Surprise ‘Jeopardy!’ Champ Alison Betts Explains Viral Response: ‘I Just Thought It’d be Fun’

Alison Betts pinned all her hopes to the “Betts” wagered by her Jeopardy! opponents in the February 11 episode of the game show’s ongoing Invitational Tournament. Faced with a stumper of a Final Jeopardy clue, Betts wrote, “Who is I hope they both bet everything.”

Sure enough, fellow contestants Isaac Hirsch and Josh Hill, tied at the time at $7,600, both wagered $7,600.

Jeopardy! fans thrilled to Betts’ response, calling it an “incredible finish,” a “thrilling, come-from-behind victory,” and even the “best ending of Jeopardy! ever.”

In a debrief with Rolling Stone, however, Betts said she wasn’t trying to go viral with her cheeky response. “I just thought it’d be fun,” she said.

She did, however, scheme to get Hirsch and Hill tied as they neared the end of the Double Jeopardy round. Observing that Hill was up by $400 over Hirsch and there were two $400 clues left, Betts made sure to beat them both to the buzzer with the correct response for one clue.

“Then I just fell back and really hoped it was Isaac who got the last one, and not Josh. Luckily it was,” she said. Hill and Hirsch entered Final with $7,600 apiece, with Betts trailing at $3,200.

For a Jeopardy! game in which two players are tied and a third is trailing by more than half going into Final Jeopardy, the strategy for the tied players is to bet everything or nothing, as The Jeopardy! Fan explains. And because there are wildcard slots available in this Invitational Tournament, Hill and Hirsch probably felt pressure to bet everything rather than nothing.

“I just thought, ‘OK, they’re going to probably want to bet on themselves,’” Betts told Rolling Stone. “Some of the comments [online] are like, ‘Oh my God, these guys are so stupid. Why did they do that?’ or ‘Oh, the hubris of men.’ I just want to be clear, they absolutely made the right bet. They both did the right thing, and it’s only because they were smart and did the right thing that I was able to take advantage of it and win.”

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But Betts didn’t want to bet her entire $3,200 score on the Final Jeopardy round — because she feared a possible tiebreaker round with Hirsch and Hill. “Yeah, no,” she said. “There was no way I would win. I’m not great on the buzzer in the best of times. Like, RuPaul’s Lip Sync for Your Life — I would not be able to buzz for my life. I would die fast.”

Thanks to her crafty gameplay, though, Betts is advancing to the Invitational Tournament semifinals and will face off against Matt Amodio and Andrew He on Monday, February 16.

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