Roger Craig, one of three finalists in Jeopardy’s two-day Battle of the Decades final, is a legend of the show. While his co-competitors, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, respectively own the titles of longest Jeopardy win streak and most Jeopardy winnings, Roger owns the records for short-term success: money won in a single game ($77,000) and money won on a single Daily Double clue ($18,000).
Jeopardy contestant’s ballsy Daily Double ruins him
Roger Craig’s famous tactic may have lost him a whole game.
You can watch video of the time Roger set that second record by finding, maxing out, and correctly answering both Daily Doubles in succession during the 2011 Tournament of Champions here. He took True Daily Doubles on back-to-back clues even though he was already up, got them both right, and turned a small lead into a ridiculous runaway. Swag.
This is Thursday, the first night of the two-night final:
Roger was ahead of Brad and Ken when he hit a Daily Double. Guess what he did (with some prodding by Jennings):
(Sorry about my parakeet.) You can see the clue there: “Doctors use this 5-letter term for swelling or bloating in the body due to an excess build-up of fluid.” A correct answer would turn Roger’s small lead into a massive one. A wrong answer would drop him from first-place to $0 near the end of the game.
Nooooooooooooo. (The correct answer was “edema.”) Roger bottomed out and actually went into the negative after that, meaning he couldn’t play Final Jeopardy. He has a ton of ground to make up in Day 2, but if there’s anyone you can count on to win a lot of money really fast, it’s Roger.
In happier news, Thursday night was the night we got to hear Alex Trebek say “Gucci Mane”:
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