This 'Jeopardy!' Contestant Went Down in History With the Lowest Score
Published July 27 2021, 12:41 p.m. ET
The entire point of most game shows is to get the most correct answers/guesses so you can try and take home the biggest prize possible. Whether it's a new Hyundai sedan from The Price Is Right or that sweet million-dollar prize on Beat Shazam, every game-show nerd's dream is to compete on their favorite program and rake in the big bucks.
But it doesn't always go that way for many folks, unfortunately. Just ask this Jeopardy! contestant with the lowest score ever recorded in the game. He "beat" the previous record holder by a whopping negative $600, too.
Who is the 'Jeopardy!' contestant with the lowest score in the game's history?
Monday, July 26, 2021: It's a day that will reverberate in the annals of game-show infamy. And at the end of that long proverbial hallway is an employee of this metaphysical space removing a portrait of Stephanie Hull that was placed there in 2015.
In her place is now the face of Patrick Pearce, and on a gold placard under his name: "Lowest Jeopardy! Score Title Holder."
How much is the lowest 'Jeopardy!' score of all time?
Patrick ended the game with a -$7,400 balance, which is the lowest that the program's ever seen since Hull, according to Entertainment Weekly.
So what does it feel like to be famous for being the lowest-scoring competitor your favorite game show has ever seen? Hull talked about how she wrestled with the ignominy in a 2020 interview with Slate.
"Imagine doing something that you've wanted to do your entire life and then it turning into that and you know you're going to be on national TV, so you're basically trying desperately not to cry."
Pearce wasn't actually in too bad of a place near the conclusion of the first round: He had a score of -$200.
However, as the game got into deeper waters, a wrong answer on a Daily Double tacked on a $2,000 debt. A few other big-ticket wrong answers later, and he had a negative score, taking him out of the Final Jeopardy game.
The milestone occurred during Reading Rainbow star LeVar Burton's first time hosting the show. Burton told Good Morning America that his guest-hosting work wasn't the best it could've been and that his wife described his performance as the long-running series' emcee as "eh."
"My wife, Steph, is also my makeup artist, so she was able to be there during COVID protocols," he told the program, "and I came back after taping the first episode and I said, 'So, how did I do?' She said, 'Eh. It wasn't you.' So, you know, thank God for marrying a woman who will tell you the truth."
LeVar said in his follow-up hosting gigs, he didn't try to entertain in a Jeopardy! fashion, but instead focused on bringing more of himself to the show.
"I just went out there and tried to bring as much LeVar to the moment as I possibly could," he added, "and I'm hoping that that worked out better."
As Yahoo notes, Burton was selected as the host after there was an enormous campaign from fans to get him on the program. In an interview with USA Today the actor/TV personality made his intentions clear: He wants to be the longtime host of the show and says he will be "disappointed" if he doesn't get it but of course will "move on with [his] life" if that call never comes.
Who has been your favorite guest host so far?
