Jeopardy! champ Ben Chan reunites with Hannah Wilson in wild night out at the bars after beating rival on show
JEOPARDY! fan-favorites Ben Chan and Hannah Wilson have joined forces for a Chicago bar trivia night proving there are no hard feelings on the board.
The nine-day winner beat the eight-day winner in a rare scheduling oddity before himself losing over a harsh ruling.
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Ben, a philosophy professor from Green Bay, Wisconsin who recently amassed $252,600, posed with Hannah, who recently amassed $229,801, and a lot of buzz from fans as well.
Hannah, a data scientist from Chicago, was front and center of the group snap in a chic peach-colored top and jeans, while Ben is standing in the back of the pack in a grey shirt.
The duo joined a bar trivia team, along with several other familiar Jeopardy! faces.
Seven-time champion Brian Chang of Season 37, Cindy Zhang of Season 38, and 2022 Second Chance Tournament winner, Rowan Ward, were also in the mix.
‘WHAT A GROUP’
Brian Chang captioned the Twitter snap: “Thanks to @cindypepper, Roy Camara, and @JeopardyBenBen for joining some of the Chicago #Jeopardy alumni at bar trivia tonight!
Our teams took home the gold and silver.”
Fans went wild over the winning combination as one person replied: “Holy schnikes.”
“Yeah, there’s a few familiar faces there,” wrote another.
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“Wow what a group!!!” wrote a third.
“Surprised you didn’t win every award in the place + some from other bars, given that lineup! Murderers row there,” wrote a fourth.
BEN VS. HANNAH
Ben abruptly exited the game show without having lost after receiving a positive COVID-19 test.
This was immediately following his third runaway win on an episode that aired on April 17.
Viewers were eager to see if he could continue his seemingly unstoppable streak, however, they were stunned to find out that he wasn’t in the mix of contestants in the next game.
“Before yesterday’s episode taped, I had tested positive for COVID; it was a very mild case, as you can see, I’m fine.
“Most importantly, my buzzer finger is fine, so I’m excited to watch what happens over the next few weeks, see who I’ll be competing against on May 15,” he said during a virtual appearance on Good Day Wisconsin.
During his first three games, Ben won $69,001 with each game being a runaway before Final Jeopardy!
This meant that he had a total so insurmountable that the player in second place couldn’t surpass him, even with an all-in wager.
While he was away from the show, Hannah – who is transgender and scored a stamp of approval on Twitter from Amy Schneider – burst onto the scene and racked up some huge wins in an eight game run.
She was who he wound up facing upon his return, leading to a clash of the champs and essentially, Jeopardy!’s Barbie Vs. Oppenheimer.
Seeing two returning champions instead of just one may have caused viewers to do a Daily-Double take because it very rarely happens – let alone with two champions.
There have only been four episodes since the early 2000s that’s had two returning champions in one game due to one not being able to return.
They were announced as co-returning champions and many viewers were fearing for him – not her, given her understated and intimidating presence going into the competition.
However, the unfortunate but not purposeful scheduling move resulted in Ben trouncing Hannah, and earning $60,000 – the second-highest earning total of the season.
One person tweeted: “They should’ve waited until Hannah’s run was over until they brought Ben back. Not fair.”
Another user replied: “I think is fair. They scheduled Ben’s return before Hannah came on the show and started going on a streak. Let’s try to celebrate people’s victory.”
Hannah later admitted on Reddit: “I couldn’t ask for a better opponent to get utterly thrashed by!”
Ben tweeted: “I do feel bad that my bad luck also was bad luck for Hannah and Wendy.”
“But in the grand scheme, we were obviously all ridiculously lucky to be on Alex Trebek Stage.”
BEN LOSES BY ONE LETTER
Ben eventually won all nine of his games in a runaway fashion and was the first contestant to ever do so.
He then unexpectedly lost his 10th game and his first non-runaway over a hotly contested ruling that wound up frustrating fans as well.
May 23’s Final Jeopardy under the category Shakespeare’s Characters read: “Both of the names of these 2 lovers in a Shakespeare play come from Latin words for ‘blessed.’”
Ben wrote “Beatrice & Benedict Benedict,” striking out his first scribbling of the word: “Benedict.”
But, he then wrote the same word a second time.
After a moment of pause, host Mayim Bialik ruled it was incorrect: “Unfortunately that is not correct. The correct response [is] Beatrice and Benedick.”
According to Jeopardy!.com: “Written responses to the Final Jeopardy! clue do not have to be spelled correctly, but they must be phonetically correct and not add or subtract any extraneous sounds or syllables.”
Fans were less than pleased by how Ben was penalized for what he wrote and fanned out their fury on Twitter. Many debated if Ben’s response did change the pronunciation enough to be wrong.
“Awful ruling against Ben Chan on tonight’s #Jeopardy,” one person wrote.
“Since when does being off by one letter count in final jep? There’s no other character he could have meant,” another person pointed out.
“@Jeopardy wow. Ben Chan loses over a t??????” wrote a third.
Ben and Hannah will be back for the 2023 Tournament of Champions, hosted by Ken.
The competitors will face the likes of Cris Pannullo, who has 21 wins under his belt and will likely also face each other during the 10-week-long tournament.
The show will include the new Champions Wildcard opportunity when the next season kids off in September.
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