Jeopardy! contestant Jilana Cotter admits shes embarrassed over mistake that nearly c

Publish date: 2024-05-04

A JEOPARDY! contestant has regretted a major flub that almost sent her packing on Tuesday's episode.

Jilana Cotter messed up her math in Final Jeopardy and would have lost had she not been the only player correct.

Champ-turned-host Ken Jennings is hosting the Champions Wildcard tournament instead of regular episodes.

One, two, and three-time winners from Seasons 37 and 38 are back at the buzzer to settle the score.

Jilana, a senior data analyst from Dade City, Florida, faced Steve Crupi, a retired police information supervisor from Las Vegas, Nevada, and John Vigna, a Los Angeles, California writer.

Jilana (who earlier and proudly revealed she was pregnant) qualified by winning the Season 37 Second Chance Tournament, which opened Season 40, so fans were excited to see if she'd keep it up.

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Going into Final Jeopardy, Jilana did just that, leading by a mile with $19,000.

However, it wasn't a runaway since Steve had $9,600 (or slightly more than half her score), while John had $900. 

Final Jeopardy! was under the category "AWARDS & HONORS."

It read: "As of 2023 the only 2 to win a Nobel Prize in Literature & an Academy Award were George Bernard Shaw & this singer-songwriter."

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John was incorrect as he wrote “Bob” but left the rest of the answer blowing in the wind, as was Steve, who went all-in with “Margret Mitchell.”

Only Jilana was correct with “Bob Dylan,” but she surprised fans when she revealed she bet $801.

She will advance to the semifinals with $19,801 and looked beside herself with relief.

However, if Steve had been correct and she had been wrong, she wouldn't have won.

If Steve were right, she would have lost, having not properly cover-bet or ensuring she’d still win (the right bet would have been $201).

If she were wrong, she would have dropped to $18,199.

Steve would have had $19,200 and won solely due to her math.

'MISTAKE ON PUBLIC DISPLAY'

Jilana took to a Reddit forum to avoid any bad buzz about her wager.

She wrote: “I didn't realize until today that I'd made a math error on my FJ wager. 

“It's embarrassing, but because it's not as fast-paced as the rest of the game I find it much more stressful and I seem to be more prone to errors then.

“FJ is by far the hardest part of the game for me because I don't have the momentum that I do during the earlier rounds. 

“I didn't know that Bob Dylan had an Oscar, but I remembered there being some controversy about him getting the Nobel prize in literature and I definitely didn't know of any other singer-songwriters who had one, so he seemed like the most likely answer to me. 

“It's tough to have your mistakes on public display! 

“My fellow players from the diamonds bracket have been immensely supportive and encouraging and I'm so, so grateful. 

“It sounds cliché, but especially playing in a multi-day tournament like this gave us a wonderful opportunity to bond and we keep in touch now. 

“No matter how aggressive we might seem while playing, that all turns off as soon as we're done. There are lots of smiles, laughter, and encouragement during the commercial breaks.”

One fan replied: "Just wanted to say you did excellent today, and I hope you do even better in the next round!"

WHAT IS: CHAMPIONS WILDCARD?

Jeopardy!'s 40th season premiered on September 11 and runs until late July 2024.

Champions Wildcard has invited back a massive 108 past players and is a brand new tournament.

Each leg of the special will feature 27 contestants, with nine quarterfinals, three semifinals, and a two-part final where one winner will emerge.

Then, the slate is wiped clean, with each leg running for three weeks.

There will be four winners by the time Champions Wildcard ends on December 18.

The purse is four $100,000 prizes and a slot in the 2023 Tournament of Champions.

Contestant Josh Saak became the first of four winners last week, and the event is now in its second group of quarterfinalists.

The 2023 Tournament of Champions, where last season's stars like Cris Pannullo and Hannah Wilson await, begins on December 19.

WHERE IS: MAYIM BIALIK?

Fans may want to know when Ken's counterpart, Mayim Bialik, 47, will be back.

Ken is hosting almost the entire season solo, and Mayim is not involved as it stands.

She bowed out as a member of Saf-Aftra, a big shakeup since she and Ken were tapped to split hosting in 2022 after Alex Trebek's tragic death.

"It’s not for me to personally judge anyone else’s decision [but] I am a union supporter," Mayim told Vanity Fair last month in her first public statement.

"There’s a lot of complexity to this, but my general statement is always that I come from a union family."

Mayim's absence has also put a more overarching issue into the forefront: many fans prefer Ken alone as the host.

"[Mayim] is unwatchable with none of the personality that Ken brings to the show," a fan recently wrote on X.

"Love Ken Jennings, I Hope & He The Only Host Going Forward!" another post read.

A third recently posted: "It Takes More Than Being Smart To Host Jeopardy. The Powers That Be Should Announce They Were Mistaken To Hire Hollyweird To Host Jeopardy."

Mayim's return date to the show is still unknown, but it will likely not be until April when new contestants resume.

WHEN WILL: 'NORMAL' EPISODES BE BACK?

Jeopardy! redid its schedule when deciding to continue despite Hollywood's Strikes (and a lot of backlash).

The game show threw in placeholder tournaments, not knowing how long the strikes would be.

Since the Season 40 premiere last month, Jeopardy! has been pulling contestants from past seasons and using old clues and clues that were previously written but never aired.

This was a way around the WGA strike since Jeopardy! was without its writers; the WGA strike was resolved last month.

Showrunner Michael Davies defended on the “Inside Jeopardy!” podcast that it “wouldn’t be fair to have new contestants making their first appearance” on the show with material that isn’t original or that was written pre-strike.

"The material that we’re gonna be using is a combination of material that our WGA writers wrote before the strike, which is still in the database and material that is being redeployed from multiple, multiple seasons of the show.”

As a result, past player tournaments have ensued, with all regular programming being pushed aside for quite some time.

This 2023 ToC will be longer than in years past and feature its own Second Chance competition, another Champions Wildcard, and finally, the actual ToC.

So, there will be little room for new contestants or "normal episodes" this season.

Execs explained the overhauled timeline on the podcast, admitting tournament play is the "Number one priority" and "We will have 16 weeks of regular episodes at the end of the year."

That means we won't see new contestants until April, with just four months of regular play this year out of 11 months.

Not all fans are sold on the big change, as one recently vented: "I am sick of the current tournaments. BRING BACK REGULAR PLAY, PLEASE!"

"Oh my god, is it really until April? That's absolutely wild," wrote another.

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However, others have argued that this Jeopardy! is better than no Jeopardy!.

Come April, returning champion Lucas Partridge will return after nearly a year off, as, theoretically, will Mayim.

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