Here's What Happens When 'Jeopardy!' Ends In A Rare Tie

Jeopardy! continues to march on with guest hosts to fill in the shoes of the late Alex Trebek, but the long-running game show recently saw a rare ending to a match when a pair of players tied at the end of Final Jeopardy.

On last Friday’s episode (January 22), Jack Weller and returning three-day champion Brian Chang were tied in first place with $18,800 after Double Jeopardy and each guessed the final question correctly. "Statues honoring this man who was killed in 1779 can be found in Waimea, Kauai & In Whitby, England," guest host Ken Jennings read. The contestants went on to mirror one another when they wagered all of their money, guessed "Captain James Cook, the British explorer" and advanced to the next round with their money tied at $37,600.

As for the final tie-breaker question, it fell on the history category. Before Jennings read the question, he explained that the first person to ring in with the correct answer would snag the $36,700 in winnings. "In October 1961, Stalin's body was removed from display in this other man's tomb,” he read. Chang ended up buzzing in with the correct answer (“Lenin), landing him the win and making him a four-day champion with $88,102.

"The was some finish," Jennings told the players after the game ended. "I've never seen one of those and I've been here, like, 100 times." This marks the game's third tiebreaker under the current format after a showdown in 2018 and 2019.

After the episode, Jennings took to Twitter to reflect on the show’s rare finale. "Just my second day on the guest-hosting job...and this happens," he wrote. "We had the possibility of a super-rare Final Jeopardy tie or a super-DUPER-rare triple-zero finish."

Photo: YouTube/Jeopardy!


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