Arthur Chu - 11-11-14 6937 - LR.JPG
Arthur Chu, with "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek
(Jeopardy Productions Inc.)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Arthur Chu's bid for a "Jeopardy!" Tournament of Champions victory came up short in a show that aired Friday evening, as the Broadview Heights resident settled for runner-up.
Chu made a run in the second half of the show, but a missed Daily Double cost him. He had started the show $10,000 behind the eventual champion, Ben Ingram. As usual, Chu sought out the Daily Doubles and went after the higher-priced clues during the game.
Chu pocketed $100,000 for his efforts, meaning he made around $400,000 from his stint on the popular TV game show. Totals from two games in the finals were combined to determine the big winner. The first game of the finals was broadcast on Thursday.
Chu ended the tournament with $15,600. Ingram totaled $27,999. Julia Collins had $12,000. Ingram, an IT consultant from South Carolina, was paid $250,000 for the win. Collins, from outside Chicago, took home $50,000.
Collins ran off 20 victories this season in regular "Jeopardy!" games, blowing by the 11 wins Chu registered earlier. Chu declared that a match with Collins was the one people wanted to see in this tournament. But each game needs three contestants, and Ingram made the most of his opportunity. He had won eight times in 2013 to qualify. Each of these contestants won two games to reach the finals.
After slow starts in each game, Chu put up determined second halves to make things interesting. But his chance for victory was thwarted by the missed Daily Double on Friday and by whiffing on Thursday's Final Jeopardy.
In that Daily Double, Chu bet his $7,000 stake and failed to come up with the correct response of "village," for what Marshall McLuhan said Electronic Interdependence recreates the world in the image of a global ... Chu said it was "web."
Chu viewed the Friday broadcast during a watch party at the Boneyard Beer Farm in Broadview Heights. About three dozen people were with him, including his wife, Eliza Blair. He found time to use Twitter while the show was on. About that Daily Double, he said: "I wasn't looking forward to reliving that moment."
He battled back though, and led Ingram $10,400 to $6,600 going into Final Jeopardy. Chu went all in on his bet, while Ingram went conservative. Neither ended up knowing what Shakespearean play had a city in its title that was not located in Europe. It is Tyre. Collins also missed it.
It was the first Final Jeopardy miss for Ingram in all the games he has played.
Chu lamented a lost opportunity on that clue. "I was so bummed that I didn't have enough of a lead, but then I got my category for FJ (Final Jeopardy)," he tweeted. He said he had never missed a Shakespearean clue on the show.
After the game, Chu tweeted that he spent a lot of time prior to the tournament studying sports questions. Turns out, none were asked.