaker will return on Wednesday for game seven.

“That was a close one,” a Reddit user said.

“Great game,” wrote another.

“My God. That was a rollercoaster,” added a third.

“Jesus Christ, my heart was beating out of my chest through the entirety of double jeopardy 😭😭😭,” said another fan.

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