What kind of a name is Benedick, anyway?
Jeopardy! contestant Ben Chan must have been asking himself the same thing as he realized his nine-day winning streak on the ABC gameshow was coming to an end. On Tuesday night’s episode, the philosophy professor from Green Bay, Wisconsin, whose nine games’ worth of winnings totaled $252,600 by that point, lost Final Jeopardy! by one letter.
The final round’s answer read, “Both of the names of these two lovers in a Shakespeare play come from Latin words for ‘blessed.’”
Chan’s opponents, Lynn Di Vito and Danny Leserman, both wrote down Romeo and Juliet. Chan had his tenth win in his grasp, but he slipped up by writing “Beatrice and Benedict” rather than “Beatrice and Benedick.” So close, but not good enough for the Jeopardy! judges.
Chan had wagered more than half his earnings for the day, and fell down to third place due to the error – making Di Vito the new champion.
Check out the full video above.
If only Chan had brushed up on his Bard trivia just a tad more. Maybe rewatch Kenneth Branagh’s 1993 rendition of the play, which he directed, co-wrote and starred in as Benedick himself.
Chan took to the Jeopardy! Subreddit Tuesday to vent about his error.
“’Benedict’ is incorrect,” Chan admitted. “The character’s name is Benedick. As [host Ken Jennings] (presciently) noted on my first episode, there is no partial credit on Jeopardy! (Yes, I was sooo close!) I made some bad flashcards. The ‘Benedict’ misspelling is common, and it worked its way onto a couple of my flashcards.”
