โJeopardy!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 wasnโt the first time something like that has happened.
On June 27, the showโs Instagram account answered a fan question asking if that has ever taken place before.
โAt least once! Back in 2001, Bill OโDonnell 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 โStupid Answers.โ
โLast name of the engineer who built the first Ferris wheel,โ the clue read.
โWhoโs my grandfather, George Ferris?โ OโDonnell rang in.
โAre you serious,โ host Alex Trebek replied.
โYeah,โ OโDonnell responded with a laugh.
โHow about that?โ Trebek said.
โMy great-grandfather, actually,โ OโDonnell said, correcting himself.
โItโs not just a stupid answer. Itโs a stupid answer within the family. And thatโs great. Go again,โ Trebek said.
Trebek later chatted with OโDonnell about the coincidence.
โNow, isnโt it amazing?โ he said. โWe 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 โJeopardy!โ episode, the Final Jeopardy! question read, โIn 1896, the Vassar-educated wife of this man wrote, โThousands of dollars may be paid for a copy of Shakespeare.โโ
Emily Croke answered โFolger,โ making her the lone contestant to get it right, before she revealed her connection to the name.
โThat was my great-great-great-aunt Emily,โ she said while smiling in a clip shared by the โJeopardy!โ Instagram account.
โThe one we mentioned in the clue is the person you, Emily Croke, are named after?โ host Ken Jennings asked.
โYes,โ Croke replied.
That prompted fan reaction on Instagram, including one person who assumed a family connection to a clue had never happened.
โI donโt think that in the entire history of Jeopardy, that any clue before was accidentally written about a contestantโs family!!โ one person wrote.
โThe 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. โWe have a better chance of winning the lotteries!!!!๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅโค๏ธโค๏ธ๐.โ