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A Jeopardy contestant in the Tournament of Champions gave up his shot at a winning answer to send a message to the ailing host Alex Trebek.
When the players’ answers were revealed for the final question of Monday’s semifinal, Dhruv Gaur had written: “What is: We ♥ you, Alex!”
Trebek seemed to momentarily choke up before he responded: “That’s very kind of you, thank you. It cost you $1,995.”
Gaur had wagered all but $5 on his non-answer.
Before Final Jeopardy, the 79-year-old Trebek had revealed that he was reentering treatment for pancreatic cancer. “We were all hurting for him so badly,” Gaur tweeted.
Gaur didn’t have much of a chance of advancing to finals. Going into the last question, he had only $2,000 — to the $19,200 of Emma Boettcher and $14,800 of Kyle Jones — and he said he didn’t immediately know the answer. “I could’ve tried to puzzle it together, but really, just kept thinking about Alex,” he tweeted.
For making it to the semifinals, Gaur gets $10,000. The Brown University student qualified for the Tournament of Champions by winning the college competition.
Monday’s Final Jeopardy question was “In the title of a groundbreaking 1890 exposé of poverty in New York City slums, these 3 words follow ‘How the.'” Emma Boettcher won the game by correctly answering, “What is ‘other half lives.'”
Semifinals continue Tuesday and Wednesday night. On Thursday and Friday, Boettcher and the two other finalists will play two games to determine the $250,000 winner.
