Embarrassed ‘Jeopardy!’ contestant speaks out after earning second-lowest score ever
A “Jeopardy!” contestant almost made history for the wrong reason.
Erin Buker had the second-lowest score in the game show’s history after she competed on Monday’s episode.
Buker, a stay-at-home mom from Pasadena, California, went up against graduate student and “Survivor” alum Drew Basile and lighting designer Graham Hicks.
She performed poorly throughout the episode, often buzzing in too quickly or guessing the wrong answers.
Buker could not compete in Final Jeopardy because she had such a low score.
She ended the episode with -$7,200.
That’s the second-lowest score in “Jeopardy!” history behind Patrick Pearce, who had -$7,400 after his game in July 2021.
Basile beat Buker and Hicks on Monday’s episode with $22,400.
Hicks performed well early in the episode, but Basile ultimately bested him.
They both competed in Final Jeopardy, where the “Names in the Heavens” question was, “When this body was discovered in 1978, Persephone was suggested as its name.”
The correct answer was, “What is Charon?”
Basile and Hicks both got it wrong, but Basile still won the game.
He competed again on Tuesday’s episode and won his fifth-straight game, qualifying him for “Tournament of Champions.”
Fans of the show reacted to Buker’s poor performance on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Someone want to tell Erin the object of the game is to answer correctly,” one fan tweeted.
“Marge Simpson might beat Erin on Jeopardy today…,” another comment said.
A third fan wrote, “Poor Erin. She’s so far in the hole.”
Another person praised host Ken Jennings for how he handled Buker.
“I really love how Ken reassured Erin and told her that at least she tried to take risks and get out of the hole, that was really sweet of him,” the fan tweeted.
Buker spoke out about her crushing loss on the Reddit “Jeopardy!” page.
“It was a day to forget for Erin indeed! Unfortunately, they taped what little I was able to forget about it. :),” she wrote.
Buker explained, “When it came to the buzzer, I was my own worst enemy, frequently buzzing in midway through the clue as if my thumb had a mind of its own. There’s something uniquely frustrating about knowing answers, but not having the wherewithal to ring in.”
Despite being so bad at the game, she said appearing on the quiz show “was still a great experience.”
She also praised Hicks and said he was “a shining example of exceptional wit and character.”
