‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Feel Awful for Contestant Who Gets Stunningly Low Score

Jeopardy! fans are extending their sympathies and respects to one player whose stunningly low score on Tuesday’s episode was the biggest deficit the beloved game show has seen in recent memory. Matt King, a lawyer from Lewisville, Texas, didn’t shy away from buzzing in during Tuesday’s episode, but couldn’t land the majority of his answers, finishing with -$6,400 and getting shut out of Final Jeopardy!.

King started off well, nailing the categories about football and working his way up to $2,400 before he lost his momentum, losing steam and finishing the game with only eight correct responses and 10 wrong ones. Ken Jennings gave King credit for his tenacity throughout the game, despite the ending not being what the attorney had hoped. The Jeopardy! Greatest of All-Time champion and current host in the wake of Alex Trebek’s death told King, “Matt, I’m afraid you took your swings. That’s a strategy. It didn’t always pay off. You were close so many times, but we’re gonna have to say goodbye to you here. You’ll finish in third place with $1,000.”

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Jeopardy! fans also weighed in on Twitter, with some simply offering their sympathies for what was surely not King’s desired gameplay and others giving him a light ribbing for the game. Most at least acknowledged that his refusal to quit buzzing in was admirable in its own way, especially on national television.

“Is Matt making some kind of a record in negative score???” one Twitter user asked. “I wonder what the largest deficit someone has faced after Double Jeopardy,” another wondered. “Matt just ended with -$6,400. Can’t say I remember seeing too many with a bigger one than that.” 

A different fan joked, “I respect people who end up negative on jeopardy so much more than the winners. Matt just went (-$6400). Not a single point after the sports category and answered prolly 25 of the 50 last questions straight from the hip, not remotely close. Just tossing out best guesses. Hero,” while another person tweeted, “Matt was out there playing like me at home lol.”