DANGER! contestant Adriana Harmeyer joined the five-win club on Tuesday, securing a total of $116,200, a spot in the Tournament of Champions and the hearts of fans.
Her risk-averse strategy helped her defeat Christina Paul, who gave Ken Jennings a scare in the question-and-answer segment, and Travis Kissire.
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Ken, 49, opened tonight’s game by saying that Adriana could officially compete in the next Tournament of Champions.
Before Purdue, Indiana’s history professor did just that, Christina surprised the host with the story of a harrowing weather event.
“You couldn’t travel on a very important day,” Ken suggested.
“That’s right,” Christina replied, “I couldn’t go to my brother’s wedding because of a volcanic eruption.”
“Wow!” Ken shouted with wide eyes, taking a step back.
“I was living in Barbados at the time and there was a volcano that erupted next door in St. Vincent and I discovered that planes can’t fly through ash clouds,” she explained.
“Stuck in Barbados,” Ken commented. “But I hope he forgave you.”
“Yes,” she said, implying that everyone was safe, to which Ken replied, “That’s a relief!”
After Danger! round, Adriana advanced once again with $6,200, Christina (losing a $1,000 Daily Double) $600, Travis $3,000.
In double jeopardy! Adriana let her opponents find the last Daily Doubles, with Travis losing his, losing $3,800, and Christina winning $1,000 in hers.
Adriana rose to a big old-fashioned total; she was the only one to get correct answers in the last 15 clues, running away.
She entered Final Jeopardy with $17,400, Travis with $4,800, and Christina with $2,400.
The “Fictional Characters” clue read: “This character from a popular book series beginning in 1934 promises: ‘I will stay until the wind changes.’”
Adriana and Travis were right on target with “Mary Poppins,” with Adriana adding $7,000 to win $24,400 and a tremendous five-day total.
She was overjoyed when Ken declared that she would officially be in the next Tournament of Champions.
‘TO KILL HIM!’
Fans took to social media commenting on Adriana, who is fourth qualified for the next ToC (currently exclusively female).
“Well done, Adriana, you’re a great competitor!!” one Redditor wrote.
“Adriana is impressive, friendly and fun to watch. I’m predicting a 20-game streak. I expect even more. Go, Adriana!” wrote another.
“The Triple-A Alliance of Five-Day Champions Amy, Alison and Adriana are here and they’re going to play it their way!” a third joked.
“Adriana is slaying and I love her retro vibe, like she stepped off the set of the Mary Tyler Moore Show,” wrote a fourth.
“Adriana is so cool I bet she doesn’t even care,” wrote a fifth.
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.
DON’T ‘FIND THE DAILY DOUBLES’
Other fans pointed out that Adriana opted for a risk-averse strategy, especially rare in the modern era.
She didn’t go on a daily double hunt à la James Holzhauer.
Instead, she found only six of the 15 hidden clues, playing from top to bottom and refusing to jump across the board.
This allows the other contestants to find the Daily Doubles (like Carol on Monday) and fall on their swords by losing them with big bets.
“What’s with starting from the top all of a sudden? Haha,” noted one fan on Facebook.
“So many good competitors fall short because of reckless double-risk bets. But I like Adriana!” another wrote.
“So much for the argument that finding DDs and luck takes all the fun out of it!” wrote a third this evening.
Adriana will be looking for her sixth win tomorrow night, and if she gets it, she’ll have the longest streak of all of Season 40.
Danger! Next Tournament of Champions
After a truncated season 40 with strikes and tournaments, the 2025 Tournament of Champions takes shape and so far it is all female
- Alison Betts, five wins and $121,500 total
- Dr. Amy Hummel, five wins and $100,994 total
- Lisa Ann Walter, winner of Celebrity Jeopardy 2023!
- Grant DeYoung, four wins and $81,203 total
- Amar Kakirde, four wins and $55,881 total
- Since the four-day champions (and three-day champions in the last ToC) were recently added, fans will likely see them too.
HARMEYER ON FIRE
Adriana lives in West Lafayette, Indiana with her husband and has been going strong since arriving last Thursday.
For her work, she analyzes old files and letters and archives them.
She is also a clinical assistant professor and archivist at Purdue University Archives and Special Collections.
She has relied on absolute accuracy, with an impressive 118 correct answers and just 11 incorrect ones.
She shared that she honed her skills while growing up on a 90s CD ROM version of Jeopardy! At age seven, she only stopped playing after the puck broke in half.
She also shared tonight that she has good handwriting, which shows on her podium.
“Adriana is incredibly impressive. She might be my favorite female multi-day champion whose name starts with A this season,” wrote five-day champion Alison on Reddit
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.”
She also recalled the moment she was contacted to participate in the program.
“I was at home. I told my husband and some family members that I was going to take an online test.
“They weren’t even surprised since I took the test before.”
Still, she didn’t expect to get on the show.
“I thought, ‘Okay, I probably won’t make it to the next stage because it’s too competitive.’ I just wanted to have fun with it.”
Adriana also didn’t tell anyone if she was winning or not or if she reached the ToC.
“Keeping the secret is increasingly difficult,” she said recently in an interview.
“Nobody expected me to say I was on Jeopardy! in the first place, but now that it’s on the air, people want me to tell them what the episode was like.”
Luckily for Adriana, she will be free after tonight as far as doing the ToC is concerned.
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
