Ken Jennings calls out Jeopardy! player David Maybury for looking ‘uncertain’ before his emotional win in vicious game

KEN Jennings has roasted a Jeopardy! contestant for seeming clueless during Final Jeopardy.

David Maybury was correct, however, and burst into a priceless reaction when he won Tuesday's Second Chance Tournament showdown.

The contestants were neck and neck with Final Jeopardy looking for 'The River Styx'Credit: ABC

David Maybury got sassed by Ken for adding '???' to his winning guessCredit: ABC

'Three question marks, but you’re right,' the host quippedCredit: ABC

David nearly burst into tears and admitted online that his guess was indeed a shot in the darkCredit: YouTube/user-pm3xn3pk7h

After a summer of reruns and retooling, Jeopardy! is back and buzzing.

Ken, 49, is hosting Season 40 in its entirety as Mayim Bialik bowed out in support of Hollywood's strikes and may not be back until next fall.

That's far from the only big change to the beloved game show, which returned on Monday.

Jeopardy! is using past players and past questions- kicking off with a three-week-long Second Chance tournament featuring 27 contestants who lost their first time around in Season 37.

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He then found the last one and bet $4000, extending his lead, but his challengers were no slouches, getting in multiple late clues to keep things interesting.

'THREE QUESTION MARKS BUT...'

Going into Final Jeopardy, David had $24,800, Susan had $18,200, and Cody had $10,800

Ken admitted: “David, you found both Daily Doubles but Cody and Susan are just not letting you get away with this thing.”

Final Jeopardy under “Mythological places” read: “‘Paradise Lost’ says it’s ‘abhorred’ & ‘the flood of deadly hate’ & in Dante’s ‘Inferno’ it’s fed by a ‘gloomy brook.’”

Cody was correct with “Styx” and doubled up to $21600. Susan also knew it was “The River Styx,” and with a $7401 bet floated to $25601 and a $1 lead.

Ken turned to David and knocked: “David thought about this for a long time before writing something down. What was it?”

David had remained low-key, but then burst into a winning grin as, yes, it was: “The Styx???”

Ken jabbed: “Three question marks, but you’re right!”

David looked beside himself as he revealed he bet $12,663, giving him the win. He gripped his podium and was near-tears advancing to this week's finals.

'I JUST PUT AN ANSWER'

Fans went wild over the show of force on Reddit: "Today's match was a great argument for making Second Chance an annual event. Spellbinding contest with three strong players."

"That was a spectacular and competitive game with 3 amazing contestants, best game I’ve seen in a long time," wrote another.

A third fan asked David (officially marked as the player in the forum) about Ken's remark: “You looked super relieved to get that Final Jeopardy. Ken pointed out your uncertainty with those ‘???’”

David responded by admitting he wasn't bothered as he truly did take a guess.

He wrote: “Yeah. I had the Styx really tightly tied to Greek mythology in my head, and was pretty sure Dante had a different name, but I couldn't pull it.

"So I put the answer I had instead of nothing at all. Once Cody was in the clear, it was just trying to hold all of the emotions back until the right time.”

HOW THE SECOND CHANCE TOURNAMENT WORKS

Each week, there will be three matches of contestants who lost in 2020 and 2021.

Also advancing this week is Jill Tucker, who made a big splash with a gigantic Final Jeopardy! wager from the lead on the season premiere, and one more player tomorrow.

Those three winners will face off in a Thursday/Friday finals.

The top three of each week will then face off at the end of the month, and the overall champion will enter a brand new tournament, Champions Wild Card.

That will air directly afterward and pit the winner from this series against brief Season 37 and 38 champions.

The subsequent eight-week tournament's price is a ticket to the currently postponed Tournament of Champions.

This takes fans into December, but given the strikes, what will air after that is unannounced.

The 2023 Tournament of Champions will not happen not until the strikes are over.

Several Season 39 champs, including Ray LaLonde, Cris, Hannah Wilson, and Ben Chan, said they would not participate in the TOC until the strikes are concluded.

Fans hope the strikes are resolved soon so they can enjoy the 2023 ToC and a return to the norm for the hallmark 40th season, which was meant to be a buzzworthy moment for the show.

Tuesday's match was one for the books as all three players were in the five-digits and right on Final JeopardyCredit: ABC

David will advance along with Monday night's winner Jill Tucker to Thursday and Friday's finalsCredit: ABC

The top three each week will then face off for a spot in a subsequent 8-week-long tournament which will take us into DecemberCredit: Jeopardy!

EVERYTHING TO KNOW ABOUT SEASON 40

Jeopardy!'s monumental Season 40 will run until July 26, 2024.

Because of the ongoing WGA and SAG strikes with actors and writers unable to settle fair pay negotiations, co-host Mayim is officially off the board.

It was announced on Monday that she is going to remain uninvolved until the strikes end and only Ken will host.

She bowed out in solidarity with the strikers, a big shakeup since she and Ken were tapped to split hosting after Alex Trebek's death in 2020.

A source earlier told The Messenger: “She wasn’t fired."

"She’s choosing to stand with her union, and because of that, she was told it is unlikely she will return for the rest of the year, even if the strike is resolved before then.”

Mayim is a member of the striking actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA.

Aside from not having new contestants and no Mayim, the other major change is the clues.

The game show is re-using questions from past seasons while without its writers, but most of the questions so far did not appear to have previously aired.

Showrunner Michael Davies explained on the “Inside Jeopardy!” podcast that it “wouldn’t be fair to have new contestants making their first appearance” on the show with material that isn’t original or that was written pre-strike.

"The material that we’re gonna be using is a combination of material that our WGA writers wrote before the strike, which is still in the database and material that is being redeployed from multiple, multiple seasons of the show.”

Davies also announced a $1000 bump in consolation prizes and said that he admires and misses the show’s beloved writers.

The news caused a scathing response from Masters winner James Holzhauer, who took to the platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to call out the show.

“If you don’t have time to listen, here’s the executive summary of today’s announcement,” James, 39, wrote, sharing a link to the podcast episode.

“1:00-2:00: Jeopardy’s writers are invaluable and we couldn’t produce the show without them,” he continued.

“2:00-15:00: Here is how we will produce the upcoming season without them.”

Meanwhile, Ken has faced backlash from some fans and former players for his decision to cross the picket line.

Ken has kept relatively quiet on the subject besides resharing a statement from the show’s executive producer referencing how the late Alex continued hosting during the 2007 to 2008 writers’ strike.

Mayim is also being replaced by Ken on Celebrity Jeopardy! which airs on ABC for the entire next season.

She's spent her time since Jeopardy! returned to filming in August doing an intense two-week tech cleanse and getting a cleanse of a different sense; a colonoscopy.