October 9, 2025
โ€˜Jeopardy!โ€™ Revisits 2001 Contestant Who Had Family Tie to Clue



โ€œJeopardy!โ€ had a quirky moment last week when a contestant revealed she had a family connection to the clue during Final Jeopardy! As it turns out, that wasnโ€™t the first time something like that has happened.

On June 27, the showโ€™s Instagram account answered a fan question asking if that has ever taken place before.

โ€œAt least once! Back in 2001, Bill Oโ€™Donnell got a clue about his great-grandfather, George Ferris,โ€ the show captioned a clip of the moment.

The occurrence happened during the $200 clue in the category โ€œStupid Answers.โ€

โ€œLast name of the engineer who built the first Ferris wheel,โ€ the clue read.

โ€œWhoโ€™s my grandfather, George Ferris?โ€ Oโ€™Donnell rang in.

โ€œAre you serious,โ€ host Alex Trebek replied.

โ€œYeah,โ€ Oโ€™Donnell responded with a laugh.

โ€œHow about that?โ€ Trebek said.

โ€œMy great-grandfather, actually,โ€ Oโ€™Donnell said, correcting himself.

โ€œItโ€™s not just a stupid answer. Itโ€™s a stupid answer within the family. And thatโ€™s great. Go again,โ€ Trebek said.

Trebek later chatted with Oโ€™Donnell about the coincidence.

โ€œNow, isnโ€™t it amazing?โ€ he said. โ€œWe were talking, our producer and I, during the commercial break about what the odds must be that we would write a clue about the Ferris wheel. You would ring in on that clue. It would come up in your game, and he would turn out to be your great-grandfather.โ€

During the June 23 โ€œJeopardy!โ€ episode, the Final Jeopardy! question read, โ€œIn 1896, the Vassar-educated wife of this man wrote, โ€˜Thousands of dollars may be paid for a copy of Shakespeare.โ€™โ€

Emily Croke answered โ€œFolger,โ€ making her the lone contestant to get it right, before she revealed her connection to the name.

โ€œThat was my great-great-great-aunt Emily,โ€ she said while smiling in a clip shared by the โ€œJeopardy!โ€ Instagram account.

โ€œThe one we mentioned in the clue is the person you, Emily Croke, are named after?โ€ host Ken Jennings asked.

โ€œYes,โ€ Croke replied.

That prompted fan reaction on Instagram, including one person who assumed a family connection to a clue had never happened.

โ€œI donโ€™t think that in the entire history of Jeopardy, that any clue before was accidentally written about a contestantโ€™s family!!โ€ one person wrote.

โ€œThe odds are astounding considering the longevity of the show and the probability of being on the show when the question is asked and the millions of applicants who apply to play!!!!โ€ one person wrote. โ€œWe have a better chance of winning the lotteries!!!!๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿ”ฅ๐Ÿ”ฅโค๏ธโค๏ธ๐Ÿ˜‚.โ€



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