‘Jeopardy!’ Player Dazzles Fans With Huge Haul of Correct Answers

Jeopardy! contestants (from left) Andrew Hayes, Denise LeBlanc Bock, and Brenden Monroe

Spoiler Alert

Jeopardy.com

[The following post contains MAJOR spoilers for the Wednesday, April 16, episode of Jeopardy!]

Jeopardy! contestant blew his opponents out of the water by having an outrageous number of correct answers in one game. Currently, Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer hold the most correct answers in one game with 44 and 42, according to J-Archive.

Andrew Hayes, from Tulepdo, Mississippi, returned for his sixth game with a five-day total of $117,804. He faced off against Denise LeBlanc-Bock, from Santa Rosa Beach, Florida, and Brenden Monroe, from Seattle, Washington, on Wednesday, April 16. Already qualified for an upcoming Tournament of Champions, Hayes tried to win another game and break records.

He started off the game incredibly by getting eight out of the 15 clues right before the first commercial break. The law student would have been in even more of a lead if he had answered the first Daily Double correctly. The clue read, “A small American game bird, or to cower in fear.” He hesitated, and Jennings told him he needed to answer quickly. “What is grouse?” he answered. The correct answer was “to quail,” so he gave up $1,800, dropping down to zero.

Out of the eight remaining questions before the break, Hayes correctly answered six of them, giving him the lead again. By the end of the round, he had answered 14 correctly and two incorrectly with a total of $5,600. Monroe, a senior game producer, had $2,200, and seven answers correct. LeBlanc-Bock, an architect, trailed with $2,000, and five answers correct.

In Double Jeopardy, Hayes found the first DD of the round in three questions, but he didn’t have much luck with it. The clue read, “A nation on Afghanistan’s eastern border + a big port city in northern Morocco.” Hayes shook his head to indicate he didn’t know it. The correct answer was Pakistangier, and Hayes lost $2,000. However, he still remained in the lead with $6,000.

However, he didn’t let the DD loss stop him. He got five $2,000 correct, and had much better luck in the third DD. “It can be spelled with a ‘K,’ or with a ‘C’ as in the name of the Best Actor Oscar winner for 2023,” was the clue. “Who is Cillian?” he answered, referencing actor Cillian Murphy. That was correct, and he gained $4,000 to maintain his substantial lead of $25,200.

By the end of the round, Hayes answered 33 questions right and only four wrong. The other contestants had 12 (Monroe) and eight (LeBlanc-Bock) correct. This gave Hayes a total of $28,800. He had a huge runaway lead. Monroe’s total was $6,600. LeBlancc-Bock was in third with $5,200.

In Final Jeopardy, no one got the answer correct, so unless Hayes made a crazy wager, he had secured the win. The final question in the category “Places in the American Past” was “It’s the building where the Stax Records classic ‘Knock On Wood’ was written, but it’s remembered for other reasons.”

LeBlanc-Bock didn’t even try to answer and wrote, “What is Love U <3 Fam.” She wagered $1,401 and ended with a total of $3,799. Monroe also didn’t try to answer and wrote, “What is ? Hi Zinnia!” He wagered $3,801 to give him a total of $2,799. Hayes at least tried to give an answer and wrote, “What is Ford’s Theatre?” However, that was also wrong. Hayes wagered $8,800 to end with $20,000. The correct answer was the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

This made Hayes a six-day champion with a total of $137,804. He will face off against two new contestants on Thursday, April 17. Overall, Hayes has 138 right answers and 16 wrong so far.

“Andrew really turned on the afterburners in this game with 33 correct responses!! Congrats to him on an outstanding performance! Tough FJ clue today,” a Reddit user wrote.

“Superb work by Andrew once again. Tough draw for both Brenden and Denise to be up against him in a game where he was just on fire,” said another.

Jeopardy!, Weekdays, check local listings