jeopardy photo

New ‘Jeopardy!’ Champ Jake DeArruda Fires Major Shots at Mayim Bialik

Jake DeArruda, who is the latest champion on Jeopardy!, has been taking some potshots at host Mayim Bialik. One of fhem had to do with who would be hosting during DeArruda’s tape week. He said that he and other contestants learned who their host would be. Once they found out it would be Ken Jennings, DeArruda said that “everyone collectively cheered” upon hearing Ken’s name.

DeArruda, in a series of online posts, said that he didn’t want to get into the “hosting debacle.” But he did say that he prepped for the show by watching Bialik-hosted episodes to learn her cadence. That way, he could better control his buzzer.

‘Jeopardy!’ Champ Jake DeArruda Says That Mayim Bialik ‘Blows Through Punctuation’

“It’s obvious to close watchers that she mispronounces words, blows through punctuation, and is genuinely inconsistent in her pacing,” DeArruda said. “Ken, meanwhile, has been in trivia for most of his life, so he knows the proper words to emphasize and generally seems consistent with his pacing. This is important for buzzer timing purposes.”

DeArruda knocked off super-champ Troy Meyer in last Friday’s (January 27) game. DeArruda, who is a delivery dispatcher from Ludlow, Vermont, shocked viewers when he beat fan favorite Meyer, who had amassed $214,802 during a six-game win streak. The champ shared his thoughts on the game, along with his views on the show’s hosts and past players, TV Insider reports.

DeArruda Recognized The Name Of Then-Current Champion Troy Meyer

When he got to the studio, DeArruda said that he found out the name of the current champion, Troy Meyer. DeArruda said that his “eyes widened” when he recognized the name from rankings in the World Quizzing Championships.

“Long story short, Troy is a far superior pure trivia player than Cris Pannullo,” DeArruda said. He referenced the champion on episodes at the time. “He’s the top player on LearnedLeague – a league with hundreds of the best past, present, and future trivia champions, and has won the league multiple times.”

DeArruda wondered if playing Meyer would be worse than playing Pannullo, who had won 21 Jeopardy! games in a row. “Probably not, actually, as Troy has less buzzer experience, from multiple weeks prior (this was the first tape day since before Thanksgiving) and had yet to go through the grind of playing five games in a day yet.”

For DeArruda, luck had to play a big role in his success. “Do you ever hear about how much luck is needed to win? Before I flew out, my dad joked about how I should hope to hit a Cliff Clavin board and we determined what would be on mine. Sports, world capitals, country music, Taylor Swift early album cuts, something like that,” DeArruda said.