Joey Quismorio came to play—and left with the crown. The product manager from San Antonio, Texas, clinched his first win on Jeopardy! Wednesday night, outmaneuvering returning champ Stella Trout in a game that flipped on a high-stakes Final Jeopardy! clue.
Trout, a software engineer from Houston riding a one-day, $28,800 win streak, controlled the board for much of the game. She swept all three Daily Doubles, including both in Double Jeopardy!, but left room for a comeback by wagering conservatively. A $6,000 bet on her third Daily Double would have locked it up. She went smaller.
That opened the door for Quismorio, who capitalized. The Final Jeopardy! clue in AMERICAN HISTORY asked for the historical figure who had a vision of “white spirits and black spirits engaged in battle” before an 1831 revolt. Quismorio nailed it with “Who was Nat Turner?”—the only correct response—and leapt into the winner’s circle with $17,201. Trout finished at $15,200.
Jay Borsom, a trivia content creator and DJ from Plainfield, Illinois, rounded out the trio, ending with $1,200.
The episode’s early game belonged to Trout. She landed the first Daily Double in GIVE US THE SHORT VERSION, correctly identifying “What is dino?” from the clue about a shortened lizard-related word. She followed that with back-to-back Daily Doubles in Double Jeopardy!—nailing “What is Dartmouth?” in COLLEGES & UNIVERSITIES and “What is farrier (ferrier)?” in THE SAME LETTER 3 TIMES. But those safe bets left just enough space for Quismorio’s late-game pivot.
One collective miss: the entire board whiffed on a SPORTS FLICKS clue that referenced the short-lived TV adaptation of The Bad News Bears starring Jack Warden.
Quismorio returns Thursday to defend his title.
