Wagers of $666 are Banned from Jeopardy!
With current Jeopardy! contestant James Holzhauer capturing the nation’s imagination with his hyper-aggressive betting style and record-setting single day winnings, Ken Jennings, whose 74-match winning streak in 2004 still stands as the longest ever, has been in the press once again. A curious footnote to come out of all of this has been the revelation that contestants are forbidden from wagering certain dollar amounts on the game show.
When a fan asked Jennings about his trademark $69 bid in the Final Jeopardy rounds, he revealed that the amount has recently been banned. This naturally led to a discussion about what other wagers are forbidden, resulting in the birth of this Reddit thread in which several former contestants chime in.
According to one poster, a show producer named Maggie ran through disallowed wagers with contestant before the show began filming. In addition to $69, the devil’s number $666 is banned, as well as $14, $88 and $1488 for their ties to white supremacist groups. In one case the show edited a wager for one of those amounts (it’s unknown which) that a contestant made by accident:
“a contestant trailing in a runaway earlier this season accidentally made a problematic wager to try to orchestrate a specific score. Because it would have caused major issues for the contestant and the show had it been broadcast, the show edited the wager (which did not affect the outcome, because runaway) and has since instituted a ‘disallowed wager’ rule.”
A former contestant going by the Reddit handle Vermonter1990 chimed in that $666 was on the list of forbidden wagers during their January 15-16, 2019 taping.
And now you’ve got another bit of completely useless knowledge in your memory banks. If only “Banned Jeopardy! Wagers” were a category on the show you’d be able to give Holzhauer a run for his money.
The banned wager of $666 isn’t metal’s only run-in with Jeopardy! over the years: Five Finger Death Punch, Rob Zombie, Slayer, Corey Taylor and Megadeth have all appeared as answers to questions on the show.
[via Consequence of Sound]
