CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA: ‘Jeopardy!’ Season 39 has finally concluded. The final game of the season aired on July 28 where against all odds an unexpected month-long curse was broken on the game show. Lucas Partridge has emerged as a three-day champion taking away a total of $66,200 for the summer.
The game show is expected to return in September where Lucas will once again pick up the baton as a winner and will fight to extend his winning streak. In the ultimate showdown of the season, Lucas came up against Sharon Bishop, a high school Spanish teacher from Pawtucket, Rhode Island, and Monika Chavez, a career education librarian from Alhambra, California. However, despite trailing second for most of the episode, Lucas wagered everything he had in Final Jeopardy and ended up winning $24,000 while an incorrect answer from Sharon ended all her hopes to etch her name as a one-day champion.
How did Lucas Partridge fair in the final game of Season 39?
Lucas was coming off a two-day winning streak when he entered the final episode of the season. During July 2023, no contestant had managed to enjoy a three-day winning streak and during the beginning, it seemed like that will be the case. Contestant Sharon Davis was having an impressive game and even got a Double Daily correctly. Before the beginning of the Final Jeopardy round, Sharon had $17,000, Lucas had $12,000, and Monika was way behind on $1,200.
Although, it all changed in the Final Jeopardy round. Final Jeopardy under "WORD ORIGINS" read, "Theories on the origin of this, a style of journalism, include Cajun slang for unhinged jazz & Boston slang for a person on a bender.” Only Lucas managed to answer correctly with “Gonzo.” The two-day champion had wagered everything he had and ended up doubling up his money. He came from behind to win with $24,000 for a three-day total of $66,200. Ken ecstatically remarked, “For the first time since June, we have a three-day champion! Thanks for being with us on the Alex Trebek stage. We’ve got some great summer reruns coming up and then we’ll see you next season.” Lucas will now spend the summer as the ‘Jeopardy!’ champion and will return along with Season 40 in September 2023.
‘Jeopardy!’ reruns will continue until September 2023
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike has affected the quiz show as well. With no writers onboard to come up with new material, the show is going off-air and will make up new episodes from recycled versions of old questions from years past. As Sony announced this week, the clues will all be recycled versions of old material, bypassing the writers until the strike ends and cheapening the show. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Sony stated, “Jeopardy! employs Writers Guild of America members, and the syndicated game show is planning to rely on material from prior seasons (39 years' worth) as it begins taping shows for the 2023-24 season.”
