Winner Joey DeSena has admitted to an ‘embarrassing’ error during tonight’s tense episode as he competed in the Champions Wildcard Tournament.
Thursday’s tough game in the nail-biting Jeopardy! postseason even left host Ken Jennings stumped as the game show buff confessed the final clue was too difficult.
The 2025 Winter Champions Wildcard Tournament continued on Thursday with returning winners from past games coming back to try to extend their Jeopardy! resume.
Joey won two games during season 41 and already accumulated $46,698.
The development engineer from Raleigh, North Carolina was joined by Eamonn Campbell, a lawyer originally from Manchester, Vermont and Mehal Shah, a software engineer from Seattle, Washington.
On the very first clue of the game, Joey came out swinging as it turned out to be a Daily Double.
Under the “History” category, host Ken read the clue: “Before a papal tribunal in 1633, he stated, ‘I abjure, curse & detest the aforesaid errors.’”
He correctly answered “Who was Galileo?” – adding $1,000 to his total from the jump.
Going into the Double Jeopardy! round, Mehal had made some quick-witted responses to secure the lead with $6,600.
Joey was in second with $6,200 while Eamonn remained in third with $2,800.
Ken then introduced the next round of categories – which led to Joey admitting his “embarrassing” mistake.
“SHORT STORIES, COMMON BANDS, TRAVEL USA, THE JETÉ SET, MAKE MINE MATH, MORE OR LESS,” the categories for today’s game were revealed.
However, it was one category in particular that led to some confusion for the returning champ in the middle of the game.
After the episode aired, Joey went online to share some behind-the-scenes secrets from his time on the Alex Trebek stage.
Jeopardy! fans divided over ‘silly’ final question that stumped all three contestants and cost returning champ the game
“Embarrassingly, we were about three clues into the category before I realized ‘The Jeté Set’ was about ballet, and not just asking about random French words,” he wrote.
He went on to share more of his thoughts about the game and paid respects to his competitors.
“Nothing but respect for Mehal and Eamonn in this game. Two tremendous competitors (and more importantly, great people) that I enjoyed getting to know both during our sequestration in the morning and later on after this game.
“Fun fact: We spent most of our sequestration time playing Contact and watching The Princess Bride in the Wheel of Fortune green room – a true crowd-pleaser.
“Going into Final, I felt very good about not needing to bet much to get a wildcard spot, even if Mehal surpassed me to win the game.
“But the wager depended on the category. When I saw ‘Trees,’ I couldn’t bet $0 fast enough,” Joey wrote.