CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA: In what seems to a consistent fashion throughout this season, 'Jeopardy!' has crowned another new champ for the night. It just went on to prove that wager amounts sometimes become so much more important than answering correctly on this game show.
Nik Berry won the episode tonight by making the wagers that worked in his favor, despite stumbling on correctly answering in all three rounds of the game. The two-day champ David Bederman failed to keep his title even after an impressive gameplay.
Who is Nik Berry?
The official 'Jeopardy!' website lists the current champ Nik Berry as a social studies teacher from Baltimore, Maryland. He teaches high school students at Oakland Mills, Columbia, according to the interview he had with host Ken Jennings after his shocking victory. He is of a mixed ethnicity, with his mother's family hailing from India and later emigrating to the country back in the 60s.
Berry did his Master's in Secondary Education from the University of Maryland. Back in 2021, he was awarded the title of Washington Post’s Teacher of the Year for his work at Oakland Mills. He has been teaching there for the past 9 years. The school newspaper released this news saying, "Mr. Berry makes strong, everlasting impressions and friendships with students, while always having a smile on his face."
How did Nik Berry win?
The Final Jeopardy clue was from the category "19th century poems" and said: "The author of this unfinished epic poem was unsure if he wanted the title character to "end in hell--or in an unhappy marriage." The correct answer was 'Don Juan' given only by the contestant Toula Ballas. But her wager was only enough to get her to the second place while Bederman had to take up the last place with his incorrect answer. He had the highest score moving into the final round but made too large a wager to save himself.
While Berry answered incorrectly, he wagered small and was able to keep his score the highest at $9,601. Now, he will be facing two new contestants Ben Sasamoto, an environmental consultant from Minneapolis, Minnesota and Taylor Clagett, a marketing directior also from Maryland like Berry.
