Jeopardy! Results: James Hirsh Wins Again – Feb 26 Recap & Score
James Hirsh of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, continued his winning streak on Jeopardy! on Thursday, February 26, defeating Elizabeth Hurd of West Bloomfield, Michigan, and Patrick Creech of Pink Hill, North Carolina. Hirsh’s three-day total now stands at $67,148, bringing him closer to qualifying for the Tournament of Champions, according to reports from TV Insider and Jeopardy.com.
The February 26 episode was marked by early struggles for all three contestants, with scores remaining negative until the seventh clue. Hurd, a pastor, found the first Daily Double on clue eight in the “Science Experiments” category, wagering all of her $400. She incorrectly answered “What is carbon?” to the clue, “One step of Joseph Priestley’s 1700s experiment to make soda water involved storing this gas in a sheep’s bladder,” dropping her score to $0.
Hirsh eventually took the lead, finishing the first round with $6,200, while Hurd had $2,800 and Creech, a planning director, trailed with $800.
The second round, Double Jeopardy, also presented challenges. Hirsh found a Daily Double on clue nine in the “La Belle Époque” category while holding a narrow lead of $8,200. He wagered $4,000 on the clue, “Wondrous contraptions at the Paris Expo of 1900 included La Grande Roue, the world’s biggest one of these.” After a prompt, he answered “What is a merry-go-round?” incorrectly; the correct response was “What is a Ferris wheel,” reducing his score to $4,200.
Creech then encountered a Daily Double on clue 16 in the “Convicted” category, wagering $2,000 despite having just emerged from negative territory with $0. He incorrectly answered “Who is the sergeant-at-arms?” to the clue, “It’s no good when someone who had this job is convicted; the 68th, Richard Kleindienst, misled the Senate & got a suspended sentence,” falling back into the negatives with a score of -$2,000.
The game concluded before the final clue could be played, with Hirsh leading at $16,200, Hurd at $6,000, and Creech at $1,200.
In Final Jeopardy, the category was “Literary Origins,” and the clue was, “As a child, Christopher Robin Milne loved feeding a London Zoo animal whose former owner hailed from this city.” Creech answered “What is Pink Hill, NC?” and wagered $20, ending with $1,180. Hurd responded with “What’s Australia?” wagering $1,000 and finishing with $5,000. Hirsh correctly answered “What is Winnipeg?” wagering $3,800, bringing his final total to $20,000.
Hirsh will return for his fourth game on Friday, February 27, continuing his pursuit of a spot in the Tournament of Champions, as reported by Jeopardy’s official Substack page.