Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings blamed for confusing moment in Drew Basile’s 2nd win as Survivor alum makes ‘unclear’ wager
JEOPARDY! contestant and Survivor alum Drew Basile has survived another night on the game show, but his second win also wasn't without its drama.
On Thursday's episode, Drew raised eyebrows with an unclear wager situation that some fans argued host Ken Jennings mishandled.
Drew, the first Survivor contestant to ever compete, returned after an utterly shocking first win.
He ended Adriana Harmeyer's 15-day winning streak in a stunning upset.
Tonight, he faced Jonquil Garrick-Reynolds and Bob Longstreth to go for win two.
After the Jeopardy! round, he led with $3600, his opponents $600 and $1200 - in Double Jeopardy! things got sticky.
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'UM, 12'
Drew located both Daily Doubles, gaining $3000 on one, then he made an unclear wager on the last one.
With a leading score of $13,800, Drew phrased his wager as "Um, 12."
He did not specify the exact figure he wanted to wager, shortening the dollar amount.
Ken intervened and said, "for $1,200," assuming that was the figure he wanted to bet.
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It read, "Philosopher Jacques Derrida was born in this African country when it was governed by France, but left for Paris in 1949."
Drew didn't object and answered the clue correctly as "Algeria" to have a slightly larger lead, "That's my Master's!"
Fans were quick to point out his wager amount could have been $12, $1,200, or $12,000.
If he had meant to wager $12,000 (he won his previous game of a $10,000 Daily Double), he would have won the game in a runaway.
This discrepancy seemingly prevented himself from a guaranteed victory going into Final Jeopardy.
Instead, he had $15,800, Jonquil had $10,400, and Bob had $8,600 going into the final clue.
The "AUTHORS' WIVES" clue read, "When asked if she was the inspiration for the wife in a 1922 novel, this woman replied "No, she was much fatter."
No one correctly answered, "Nora Joyce?" and Drew dropped $6,000 to win with $9,800 for a two-day total of $33,282.
FANS REACT TO '12'
Fans flooded Reddit discussing the Daily Double incident and who was to blame here, as it nearly cost Drew the win.
"Drew shortening the Daily Double wager was odd, he probably shouldn’t do that anymore," one fan wrote.
"No kidding. I had a debate with a couple people, and that could have meant $12, $1,200, or $12,000," wrote another.
"From the hesitation and clue value, I thought $1,200, but with his DD and FJ wager yesterday, all three are plausible."
"He probably meant 12,000 I think," argued a third.
"I agree," wrote a fourth. "It was ambiguous and should be avoided, but if he actually wanted to wager 12000, don't you think he would have clarified when Ken said '1200?'."
A fifth blamed production, "That's another rule for the show to make. The confusion caused by possibly shortening what he meant (1200 or 12000) is legitimate."
A sixth wrote, "All I’ll say is Drew saying “12” matches up exactly with his portrayal on Survivor……… I am really not a fan of him."
But others were into it, "Ok not the most satisfying win and i might be getting ahead of myself here but omg I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS NEW KID!!!"
Drew will go for his third win tomorrow night against two new challengers.
ADRIANA GETS OUTPLAYED
This comes after Drew dominated his first match against returning champion Adriana, 34, and Tekla Sauter.
Adriana, an archivist from West Lafayette, Indiana, was the shoo-in favorite to win her 16th game in a row.
So it was quite a shocker when Drew, a Michigan grad student getting a Masters at Oxford, snuffed her torch.
In the interview segment, Drew got the elephant in the studio out of the way; “It’s not my first rodeo, Ken. I had the privilege of being on Survivor recently.
"I lasted 23 days of 26 with no shelter or food, which affected the noggin a little bit, but I'm hoping to be back on course for Jeopardy!."
Ken asked Drew how they compare. “Survivor is hard on the body, but Jeopardy! is hard on the mind, so I’ll tell you after,” he quipped. Ken laughed, shadily saying Drew was “reserving” his real feelings.
In Double Jeopardy!, the tribe has spoken moment came when Drew found the second Daily Double and fearlessly wagered $10,000.
He defeated Adriana in a runaway in the shocker of all shockers, and they awkwardly exchanged a painstaking handshake.
“As Alex Trebek used to say, we have a Giant Killer on our hands, rarely as giant as this!” Ken, 50, told Basile. “Congrats Drew on the big win!”
Adriana had won nearly $350,000 before she was knocked off the show by Basile, who placed sixth on Survivor 45.
Ken pointed out that Harmeyer had the 11th-longest winning streak in Jeopardy! history before her loss.
He also confirmed that she will compete in the next Tournament of Champions.
Fans were shocked after witnessing the huge upset - to a Survivor alum, no less- and voiced their reactions across social media.
“I’m actually a little sad we’re losing Adriana Harmeyer from @Jeopardy after so many days,” one fan tweeted.
“Adriana harmeyer is ALWAYS a champion to me,” another person wrote.
A third person said, “Weird sadness / nerd rage over #Jeopardy today.”
"Well, I was expecting Drew to do well, but I didn’t think he’d have a runaway. Hope to see him get at least 4 wins and make the TOC as well," commented another.
"I like Drew! He seems like a goofball. I wonder if they asked him to stop pointing at the clues after the first break," wrote one more.
'HATERS HAVE CALLED ME KNOW-IT-ALL'
Drew who was on Survivor in 2023 was announced as a Jeopardy! contestant last month.
The 22-year-old immediately praised his intellect on Survivor and also did so after being booted from the top six.
"I'm one of the smartest people you've ever had on Survivor. Now, I don't say that to brag. I say that factually," he told Parade.
"I'm a great talker. I can sell, sell, sell. So I thought that those attributes would set me up pretty well in any Final Three combinations."
The Ivy League grad student, the youngest of his season, used his trivia knowledge in every Tribal Council confessional.
Drew would use history, philosophy, and other random topics to weave his experiences on the island and his mindset in the game into long soliloquies.
"Yeah I found him kinda arrogant on the show," one user posted when it was announced he'd be on Jeopardy! last month.
"Good for him, but dude was pretty full of himself on Survivor. Called himself one of the smartest to ever play the game," someone else posted at the time.
"The haters have called me a know-it-all," Drew wrote on Instagram, announcing his appearance. "It’s time to prove them right."
Drew isn't the only Jeopardy! champ with a Surivor connection.
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Juveria Zaheer is the older sister of Omar Zaheer, who competed on Survivor 42 in 2022. Juveria won the Second Chance tournament and Champions Wildcard, winning $100,000.
Jeopardy! airs at 7 pm Eastern on ABC - check your local listings.
