Jeopardy! champion Stephen Webb admits he 'hit a wall' after losing his 8-day winning streak

March 19, 2024

JEOPARDY!'s latest big winner Stephen Webb has lost on Friday's episode after eight victories and $184K total.

The champion posted on Reddit that he "hit a wall" and was happy for his victor Kelly Barry.

The returning champ faced Kelly Barry, a marketing communications specialist from Seattle, Washington, and Mark Bernstein, a retired solution architect from Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Stephen is a data scientist from Longmont, Colorado who returned when Mayim Bialik's three-week teen tournament concluded last Thursday - so his first day back on-screen was last Friday.

Ken Jennings, 48, also returned to host his run - but what viewers may not have realized is Friday's episode was taped the same day as this entire week.

As a result, Stephen was up against a grueling task, winning six games in a single tape day (instead of the typical five).

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Stephen plummeted to $1,999 just shaking his head but graciously clapped and he will return for the 2023 Tournament of Champions.

'THIS WAS JUST ROUGH'

In a Reddit thread discussing the loss, Stephen shared a GIF image of Leonardo DiCaprio's character pulling himself out of a ditch in the movie Revenant.

He wrote: "How I felt after playing my sixth game of the day, fifth in a row without a Daily Double, and ninth in two days.

"I hit a wall after playing last night's game, and this was just rough.

Sloppy start, started to climb back, couldn't hit the Daily Doubles at all, and then when Final Jeopardy hit I managed to narrow it to 'probably Mountain West' and when I went for a guess my brain just went FILE NOT FOUND. Well played, Kelly! Best of luck to you on Monday."

One fan commiserated with the brutal scheduling gaffe that left Stephen having to win more games than usual in one day.

"That’s a grueling pace. You did great! To win one game is fabulous ..and you made it to the Tournament of Champions! Well done."

Another former contestant wrote: "You were fantastic! The exhaustion is no joke and I can relate to the Daily Double desert."

One more applauded: "My heart broke for Kelly as her mighty, from-the-start lead was slipping away and so I was thrilled for her when she got it right. I like her calm vibe, too."

A fifth was also excited for the new champ and wrote: "The winner tonight was not only the best player, she bet well in Final Jeopardy....so I am now rooting for her:-)"

STEPHEN SEASON

Stephen, 38, qualified for the 2023 Tournament of Champions (which now only has male contestants) earlier this week so he'll be back in September.

He's the second contestant to do so in a week along with High School Reunion Tournament winner Justin Bolsen, 18.

One interesting part of his streak is that he indeed only landed on five Daily Doubles (of 27) in nine games - which means he was relying on smarts alone.

Stephen has been correct on 91 percent of clues and now has the third-longest streak of the season behind Cris Pannullo (21 wins) and Ray LaLonde (13 wins.)

According to the Longmont Leader, Stephen has been a Jeopardy! fan for 25 years “but he never imagined that he would be on the other side of the television.”

He took the Anytime Test in 2020 because his wife "noticed that I knew all the answers" - who can relate?

Some fans knocked Ken for allowing him to respond "is that" instead of "what is" in an earlier game and have spotted that he seemed hilariously stressed out while winning big.

He even admitted as much after his fifth win, which was a huge comeback moment where he doubled up in Final Jeopardy when he was trailing opponent Roy Camara.

Stephen earlier dished on Reddit: "After this game, I had to sit down in the restroom in the contestant changing area for a few minutes until I stopped shaking."

Jeopardy! champion Stephen Webb admits he 'hit a wall' after losing his 8-day winning streak

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'THIS WAS JUST ROUGH'

STEPHEN SEASON

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