‘Jeopardy!’ fans call out confusing Final Jeopardy clue: ‘Not the first word I’d use’
“Jeopardy!” tripped up its contestants with a question that combined geography and math.
On the Feb. 15 episode of the game show, the Final Jeopardy clue was in the category “Landmarks.”
The prompt given to contestants read, “The distance between its 2 legs at ground level is 630 feet, making it as wide as it is tall.”
Diandra D’Alessio, James Tyler and David Bederman were all competing for the final spot in the Champions Wildcard semifinals, but struggled to provide the right answer.
Both D’Alessio and Bederman guessed the Eiffel Tower, while Tyler suggested Christ the Redeemer in Brazil, but none of those was the correct response.
The answer was, in fact, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.
“You can actually inscribe the arch in a square,” host Ken Jennings said after revealing the answer.
Bederman and Tyler bet everything they had, and both ended up with zero.
Going into the final round, D’Alessio was in the lead with $24,600, and only wagered $1001, dropping her to $23,599, but advancing her to the semifinals.
Fans online thought the “Final Jeopardy” clue was unnecessarily tricky, especially the description of the Gateway Arch as having legs.
In the show’s Reddit discussion forum, one person wrote, “I’m guessing ‘legs’ is just a very unusual way to describe what they meant? It’s not the first word I’d use — ‘ends’ maybe? ‘Supports?’ Definitely a little tricky by the writers, but for tournament play, it seems fair.”
Another wrote, “Gateway Arch was my gut reaction as well, but then I became worried that it doesn’t really have ‘legs.'”
The National Park Service does describe the Gateway Arch as having “legs” on their official website.
Other fans weren’t as forgiving of the “Jeopardy!” contestants, especially over their confusion when it came to how many legs the landmark had.
“The fact that two very good Jeopardy contestants said ‘The Eiffel Tower’ to this has blown my mind. Possibly the worst final Jeopardy answer I have seen, it missed on both parts of the question!” wrote one fan on X (formerly Twitter).
“The final jeopardy tonights clue mentioned the landmark having two legs and two of the contestants answered with…..the Eiffel tower??” said another.
Another person put it bluntly, demanding, “What about two legs don’t you get?”
Earlier this month, contestants were tripped up by forgetting a letter in their final answer.
The clue for the final question was, “‘It was kind of a prodding to myself to play it straight,’ said Johnny Cash of this 1956 hit,” with the correct answer being “I Walk the Line.”
All three contestants answered “Walk the Line,” leaving out the letter “I,” costing them money and time on the show.
