The long-running “Jeopardy!” game show had its first-ever sudden death tiebreaker after two contestants ended up with the same amount of cash following the Final Jeopardy round on Thursday's episode.
The history-making event came after the rules were changed in 2016 to prevent co-champions from occurring. The new rules say that if a two- or three way-tie occurred after the Final Jeopardy round, another category and clue will be given to break the tie, with the first person buzzing in with a correct answer winning the game. Subsequent rounds would be given until one winner emerged.
The sudden death rounds have no cash value and do not increase the winner’s take.
In Thursday’s game, Laura and Sarah were tied with $6,799 after all three contestants gave the wrong answer to a Final Jeopardy question. Laura was able to answer the sudden death question about who called for a snap parliamentary election in June 2017 and won the game with, “Who is [Theresa] May?”
Other rare scenarios detailed on the “Jeopardy!” website include when all three contestants lose Final Jeopardy and end up with zero (there is no champion and the next game starts with three new players) and if all three players are in negative points at the end of Double Jeopardy (no final Jeopardy round is played and there is no champion).
Twitter fans were flabbergasted by the first-ever sudden death tiebreaker.
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