‘Jeopardy!’ Fans Revisit the Most Consequential Daily Doubles Ever

Daily Doubles can make or break a game of Jeopardy! — or, as fans are discussing on Reddit, a contestant’s legacy.

In a recent thread in the r/Jeopardy forum, fans have been naming their picks for Daily Doubles that changed the course of Jeopardy! history.

Reddit user bluegambit875 kicked off the discussion, writing about one Daily Double “that seemed to have an outsized impact in the superchamp era.”

That Daily Double, bluegambit875 wrote, came during the first game of 2014’s Battle of the Decades finals, when Roger Craig, pictured above, bet everything on a Daily Double about medical terms. Unfortunately, Craig couldn’t name the five-letter term for swelling or bloating in the body due to an excess build-up of fluid — it was “edema” — and lost $10,200.

“If Roger hit that DD, then he could have runaway with Game 1 and plausibly have won the entire tournament. That could have gained him entry into the various superchamp tournaments that have come since then (most notably Jeopardy! Masters),” bluegambit875 wrote. “While there are a lot of ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda’ moments in game shows, this seemed to be a turning point. … To me, that one missed DD was more than a single missed clue but a missed chance to be among the super-elite champs that we are seeing today.”

(Craig, who’s married to champ Julia Collins, got a comeback run in this year’s Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament, however, and won the $50,000 runner-up prize.)

Reddit user YangClaw, however, nominated James Holzhauer’s Daily Double in his second-ever Jeopardy! game — in which Holzhauer earned $11,914 on a clue about Sarah Lawrence College — as “perhaps the single biggest what-if moment on the current timeline.”

Had Holzhauer missed that Daily Double, he “would have retired as a skilled but unlucky one-day champ, and since this was before the Champions Wildcard era, we never would have seen him again,” YangClaw said. “Without James’ insane 2019 run, we don’t get the Greatest of All Time event, and if [Ken Jennings] doesn’t have that major ratings bonanza of a platform right before [Alex Trebek’s] passing, maybe things play out differently with the new host search. Perhaps we do eventually see a very different GOAT event between Ken, [Matt] Amodio, and Amy [Schneider].”

Reddit user DeezNuts90210, meanwhile, nominated others, including Emma Boettcher’s successful Daily Doubles from the 2019 game in which she defeated Holzhauer and ended his 33-game streak while he was about $58,000 shy from beating Ken Jennings’ record $2.52 million in regular-season winnings.

That Redditor also highlighted the Daily Double that got Rhone Talsma in range of Amy Schneider’s score in a 2022 game, ultimately leading to the end of Schneider’s 41-game streak.

“All this to say that Daily Doubles really do change the dynamic of the game and the trajectory of the shows history,” DeezNuts90210 added.

Jeopardy!, Weekdays, Check Local Listings