DANGER! champion Adriana Harmeyer continued her winning ways on Thursday, collecting a promising two-day total of $46,200 and lots of praise from fans.
She defeated Sandee Baker and Brad Miller – who heard an unusual musical response from Ken Jennings – in an all-out escape.
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The Indiana art archivist was back for more after a strong debut win of $26,200 on Wednesday.
Everyone wanted to see if she could make the next big run of the season after such a big first win.
In danger! round, despite being blank in the $2,000 Daily Double, Adriana advanced with $9,000, Brad had $1,600, and Sandee had $1,800.
On Double Jeopardy!, things got complicated when a Third Eye Blind clue turned out to be less than perfect.
‘NO!’
Ken, 49, read: “This ordinal band sang about a “semi-enchanted kind of life” in a song with lots of doo doo doo, doo doo-doo doos.”
Brad guessed incorrectly, “Three Doors Down,” to which Ken decided with a rude, “No!”
Sandee appeared next with the made-up band “Third Day,” to which Ken said more gently, “Also incorrect,” and she cringed.
Adriana saved the day by correctly guessing the post-grunge band “Third Eye Blind” while everyone laughed nervously, and Ken assured, “You got there, yeah.”
From then on, Adriana didn’t look back, adding $4,000 in the second Daily Double, while Brad, a distant third, added $500 in the last.
Nearly two-thirds of the way through the round, the game was already over, meaning her opponents were just playing for fun, while Adriana never had a moment of difficulty leading at every break.
By Final Jeopardy! she got away with $22,200 (and 28 correct answers, 2 incorrect), while Brad had $3,700 and Sandee had $3,000.
The “American Banking” clue read: “By 1930, a bank named after this area of New York known as the slums was the largest savings bank in the U.S. in terms of total deposits.”
Only Brad was right with “Bowery,” and Ken tried hard to hide his surprise at having succeeded.
Adriana spent just $2,200 to win $20,000 and a practical total of two days.
‘VERY IMPRESSIVE!’
Fans took to social media commenting on the suddenly powerful player and predicting that she would already be in the next Tournament of Champions.
“Great game from Adriana, and she feels like she has a good chance of four or more at this rate!” one Redditor wrote.
“Adriana managed to answer 30 clues and got 28 of them right! Very impressive,” wrote another.
Adriana will face two more opponents tomorrow night to see if she can get through the weekend as the three-day champion.
So far, the qualifiers for the next ToC (all women) are five-day winners Alison Betts and Dr. Amy Hummel and Lisa Ann Walter from Celebrity Jeopardy! That said, with four wins, Grant DeYoung and Amar Kakirde will likely enter the fray as well.
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![Viewers predicted: 'Looks like she has a good chance of four or more [wins] at this rate!'](https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2024/05/host-ken-jennings-shouts-no-905821701.jpg)
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‘FUN TEST ON THE INTERNET’
Adriana is a clinical assistant professor and archivist of University History at Purdue University Archives and Special Collections.
She said in a recent interview that she auditioned for the show online for fun and was surprised to be contacted a few weeks later.
“I had taken the test online a few times before, but this time I went online one night and took the test for fun.”
“I didn’t expect anything to happen – I just thought of it as another fun Internet test.”
Danger! Host timeline
Danger! has had a tumultuous history regarding hosts following the death of the iconic Alex Trebek in 2020. Here are every host since the game show’s inception in 1964.
Art Fleming – from 1964 to 1975, he was the original host of the daytime version of Jeopardy! on NBC.
Alex Trebek – From 1984 to 2020, the late, great Alex hosted the modern iteration of Jeopardy! for 36 years until his death from pancreatic cancer.
Guest Hosts – 2020 to 2021, Jeopardy! tested a series of guest hosts for one- or two-week stints, including Anderson Cooper, LaVar Burton and Aaron Rodgers.
Mike Richards – 2021, he was named host for a week before resigning amid controversy. He was the show’s executive producer at the time.
Mayim Bialik – 2021 to 2023, when Mike was announced as the show’s new host, Mayim was chosen to host tournaments and primetime specials.
Mayim and Ken Jennings – 2022 to 2023, 74-time champion Ken (the winningest contestant of all time) joined Mayim as guest host and they shared hosting duties.
Ken Jennings – 2023 to present. Last December, Mayim announced on Instagram that she would “no longer” host Jeopardy! After a long hiatus, having defended the writers’ strike, Ken was named sole host.
Ken now runs all editions of Jeopardy! including Celebrity Jeopardy!, the late night show and other primetime specials such as Masters.
THAT WAS KEN-DID
During Adriana’s first victory, opponent Brian O’Shea suffered a painful Daily Double failure that Ken didn’t exactly sugarcoat.
Brian found the last Daily Double on “WHITE HOUSE WEDDINGS” for $1,600 and chose to bet $6,000, or nearly the entire third-place score, to enter the game.
The clue read: “The first ceremony was in 1812, when Lucy Payne Washington, sister of this First Lady, married Supreme Court Justice Thomas Todd.”
Instantly latching onto the “Washington” part of the clue, he responded quickly and confidently: “Martha Washington!”
“No, I’m sorry,” Ken, 49, said bluntly, as Brian walked up to the podium with a distraught expression and walked away with $100.
The host pointed out how his response didn’t track the date and how he ignored the date, implying he didn’t read the entire clue.
Ken explained: “In 1812, it would have been Dolley Madison.”
Brian was a good sport and selected the next clue, although he didn’t have time to recover his score.
Danger! airs at 7pm ET on ABC – check your local listings.
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
