There’s no denying that Jeopardy! has become a staple of US television over the past several decades — with an unusual game show format that keeps viewers guessing.
The daytime favourite, which has been gracing screens since 1964, differs from similar shows in that it gives players the answers and invites them to guess the questions, rather than the other way round.
Those who take part stand to win thousands, with it all coming down to the ‘final Jeopardy’ as those left in the game wager their winnings on getting the correct answer.
One recent contestant, Adam Remsen, certainly pocketed a fair amount after winning no less than 12 consecutive shows, until a tricky final Jeopardy earlier this week finally saw him come unstuck.
(Picture: wiki/ CBS)
The attorney and theatre producer from Memphis, Tennessee, faced off against fellow contestants Mandy Moreno, a social psychologist from Brooklyn, and Richard Nguyen, a research attorney from California, in a bid to score a 13th successive victory.
The final Jeopardy came under the heading of 20th Century Novels. It was: David Ben-Gurion called this 1958 book ‘as a piece of propaganda… the greatest thing ever written about Israel.
Could you have answered it correctly? Well, unfortunately for Remsen he didn’t, guessing: ‘What is Fiddler on The Roof’?
And in doing so he lost $8,001 (£5,995) betting on his (wrong) answer, taking his total for the game down to $12,779 (£9,471).
Nguyen was the only one to get it correct, wagering $6,401 (£4,743) of his money and leaving him with a final total of $20,801 (£15,417) to dethrone the reigning champion.
And what was the answer? Well it was in fact ‘What is Exodus?‘, a reference to the 1958 novel by author Leon Uris.
Still, Remsen, 54, left the show as the most successful contestant of all time from Tennessee, as well as placing him joint 17th on the list of all-time Jeopardy! champions.
Speaking to the website Commercial Appeal he explained the secret of his success, saying that he practiced with a buzzer as well as revising the subjects he knew less about.
‘I knew what my weak spots were, so I studied those, which were opera, 19th century presidents, European monarchs and rivers,’ he explained.
‘It’s so hard to get on Jeopardy! that on every question, you have to assume that at least two of the contestants know the answer. So it’s not a knowledge contest, it’s a buzzer contest.’
While Remsen took home an impressive $306,415 (£227,114) from his 12-game streak he’s still not the most successful contestant of 2026.
That honour currently belongs to Jamie Ding, who kept going for 31 games earlier this year to become the fifth all-time most successful contestant.
He also took home a massive $882,605 (£654,106) in winnings — although that’s still a long way behind all-time champion Ken Jennings, who is now the host of the show.
Jennings lasted for an incredible 74 games, earning himself over $2.5m (£1.8m) in prize money before he was finally defeated.