DANGER! Fans witnessed the emergence of a new champion on Monday, although the victory came with a controversial pronunciation that left some hurt.
Cat Pisacano, who defeated Survivor alum Drew Basile, faced Matt Brooks and Zoe Strassfield.
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With Drew’s seven-day winning streak in the rearview mirror, it was time to see if Cat could continue her success and survive a second game.
The New York nurse entered with $11,500 from her previous win and immediately faced stiff competition from Virginia healthcare analyst Matt.
In danger! round, Cat and Matt were head to head, with Matt winning $1,000 in the first Daily Double.
Towards the end of the round, things hit a snag when Matt appeared in the $400 “Taking You to School” clue.
‘YES, LET’S WAIT FOR THIS’
The clue read: “Anatomy: There are false and true vocal cords in this hollow tubular structure, also called the voice box.”
Matt replied, “What’s home-nyx?” looking unsure and looking at his opponents.
“Yes, we’ll take that, yes,” Ken, 50, decided hesitantly. “Larynx”, clarified the host.
At the end of the round, Cat was in second place with $5,200, Matt was at $6,600 and Zoe was at -$1,000.
In Double Jeopardy!, Zoe lost the second Daily Double by $2,000, and Cat lost the last, losing $2,500 but still capturing the lead.
She had $12,300, while Matt was close behind with $10,600 and Zoe had $1,600.
The last danger! The clue under “GERMAN BOOKS” read: “First published in 1812, this anthology included ‘The Water Nymph’ and ‘The Booted Tom Cat’.”
Cat couldn’t think of the correct answer and lost $8,703, a standard hedging bet.
Only Matt answered correctly on “Grimm’s Fairy Tales,” with a $0 bet; he became the new winner with his current $10,600 and a huge smile.
‘LARNYX!?’
Fans took to Reddit after the game went live, many expressing outrage at Larynx’s decision and debating its impact on the game.
“How the hell did they accept ‘larynx’ as a correct answer to ‘larynx’?” wrote one fan.
“They say pronunciation doesn’t count, but they routinely count wrong answers when spelling and pronunciation don’t match.
“’Larnyx’ is simply not a conceivable way to pronounce ‘larynx.’
“We were hoping they would come back and correct the score, but they didn’t. It really soured the whole game for me.”
Others agreed that this seemed overly lenient and that Matt’s pronunciation was not phonetically acceptable.
“Yes, that was unbelievable. How can this be considered an acceptable response when, historically, judges have been strict about pronunciations that imply incorrect spelling? ‘Larnyx’ is a totally different (meaningless) word,” wrote another fan.
“Yes. It seemed like Cat was nervous after that – I certainly would have been. I can’t remember the dollar amount, but how much less would she have bet on the Daily Double if she was winning so much more?” wrote a third.
“She may have hit the ‘larynx’ after he missed. I honestly thought it could have made a difference in how she played in the final.”
However, a fourth pointed out that there was precedent for this case, writing: “The pronouncement was accepted by Alex (judges) on 3/27/2006.”
“I was upset that Cat lost. I liked her as a player. It seems like it’s best to always guess something for FJ, even if the answer seems too easy to be right,” wrote a fifth.
Matt will face two new challengers tomorrow to see if he can turn his victory into a streak of his own.
‘I KNEW THE ANSWER’
Meanwhile, Drew, the show’s current champion as of Friday, opened up about his shocking loss in an interview with EW.
The first Survivor contestant to compete on the game show boasted that he knew the answer to the final clue he got wrong.
The Michigan-born graduate student lost after racking up $129,601 and the second-longest streak in Season 40.
After finishing in the red on Jeopardy! round, the Survivor star came back with $9,600 after Double Jeopardy. But the final clue was his extinguished torch.
He bet $8,399, and the category was “Notable American Women.”
The clue was: “In her autobiography, she speaks of a ‘rather singular coincidence’: one of her Swiss ancestors was a teacher of the deaf.”
Drew visibly struggled and squirmed on the podium – he incorrectly guessed, “Gallaudet.” The correct answer was “Hellen Keller.”
Drew was defeated by Cat for over $10,000 as she guessed correctly, as did the third player.
“Jeopardy! is exhausting,” said Drew EW the night his losing episode aired.
“At the end of the recording day I was exhausted. I had a terrible round of Single Jeopardy, making all kinds of mistakes,” he shared.
“The most surprising thing about Final Jeopardy is that I knew the answer,” he boldly stated.
“I knew it was Helen Keller and I was so exhausted I couldn’t remember her name.
“I was so tired I couldn’t remember Helen Keller’s name.”
When the match aired, fans were surprised that Drew lost track of Hellen Keller.
“Am I the only one who thought that final was the easiest question and was completely SHOCKED that Drew didn’t realize it?
“I’m not belittling his response or the stress of the situation. I was just shocked,” one fan wrote on Reddit.
“I think our no longer champion thought a lot about many tracks. This was no more apparent than Final,” wrote another.
Danger! airs at 7pm ET – check your local listings.
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
