‘Jeopardy!’ contestants stumped by Taylor Swift question: ‘We’re going to get killed for that’
All three contestants competing in ‘Jeopardy: Tournament of Champions’ missed a Swift-related clue in the only ‘triple-stumper’ of the episode
A Taylor Swift question stumped all three “Jeopardy: Tournament of Champions” contestants during a recent episode of the long-running game show.
On Thursday’s episode, competitors Ben Chan, Yogesh Raut and Troy Meyer proved they were not Swifties when they missed a $400 clue about the 34-year-old pop star in the “Jeopardy!” category “Songs of Youth.”
The prompt given by host Ken Jennings to the contestants said, “Inspired by her bestie, Tay Tay sang when ‘somebody tells you they love you’ at this title age ‘you’re gonna believe them.'”
Meyer of Tampa Bay, Florida, and a music executive guessed 17, while Raut, a psychologist from Vancouver, Washington guessed 22.
The correct answer was “Fifteen,” the title of Swift’s country pop song from her second studio album, 2008’s “Fearless.” The musician has previously said “Fifteen” was inspired by her high school best friend Abigail Anderson, who experienced a painful breakup with a boyfriend when she and Swift were both 15.
“We’re gonna get killed for that,” Meyer said with a laugh.
The Swift clue was the only “triple-stumper” of Thursday’s episode, according to the “Jeopardy!” archives via Newsweek.
Meyer, Raut and Chan, a philosophy professor from Green Bay, Wisconsin, are competing for the $250,000 prize in the best-of-seven finals. Chan, a nine-time champion, is ahead with two wins while six-game champion Meyer and three-game champion Raut have each scored one win.
After all three champions missed the question, “Jeopardy!” fans took to social media to express their disbelief.
“I can’t believe the one triple stumper this episode was about Taylor Swift,” one X user wrote.
“Yes #jeopardy! Players, Twitter is going to rip you apart for not knowing 15 by taylor swift,” added another fan.
“Found a common weakness among the 3 finalists in the @Jeopardy Tournament of Champions… @taylorswift13,” a fan commented on X.
“The only wrong response in the entire last #Jeopardy episode is of a Tay Tay song. Don’t let the Swifties know about this…,” wrote another X user.
“The Swifties about to descend on the Alex Trebek Stage… #Jeopardy,” one viewer wrote.
Thursday’s episode was not the first to include a Swift-related question that stumped all the contestants. In May, competitors Diandra D’Alessio, Nathan Dennis and Ilhana Redzovic missed a Final Jeopardy question that many fans of the 12-time Grammy Award winner guessed immediately on social media.
The clue, which was in the “Literary Groups” category, said, “Windermere, Thirlmere & Grasmere are three of the sites that helped give a 19th-century literary group this name.”
The correct answer was “What is the Lake Poets?” Swift’s song, “The Lakes,” which was featured on the deluxe edition of her 2020 album, “Folklore,” included lyrics that referred to the sites mentioned in the question as well as the Lake Poets.
During a July 2022 episode of “Jeopardy!,” all three contestants were stumped by a question that referred to one of Swift’s most famous songs.
After contestant Matt Mierswa chose a clue in the “Title That Completes the Rhyme” category for $400, Jennings read the prompt, “And I’m just like oh-oh oh-oh oh-oh oh-oh oh-oh, you need to just stop, like can you just not step on my gown?”
“I really wish this was Johnny [Gilbert] reading these,” Jennings responded when Mierswa was unable to guess the answer. “This is ‘You Need to Calm Down’ by Taylor Swift.”
In January, “Jeopardy!” paid tribute to Swift with an entire round of categories inspired by the singer. The first four categories featured titles of Swift’s songs “Love Story,” “Our Song,” “Bad Blood,” “Shake It Off” and “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” while the fifth category, “The Errors Tour,” referred to her record-breaking The Eras Tour.
