NEW YORK — A recent episode of the popular quiz show ‘Jeopardy!’ took a grim turn after contestant James Pierce shared a harrowing, 45-minute anecdote about a time he hit a drifter with his car but just kept driving.
“I was speechless, we couldn’t even cut to commercial,” said host Mayim Bialik. “Usually the anecdotes are very mild and brief, but he just spun off an incredibly vivid recounting of seeing the shock and terror in a stranger’s eyes before hearing the unmistakable crunch of a human spine underneath the suspension of his car. As he told his anecdote, his voice was a steady monotone, his face expressionless. When it finally concluded he snapped back into his beaming, Cheshire grin he had worn all show and politely clapped for the show to continue. It really put a damper on Double Jeopardy.”
The reigning champion of Jeopardy! described what it was like to listen to the horrifying ordeal from just a podium away.
“There’s all sorts of preparation you can do for Jeopardy, quizzes, trivia, practice games. Nothing could prepare me for that,” champion Mark Rosenthal said. “I’ve been on an eight-week victory streak, and thus have experienced a wide variety of emotions, but paralyzing fear was not one of them until last night. Daily doubles, wagers, these things seem meaningless to me now. Above all the facts and knowledge I picked up from this show, I now also learned the fragility of human life, as well as the cowardly evil that can snuff it out.”
At press time, sources revealed the broadcast was marred further when Pierce answered Final Jeopardy incorrectly, and it was revealed he had wagered another contestant’s life.
