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We Had The First Ever Jeopardy Tiebreaker In A Non-Tournament Game Last Night

Today, we saw the first-ever Jeopardy! tiebreaker played in a regular game. When it comes to tiebreakers, Jeopardy! takes a cue from the world of sports and sets up a “sudden death” match: The tied contestants are given a single clue from a new category and the first person to respond correctly wins the game.

The tiebreaker was first introduced in tournaments. The judges felt that a tiebreaker yielding one winner kept the gameplay brisk and competitive. In the years following the lift of the five-game maximum (the rule that contestants could only win up to five regular games), the judges concluded that it was fitting to bring that same level of competition to the regular games.

Although the tiebreaker has been in place for a couple of years now (and you’ve already seen it in tournament play), today’s show was the first time we’ve actually seen it in action in a regular game. Laura and Sarah ended Final Jeopardy! with the same score, and thus were given a single clue to determine who would be the winner.

What a rush that was! A shot of adrenaline to the chest reminiscent of the one Vincent Vega gave Mia Wallace once upon a time. Jeopardy is a sink or swim show and the only way a tie should be settled is with sudden death. Get that co-champions bullshit out of Alex Trebek’s face. Trebek knows that ties are like kissing your sister and even in 2018, the GOAT of gameshows doesn’t get down with any of that incest nonsense. Once Laura and Sarah somehow knotted things up (I’m sure there was strategy to their bids that I am not smart enough to understand), Quick Trigger Trebek brought that question right into their kitchen. And it was great. Every sport should adopt that type of quickness to settle a tie. Survival of the fittest. No need for a coin toss in football. Put the pigskin at the 50 yard line and let the team that crosses the goal line first take home the W. So congrats to Laura for staying calm, cool, collected, and making Jeopardy history. Even though Laura is lucky that this cold-blooded killer wasn’t going head-to-head with her.

Alternate title for blog: Does This Look Like The Faces Of 3 Nerds That Got Their Brains Put Into A Pretzel Because Scores Were Tied After Final Jeopardy?

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