Although he won $50,000 on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” Tom Zulewski wasn’t content with closing the game show chapter of his life just yet — he still had his eye on another popular show that rewards its contestants for possessing a love of all things trivia.
And on Friday —roughly five years after his appearance on “Millionaire” — it finally happened. Zulewski, a sports writer and author from Washington, Utah, made his long-awaited debut on “Jeopardy!”
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Tom Zulewski appears on ‘Jeopardy!’
Last Friday’s game covered everything from country singers to James Bond to atomic numbers. In the first round, Zulewski landed on the Daily Double early on and opted to wager $1,000 on the following clue: “The subtitle to this H.G. Wells novel is ‘A Grotesque Romance.’”
He didn’t come up with the answer host Ken Jennings was looking for —“The Invisible Man” (he offered up “The Thin Man”) — and was in the hole. But after getting a few correct responses, Zulewski made it back on the board ahead of the first commercial break.
But going into the second round, Zulewski was still far behind with $800 — Alex Gordon, a medical student from Somers, New York, was in first with $6,600; and Raquel Stewart, an accountant from Austin, Texas, was in second with $3,800.
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The momentum would remain in Gordon’s favor for the remainder of the game. Gordon was the only contestant to get a Daily Double right, and by the time Final Jeopardy came around, the contestant had $16,300 and could not be caught (Stewart, in second place, had $7,800; and Zulewski — who correctly answered two questions about country singers back-to-back at the last moment ) —finished with $2,400).
The Final Jeopardy clue fell under the category “History and Nature”: “In March 1519, these were again seen in mainland North America for the first time in 10,000 years with the arrival of 16 of them.”
The answer: Horses.
With his victory secured, Gordon wagered only $200 and brought his game total up to $16,500, and two-day total to $41,500, according to The Jeopardy Fan website.
Gordon lost his third game Monday night.
The clues that stumped all three contestants on ‘Jeopardy!’
Last Friday’s game was fairly tough — according to “Jeopardy!” archives, the following six clues stumped all three contestants (answers can be found at the very bottom of the article):
<strong>Category:</strong> “I’ve got your atomic number.”
<strong>Clue:</strong> “It’s essential to smartphone batteries.”
<strong>Category:</strong> “A bridge too far.”
<strong>Clue:</strong> “Abridgeover 200 years old across a canyon in Málaga, Spain, is called this, reminiscent ofonein Paris that’s over 400 years old.”
<strong>Category:</strong> “A bridge too far.”
<strong>Clue:</strong> “The news on this bridge built in the 1590s is making coffee on the steps by the Grand Canal can get you a hefty fine.”
<strong>Category:</strong> “We live in a society.”
<strong>Clue:</strong> “This French thinker’s multi-volume ‘History of Sexuality’ discusses power dynamics in society.”
<strong>Category:</strong> Behind the Bond.
<strong>Clue:</strong> “A fan letter calling the Beretta ‘a lady’s gun’ prompted Fleming to switch Bond’s gun to this German type.”
<strong>Category:</strong> “Only one consonant.”
<strong>Clue:</strong> “On the ocean bottom, globigerina is a type of this gooey mud containing dead organisms.”
A number of Utah contestants on ‘Jeopardy!’ this season
Zulewski is the latest in a string of Utah contestants to appear on “Jeopardy!” this season, including Jordan Davis, a private music teacher and choir director from Draper; and Suzanne Zgraggen, the Academic and Community Programs manager at Utah’s Hogle Zoo.
Zulewski’s episode, which was filmed in May, was originally supposed to feature host Mayim Bialik, but Bialik stepped down during the final week of filming out of support for the ongoing writers strike, the Deseret News previously reported.
The Utah contestant recently opened up about competing on “Jeopardy!” in a piece shared July 10 on Iron County Today.
“It’s a great thing to win a game, but it’s an even greater thing to be able to overcome some very long odds just to be in the moment,” he wrote, noting that he will provide details on this third-place finish at a later date.
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For Zgraggen, getting on “Jeopardy!” took 15 years. And although she didn’t win, like Zulewski, she enjoyed every moment.
“Every single person that I met during this process —all of the ‘Jeopardy!’ staff and crew and every one of the contestants —was just really, really nice, top to bottom,” she previously told the Deseret News. “It was such a fun experience. It was way more fun than I thought.”
(Answers: 1. cobalt; 2. New Bridge (Puente Nuevo); 3. Rialto Bridge; 4. Michel Foucault; 5. a Walther; 6. ooze).
