The Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament continued on Tuesday night (March 26) as three more former champions returned to the Alex Trebek Stage for another shot at glory.
Arthur Chu, a writer originally from Cleveland, Ohio, who finished as 1st runner-up in the 2014 Tournament of Champions, faced off against 19-game champion David Madden and 2021 Tournament of Champions quarterfinalist MacKenzie Jones.
Chu, who was once called Jeopardy!‘s “first villain,” led after the first round, standing at $6,400 to Madden’s $4,200 and Jones’ $2,200. However, things dramatically shifted in Double Jeopardy! thanks to two crucial Daily Doubles.
Madden found the first Daily Double and added $5,000 to his total. Chu then found the second Daily Double and chose to wager a massive $10,000. He answered incorrectly, losing a considerable chunk of his earnings and giving Madden a runaway going into Final Jeopardy.
Heading into Final Jeopardy, Madden stood at $18,400, while Chu had $5,600, and Jones trailed with $600. Even though both Madden and Chu got the final clue correct, it was Madden who won and cemented his spot in the JIT semi-finals.
However, some fans think the Daily Double clue that cost Chu was “unfair.”
The video clue showed a stringless violin and read, “It describes someone weakened by nerves and also the instrument here.”
Chu struggled and couldn’t come up with a response in time. Host Ken Jennings then revealed the correct answer, saying, “You had to notice the violin was Unstrung.”
“That DD that Arthur missed was one of the most unfair clues I can remember,” wrote one fan on the Jeopardy! Reddit forum. “A contestant is naturally going to try to identify a cello-like or violin-like instrument that is also a word for weakened by nerves.”
“They’re not going to look for a distinguishing feature, like missing strings ffs, and describe that,” the fan continued. “Just a terrible terrible clue. Plus I don’t think ‘weakened by nerves’ is a good definition — or even a definition — of unstrung.”
Another agreed, writing, “Really really bad. They could have at least said the “condition of the instrument shown here” or something. But it still would have been weird and bad.”
“Agreed. Dumb clue. Excusable if it wasn’t a DD, but this was a DD that cost someone a spot in the semis,” said another.
“I think the clue fits, but there’s no way I could tell at home that the instrument was missing it’s strings, and certainly not the contestants either, given how it’s famously stated how small the monitor for video clues is,” wrote one commenter.
Another added, “Even if it’s technically accurate (describe the instrument not name the instrument), it was a bad clue. I don’t think “unstrung” is an obvious enough term for either definition to do this kind of visual clue, and I also think something about the violin made it hard to even notice it wasn’t strong.”
Regardless, Chu is out of the competition and Madden will move on to the semi-finals. The winner of the JIT will receive $100,000 and a guaranteed spot in the second season of Jeopardy! Masters, which is set to air on ABC in primetime in May.
What did you think of the latest JIT match-up? Let us know in the comments section, below.
Jeopardy!, Weekdays, check local listings