Jeopardy! fans left polarized as contestant wins because of shock family link to final clue
Jeopardy! fans were left sharply polarized when contestant Emily Croke won thanks to an astonishing family link to the final clue.
The prompt was: 'In 1896, the Vassar-educated wife of this man wrote: "Thousands of dollars may be paid for a copy of Shakespeare."'
Emily was able to correctly deduce the answer, writing: 'Who is Folger?' and walking away from the show with $13,201 in prize money.
However she then divisively revealed that Emily Folger, who wrote the line in the prompt, 'was my great, great, great aunt Emily.'
Host Ken Jennings was bowled over, asking: 'Emily Folger, the one we mentioned in the clue, is the person you, Emily Croke are named after?' to which she said: 'Yeah.'
When a clip of the moment was posted to Instagram, fans leapt into the comments to share their opinions, with some feeling there was 'nothing wrong' with the 'cool' and 'amazing coincidence' as others regarded the result as 'rigged' and 'not fair.'
'Her family was pulling for her *spooky voice* from beyond the grave. So cool!!' wrote one Jeopardy! watcher who clearly supported Emily.
'I love Slumdog Millionaire moments,' said another, a third wrote: 'How fitting! That's so lucky AND she played so well,' and a fourth said: 'Synchronicity and serendipity!'
'What are the odds of that happening?' marveled a viewer as another gushed: 'Ancestral power right there! You just saw it in her smile! So cool!'
'Nothing wrong here,' a fan insisted. 'Good for her for knowing that! That's how you win trivia, know things others don't. How many people don't care to find out things about their family one or two generations back, let alone this far back!'
'Happy to have known it without any connection!!' boasted another member of the viewing public: 'Well, other than I love Shakespeare!!!'
Others wrote: 'Wow, how cool is that!!,' referring to Emily's stroke of luck as the 'most amazing coincidence in the history of Jeopardy.'
Meanwhile a number of audience members were rather less impressed with Emily's victory, maintaining that the family ties meant the result was not entirely above board.
Making reference to a 1994 film about a television competition that was fixed behind the scenes, one wrote: 'Anyone else ever seen the movie Quiz Show?'
Fans leapt into the comments to share their opinions, with some feeling there was 'nothing wrong' with the 'cool' and 'amazing coincidence' as others regarded the result as 'rigged'
'How is anyone not a family member supposed to deduce the correct reply?' demanded another commenter. 'What am I missing? Is the library at Vassar named for Folger, I wonder. Off to find out, later yall.'
None of the libraries at Vassar College is named after the Folger family, although there is a Folger Shakespeare Library on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
'Nepo babies keep winning,' sighed one fan, another groused: 'Not fair. She cheated,' and another quipped: 'Rigged,' with a crying laughing emoji.
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