DANGER! Masters 2024 continued on Friday with an unexpectedly offbeat joke added to a familiar clue from host Ken Jennings.
Amy Schneider finally achieved her first victory, and in the second match the almost inevitable top three faced each other in a spectacular game.
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Danger! Masters Season 2 aired its fourth round of two quarterfinal matches on ABC.
The six elite-level competitors are defending champion James Holzhauer, Amy, Matt Amodio, Mattea Roach and newcomers Victoria Groce and Yogesh Raut.
It was clear that the two newcomers and James are head and shoulders above the other three and will be the finalists.
The night saw them, and the bottom three, go head-to-head to see who, on the bottom side, could get a win and whether Victoria could remain undefeated.
GAME 1 – KEN’S DIRTY JOKE
In Game 1, the three lowest scoring competitors faced off: Matt, Amy and Mattea – each with just one match point per piece.
But before Amy’s much-needed three points came a very cheeky comment from Ken.
The clue in “Kids and Parenting” on Double Jeopardy! read: “Regressing this process when you thought it was done is frustrating, but remember, no one walks down the aisle in diapers.”
The correct answer was: “What is it: potty training?”
When Mattea Roach called, Ken introduced an addition that no one expected.
He said calmly, “Unless they like it.”
Mattea started laughing at the NSFW implication before giving the correct answer, holding the podium with her hands over her face.
Social media went into meltdown over Ken’s addition, especially because he caused a familiar lead to take a very family-unfriendly turn.
One Redditor reacted: “’No one walks down the aisle in a diaper unless you like it -Ken Jennings.’”
Another wrote: “I’m still laughing about this. I don’t remember Ken ever adding a clue like this before, but he nailed it.”
“Do they teach that in school in Utah?” joked a third.
Amy scored her first win of the season with $36,001, while Mattea came in second with $18,000, and Matt narrowly missed match point with $16,000.
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GAME 2 – PREVIEW OF THE THREE ‘EPIC’ FINALS?
In Game 2, the big guns came out when Victoria, Yogesh and James faced off, leading with 9, 7 and 5 match points respectively.
Victoria came in behind on Double Jeopardy! in a rare moment and knew she had some “catch ups”.
After some of the best games in memory, the pair were tied at three at one point for $17,400.
Going into Final Jeopardy, they were tied, with Victoria at $20,800, Yogesh at $18,400, and James at $18,000.
Although Yogesh and Victoria hit the track like “Williams and Kazan”, the latter bet small and was beaten for the first time – and James came third, another rarity.
While fans were surprised to see Victoria miss out on a win, they took to Reddit saying they seemed to already be watching the finalists.
“What a game. Amazing. These three are head and shoulders above the other three,” wrote one fan.
“Game 2 is one of the best Jeopardy games I’ve ever seen,” wrote another.
“I never would have imagined last year that they could bring in two new Masters who could keep up with (let alone surpass) James,” wrote a third.
“Damn. Assuming Victoria, Yogesh and James make it to the finals… the finals are going to be epic,” wrote another.
The rankings now have Victoria with 10 points, Yogesh with 10, James with 5, Amy with 4, Mattea with 2 and Matt with 1.
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STAY INFORMED ON MASTERS 2024
The Masters began on May 1st and will air on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, concluding 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 – and twice more since.
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 Monday, May 13th with Games 9 and 10 on ABC at 8pm ET. and on Hulu.
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
