New Paltz man trails in ‘Jeopardy!’ final
Barcomb far behind other 2 contestants in 2-day title round
Francois Barcomb’s hopes of becoming the next “Jeopardy!” Tournament of Champions winner were all but dashed Thursday when he finished a distant third behind powerhouse James Holzhauer and Emma Boettcher in the first game of the two-day final.
Barcomb, a high school physics teacher who lives in New Paltz, finished with just $1,800 to Holzhauer’s $49,326 and Boettcher’s $26,000.
Those scores will be added to what that players earn on Friday’s show, and the winner will get $250,000. The second- and third-place prizes are $100,000 and $50,000, respectively.
Holzhauer, who won 32 straight games last season before having his streak ended by Boettcher, took control of Thursday’s game early in the first round and, except for missing an early Daily Double clue, never let go.
Although Barcomb got to pick first in the opening round, the game went into its first commercial break without the local resident having buzzed in on a single clue. Ultimately, he was able to beat the other two contestants to the buzzer four times in the first round of play and delivered the correct response each time.
Trailing both Holzhauer and Boettcher by a wide margin, Barcomb went first again in the Double Jeopardy round and re
sponded correctly to eight clues, but he was unable to make any headway in closing the gap between him and the others. (Barcomb answered two secondround clues incorrectly, including one in the “Physics” category.)
Going into the Final Jeopardy round, Holzhauer had $37,412, nearly five times the $7,800 Barcomb had accumulated. Boettcher had $13,000.
Barcomb bet $6,000 on the Final Jeopardy clue in a bid to improve his standing going into the second night of the twogame championship, but he failed to come up with the correct response of “What is Jeremiah?” to the clue “By Hebrew word count, the longest book bears this name that led to a word for a long complaint or rant.”
Holzhauer bet $11,914 and responded correctly. Boettcher bet everything she had and also responded correctly.
Barcomb, who teaches at Hendrick Hudson High School in Westchester County, earned a spot in the Tournament of Champions by winning the $100,000 “Jeopardy!” Teachers Tournament this past spring.
Locally, “Jeopardy!” airs at 7 p.m. on WABCTV 7 out of New York City and at 7:30 p.m. on WTEN-TV 10 out of Albany. The show is hosted by Alex Trebek.
“Jeopardy!” episodes are recorded in advance, but players are not allowed to share the results before they air.