Jeopardy!’s Ken Jennings makes ‘disrespectful’ comments at Mattea Roach on Masters Night 3 as Victoria Groce rises

DANGER! The Masters 2024 continued on Wednesday, with Yogesh Raut winning big and Victoria Groce remaining undefeated by defeating James Holzhauer.

Ken Jennings received criticism for the way he presented the highly anticipated Victoria/James match, which also included Mattea Roach.

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Danger! Masters Season 2 aired its third act of two quarterfinal matches on ABC tonight.

The six elite-level competitors are defending champion James Holzhauer, Amy Schneider, Matt Amodio, Mattea Roach and newcomers Victoria and Yogesh Raut.

After a record-breaking win in the last episode, James tied with Yogesh for second place, while Victoria had yet to lose, leading overall.

The third episode left fans eager to see if the newcomers would keep winning and if Victoria would be able to beat James in their long-awaited showdown.

‘MATTEA TOO’

But Ken noticed it surprisingly and directly between matches.

He told viewers: “Coming soon is the first match between two heavy hitters, James Holzhauer and Victoria Groce, with Mattea Roach in the mix too.”

Fans didn’t love the comment as they felt it was rude to Mattea.

“A bit disrespectful not to call Mattea a ‘heavy hitter’; they didn’t win 23 games in their initial run of Jeopardy!

“Stay strong Mattea,” wrote another.

See how the games went, plus Ken’s contempt for Mattea.

GAME 1 – YOGESH NABS ‘BRAGGY’ VICTORY

In Game 1, Matt faced Yogesh and Amy – with only Yogesh winning a game so far.

A match point here for Amy was especially crucial, as she has zero points overall and came in last place.

After Jeopardy! round, things were neck and neck with Yogesh at 5400, Matt at 2200 and Amy at 4600.

In interviews, Amy sang the Dayton, Ohio theme song, Matt talked about being a Jane Austen fan, and Yogesh bragged about the long list of contestants he had on his podcast.

On Double Jeopardy!, Matt immediately found a Daily Double, tying the scores, so Yogesh raised eyebrows, betting all of his 15,000 on the remainder and getting it right.

Suddenly Yogesh had 30,000, then the game was over and he won his second runaway victory.

Going into Final Jeopardy, Yogesh had 36,400, Amy 12,200, and Matt 7,200.

Matt and Amy got the clue right as “Pirates of Penzance”, giving Yogesh 3 points, Amy on the board with 1 point and Matt 0.

“Just when I thought Amy had a chance! Yogesh with the brave DD,” wrote a Redditor.

“Wow Yogesh on that real DD at the end of the game! Damn. Nerves of steel,” wrote another.

“Yogesh can’t stop bragging but he backed it up by winning a #JeopardyMasters game,” wrote a third.

GAME 2 – THE HUNTERS… AND MATTEA

In Game 2, Victoria finally faced James, her co-star in The Chase, with Mattea up against the apparent buzzsaws.

At your peril! round, James found a late Daily Double with 5,800, but missed, falling to 0. At the end of the round, Victoria had a stunning 6,000, James 1,400 and Mattea 1,400.

During the interviews, Ken asked if Victoria and James were “rivals” on The Chase, the two looked at each other and James joked, “we intrinsically compete with each other.”

In Double Jeopardy!, James caught the second Daily Double and Victoria found the last one by going “all in”, imitating her co-worker.

“Bad technique,” James joked, so she got it right, giving him 28,000.

But for the first time at the 2024 Masters, it wasn’t a breakout, and Victoria had 29,800, James 17,600 and Mattea 7,000.

No one made Final Jeopardy and Victoria survived the scare to win, going three for three and staying ahead of the pack.

She got three more match points, James 1, and Mattea got 0.

One fan wrote: “James actually beat Victoria on Coryat’s score in this game and without a doubt outplayed her, she was lucky James missed the first DD. One thing tonight was confirmed for sure: Victoria, James and Yogesh are leagues above the other 3.”

Now, Victoria has 9 points, Yogesh 7, James 5, Matt, Amy and Mattea have 1.

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STAY INFORMED ON MASTERS 2024

The Masters began on May 1st and is scheduled to end with a grand final on May 22nd.

The annual spinoff aims to determine the best player in a given year.

The Masters grand prize is $500,000, a flashy Alex Trebek trophy to honor the late iconic host and the title of Masters Champion.

Fear not, show traditionalists, as the Masters will not interfere with normal play and both will air on those nights.

Each Masters episode consists of two half-hour games, and the winner of each receives three points, while the runner-up receives one.

The four players with the most points will advance to the semifinals, and the top three will face each other in the finals.

The bottom two will be eliminated before the two semi-final episodes starting on Friday, May 17th.

After the elimination of the fourth placed team, the final will air on May 22nd.

The round-robin tournament sees all combinations of the celebrity contestants face off before any eliminations take place, and everything is determined by points rather than dollar values.

FINAL THREE?

James is the one to beat, and that’s no secret as he is considered the best besides host Ken- and won the 2023 Masters.

But Yogesh and Victoria – who had winning streaks of just three and one day respectively – clearly came to play.

In the debut, Victoria scored a 30,000 escape that Ken called a “statement”, and Yogesh defeated James as well.

Victoria and James are (or were?) co-stars on ABC’s sister show The Chase, a big draw this year.

James only lost once during the Masters last year, so it was especially surprising to see him lose at the finish.

But James bounced back with a huge 46,000 win in the second game, so he wasn’t going to let the newbies go so easily.

On Reddit, fans are already predicting a “Yogesh, James, Victoria top three,” while others are convinced Victoria will win it all.

Another big attraction is the rivalry between Yogesh and James.

The special’s “villains” grew up in the same area of ​​Michigan and did trivia together and Yogesh also once bragged about being “better” than James at high school trivia during his initial season.

MEET THE MASTERS

James is a 32-time winner and makes his best living in professional sports in Las Vegas – known for his “all in” Daily Doubles and big wins – he won Season 1 of the Masters in a breeze.

Mattea, a 23-time winner, returns as runner-up and almost defeated James in last year’s final.

Matt, a 38-time winner, came third last year and was the only player to score a win against James in the entire feature, but he was also “very inconsistent”.

“I feel like a stronger competitor,” Amodio said in preparation at a recent event attended by The US Sun.

Amy, a 40-time champion, came second last last year and also lost the recent JIT to Victoria – she was chosen as Producer’s Choice due to her popularity.

Amy being named Producer’s Choice was not without its drama, as she came in last place on Season 1 of the Masters.

She also decisively lost the recent Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament for Groce, only for both to advance to the Masters anyway.

Amy even acknowledged the onstage reaction at the premiere: “I think I belong here and I’m grateful for the opportunity and excited to be here,” Schneider told Jennings.

“But it also feels like it gives me something more to prove, that I couldn’t come back in the same way as the other competitors.”

Yogesh is a controversial three-day champion who nailed it by winning the intense 2024 Tournament of Champions.

Victoria, the 2005 One-Day Champion, qualified by winning the recent Jeopardy’s Invitational Tournament against Amy and Andrew He, which is no small feat.

Danger! The Masters continues on Friday, May 10, with Games 7 and 8 on ABC at 8 p.m. ET. and on Hulu.

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