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Many Jeopardy! viewers were deflated when Ashley Chan’s winning streak ended in a blowout on Wednesday, December 18. The first female four-day champ of Season 42, she had sparked high hopes for a longer run. However, a controversial ruling against her on an early $1,000 clue left some fans blaming the judges for her loss, claiming it cost her momentum and even the game.
For those who missed it, Chan, a publicist from Lewisville, Texas, entered with a combined total of $67,400. She faced Eric Weldon-Schilling, a bar manager & sommelier from Houston, Texas, and Sarah Rosenthal, a fundraiser from New York City.
The trouble involved a ruling in the Jeopardy! round. All scores were close at the time when Chan selected the “3 of a Kind” clue for $1,000. The category required the contestants to respond with what the three things had in common. The clue was “Eagle, Orion, Lagoon.”
Chan responded, “What are ‘Lakes?’” and Ken Jennings told her that was incorrect while admitting it was a tough break. “That’s a tough one, too,” he said. “Those are ‘Nebulae.’”
From there, Chan was never fully able to get into the game. Weldon-Schilling went on to command the Double Jeopardy round, ending with a runaway of $19,600 while Rosenthal had $8,400, and Chan had $2,400. After a triple-get Final clue seeking “Falkland Islands,” Weldon Schilling won with $21,000 to unseat the champ who finished in last place.
In the Reddit thread for the episode, many fans discussed the $1,000 ruling against Chan, claiming she should have been credit for her alternative answer, and that she “seemed shook after that and never recovered.”
“Ashley should have been given credit for a correct response on the $1000 clue in 3 Of A Kind. Among possibly other places, there are multiple Eagle Lakes in Minnesota, a Lake Orion in Michigan, and a Lagoon Lake near Lakeland, Florida,” one fan wrote.
“Yeah I immediately looked that up, and was frankly shocked when there wasn’t a reversal. Ashley seemed shook after that, and never recovered,” wrote another.
“Tough game for her. Seemed like after falling behind she got a little desperate and was a little more reckless with her guesses. Still, the TOC is a nice consolation prize!” wrote a third.
“Yeah, she seemed to be guessing a bit more than her previous games, especially after that miss, but I love that she didn’t give up and kept fighting all the way to the end,” argued a fourth.
“You can probably find a lake named for every word in the English language, though. If they have no actual connection, then yea it’s not a correct answer,” wrote a fifth siding with the judges.
But a sixth wrote, “I mean, they’d be connected by virtue of being named lakes, just like Eagle, Orion, and Lagoon are connected by virtue of being named nebulae. Kind of a bummer that Ashley didn’t get credit for it and the judges didn’t look it up to verify. It was probably a guess on her part rather than being a certainty, but I think they probably would’ve reversed it if she had challenged it during a commercial break.”
Other fans chalked up the defeat to what was simply an off game, with a seventh writing, “I wonder if it was just a bad board for Ashley or if she was getting cooked on the buzzer, because it was really shocking to see a 4 game champion get so handily beaten.”
One more agreed, “Probably fatigue? She got incorrect answers far more frequently that her previous games, I believe.”
“Ashley lost because she didn’t wear her signature shoulder ruffles,” a last fan joked.
Meanwhile, fans were also left questioning how Jennings concluded the episode and Chan’s status with the Tournament of Champions. “Ashley, even with four wins, well-positioned for the next Tournament of Champions. We are likely to see you back here in a year,” he said, confusing some viewers who didn’t understand what that meant.
As other Redditors explained, the 2025 ToC, which airs in January, was already taped, and the cutoff is up. That means Chan is the first official qualifier for the 2026 ToC and she is already listed on the tracker for that event. So that’s why she won’t be in the upcoming tournament, but she will be back!