An “absolutely brutal” Daily Double ruling may have cost a Jeopardy! Champion their chance to compete in the Tournament of Champions on Friday’s (May 23) edition of the series.

Brendan Liaw, a stay-at-home son from Vancouver, British Columbia, came into the game with a three-day winning streak and a total of $59,398. Competing against him were Jim Carpenter, a retired music professor from Charlotte, Vermont, and Congressional liaison David Crockett from Washington D.C.

In the first round, Liaw took the lead, earning $5,200 to Crockett’s $4,000 and Carpenter’s $3,800. It was Carpenter who secured the Daily Double for the round — correctly guessing that “acid test” was the idiom described by the clue, “Its original sense had to do with dissolving metals to determine gold content; now it means an ultimate proof.” By wagering $1,000 on the DD, Carpenter brought himself close to the others.

During the interviews segment of the day, Liaw, who’s in search of a career, revealed his ambition: to become a comedy writer for Conan O’Brien.

In Double Jeopardy, it was Liaw who found both Daily Doubles. The first came in the category “S is for Small,” and he wagered $5,000 of his available $12,000. The clue read, “From the Latin for ‘spark,’ it’s a tiny amount; add -ting & it describes something that’s sparkling.” Liaw answered incorrectly and dropped his score to $7,000. The second Daily Double came in the category “Pop Culture Gems.” At this point in the game, Liaw was at $8,200 to Crocket’s $12,400 and Carpenter’s $12,200, and there was little money left on the board. So Liaw decided to take a big risk and make it a “True Daily Double,” but unfortunately for him, this is where a judgment call had a huge impact on his game. The clue read, “Colin Firth played Vermeer in this 2003 film.” The correct answer was Girl With a Pearl Earring, and the judges ruled that his response was “with the” instead, making the internal article (and thus the answer) incorrect.

That left him in a hole he could not recover from. Liaw ended the second round with -$1,600 and thus did not qualify for Final Jeopardy. Meanwhile, Carpenter came in with $13,400, a very slight lead over Crockett’s $12,800.

In the category “Time,” the clue read, “Eponymously named & in use for more than 1,600 years, it was based in part on concepts from the Greek mathematician Sosigenes.” While Crockett incorrectly guessed that it was the sun (after crossing out the also-incorrect chronometer) and lost $3,999 — leaving him with $8,801 as his grand total — Carpenter correctly answered that it was the Julian Calendar, adding $12,201 for a total of $25,601 and making him a one-day champion.

Many fans felt that the ruling against Liaw on the third Daily Double of the day was unfair, however, and some engaged in a very technical debate over the matter on Reddit.

“Absolutely brutal ruling on that DD. I’m listening back to it at half speed and at least on the broadcast audio i can’t see how they can justify ruling that as clearly being ‘with the’ instead of ‘with a.’ There’s no pause between the two ‘th’ sounds and the vowel after it would sound the same either way. I do somewhat hear two stages to the ‘th’ sound when i slow it down to 1/4 speed, but that still just sounds like what your mouth naturally does when you come off the ‘th’ at the end of ‘with’ into a vowel. It’s like if they ruled against ‘What’s Apple’ by saying ‘No, ‘sapple’ is wrong,’” one fan wrote.

Another responded by saying, “I’m also listening to it slowed down and to my ear it’s 100% ‘with the.’ The second syllable clearly starts with ‘th’, and I don’t see how you can reasonably interpret it as the ‘-th’ carried over from the end of ‘with.’ Maybe a linguist can explain speak to this more specifically, but I’m pretty sure I hear a glottal stop at the end of ‘with’, so the ‘th; after it would have to be the start of ‘the.’ Tough but fair ruling, imo. Brendan will be a formidable competitor in Champions Wildcard.”

Yet another fan pointed out that having such a small part of the clue result in such a devastating loss meant it shouldn’t be qualified for Daily Double selection: “Also seemed like a bad choice for a DD when they could expect a tiny meaningless error like that might ruin someone’s game,” they noted.

“That’s why on Wheel, contestants often solve the puzzle while TALKING. VERY. SLOWLY. So there can be no doubt they are saying it exactly,” another said on the thread.

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