Final Jeopardy is meant to be a very tough part of the game, but was Wednesday night’s last clue on Jeopardy! utterly impossible? Some fans certainly seem to vehemently think so — especially since it resulted in a triple stumper.
In the category “Rhyme Time: Opera Edition,” the clue was as follows: “Telling the story of a duke, a jester & the jester’s daughter, it was written by poet Francesco Maria Piave.” The answer? “What is the ‘Rigoletto’ Libretto?”
None of the contestants got this correct, and two of them —new challengers Ben Mills and Kelcy LópezFreeman— didn’t even venture a guess! Returning champion Allison Gross, meanwhile, gave it a whirl with “What is Don Juan?” which was obviously not right.
“That may be one of the most evil FJs I’ve seen in years,” one fan wrote in response to the clue on Reddit. “I honestly feel bad for the contestants. What a horrendous, horrendous clue,” another commenter agreed.
One fan’s response was particularly spirited, as they wrote, “I had ‘Rigoletto’ immediately, but had no idea what they were going for as a ‘rhyme.’ If I’d been playing, I don’t think I’d be able to stop myself from going, ‘Oh, f*** off’ on stage.
Still, there were others who didn’t see it the same way: “That was not AT ALL an unreasonably difficult FJ clue. Just about any list of the most famous operas would include this one… It’s easy if you know; it’s hard if you don’t,” one person wrote.
In the end, this game’s Final Jeopardy round could’ve made a difference to the final scores. While Gross led with $12,400 coming into the last round, it wasn’t a runaway. LópezFreeman was within striking distance at $7,400, and Mills was still very alive in the game with $3,200.
However, with all three of them getting it wrong (and Gross wagering just $2,401), she ended up on top again with $9,999, followed by LópezFreeman at $4,800 and Mills at $3,200.
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