David Erb might’ve come into Tuesday’s (September 24) Jeopardy! game as just a one-day champion (and with comparisons to a certain celebrity look-alike), but he walked away with a heavier bag and some very wide respect from audiences at home. In fact, after the episode, some fans are already predicting he will be an early contender for the next Tournament of Champions.
Erb faced challengers Carter Scott, an outdoor guide from Georgia, and Rachael Crawley, a video writer from Canada, and had a one-day total of $17,655 at the start of the game.
In the Jeopardy! round, Erb had a slight lead of $5,800 to Scott’s $5,400 and Crawley’s $2,800. In this round, Erb’s previous streak of finding all of the Daily Doubles was broken as Scott was the one to select that box this time around (adding $1,000 to his total by correctly guessing that “Big Brother” was what the British lit character Winston Smith wrote about).
The Double Jeopardy round was a bit more fortunate for him, as he found the second Daily Double of the day and knew that “windfall” was what the government taxes companies on excess profits for and added a massive $10,000 to his score. Though Crawley also nabbed a Daily Double, she didn’t correctly guess that Turing was the one Linda Bierds wrote “was halfway between the war’s last enigmas & the cyanide apple.” She lost $6,000 as a result. On top of that, Erb was also on hyperdrive when it came to getting correct answers throughout the round.
By the end of the Double Jeopardy round, Erb led with a runaway score of $30,600 to Crawley’s $10,000 and Scott’s $3,800.
For Final Jeopardy, he and Crawley correctly guessed that Dianne Feinstein was the person who announced the deaths of Mayor Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk in 1978. And Erb risked a fair bit of money with $8,888, bringing his game winnings to $39,488 and his two-day total to $57,143.
In response to the episode, fans heaped praise on Erb for his style of play on Reddit, with one viewer writing, “This Erb dude is not messing around.”
Another noted, “Man David seems like our next TOC qualifier. I sure hope he is, being a fellow Seattleite.”
“Getting strong super champ vibes from David Erb,” another commenter added. “He has the look and feel of someone who’s next level smart.”
We’ll have to wait and see whether their predictions are correct as David Erb continues to compete on Wednesday’s (September 25) next game.
Jeopardy!, Weeknights, check local listings