Jeopardy! fans rip ‘pathetic’ direction of the show after Isaac Hirsch’s defeat and ‘already miss’ the booted champ

Plus, what Issac and Jay had to say about the mega-upset last episode

JEOPARDY! fans felt the absence of Isaac Hirsch on Wednesday night in what some branded a “pathetic” and “brutal” follow-up game.

Jay Fisher – who dethroned the nine-day champ – handily won a second match after a jaw-dropping number of blanks and misses.

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On Wednesday night, the contestants winced after a ‘brutal’ Double Jeopardy! roundCredit: ABC

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Ken Jennings joked at one point, ‘We gonna keep going?’Credit: ABC

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Jay Fischer – who defeated Isaac Hirsch – won a second game after 21 triple stumpersCredit: ABC
Jay – who beat Isaac over a math error in an utterly shocking upset last episode – returned to see if he could turn his upset into a streak.

He faced Zach Eckstein from New York City and Nella Ballauer from Amarillo, Texas.

In the Jeopardy! round, things went smoothly enough as brief State Senator Jay racked up $6,400, Zach had $3,800 and Nella (missing a Daily Double) had $0.

In Double Jeopardy!, the proceedings got derailed as the contestants blankly stared and didn’t buzz in the majority the clues.

DOUBLE JEOPARDY! DOOZY

The players went 1-for-5 in the OPERA HEROINES category and at one point Ken Jennings joked, “We gonna keep going?”

Zach incorrectly guessed the director of the French new wave noir film “Breathless” was Hitchcock.

“I believe in you!” Ken quipped at another point.

The players began nervously giggling and there were a bewhildering 21 triple-stumpers or clues where no one rang in at all.

Jay got both Daily Doubles and cruised to a runaway with no real competition.

He had $19,700, $3,600 for Nella and $1,800 for Zach as Final Jeopardy was presented under “Literary Characters.”

It read, “In a 1980 National Book Award Winner, we learn this title character gets his name from the rank of his late dad – Technical Sergeant.”

No one got “Garp,” and Jay dropped $5,300 to win $14,400 for a two-day total of $16,199.

‘BRUTAL’

Fans flooded social media where they were not shy in expressing how rough the game was- some blaming the players, others the show.

“Pathetic performance on Jeopardy tonight. Wtf,” one Facebook user wrote.

“I’ll miss seeing Isaac!” wrote another.

“What a ‘game’ tonight. Clues way too obscure to be fun…C’mon writers – let’s have a little smart fun okay?!” wrote a third.

“What an absolutely ghastly Double #Jeopardy board. the writers were out for blood today,” wrote a fifth on X.

“Really brutal Double board today; less than half of the clues in the round even got an attempt,” a Redditor noted.

“Tough boards today,” wrote a seventh. “Jay managed to put together a strong performance, but 21 triple stumpers, a combined Coryat of 22,400, and 0/3 on FJ is rough, to say the least.”

“Really had to save some money in the prize budget after Isaac, huh?” joked another.

“It may just be me, but the games that follow a ToC champ’s departure seem to trend towards having lower stats and more Triple Stumpers,” wrote an additional fan.

“Not helping matters is that the DJ board in particular felt brutal,” argued one more.

Jay will aim for win three tomorrow against two new challengers, and other fans remarked that they were impressed with how he held his own.

THAT’S GOTTA HIRSCH

Isaac fumbled majorly in the Final Jeopardy! round of the July 16th game, ending his fan-favorite nine-day winning streak.

Isaac had accumulated $215,390 and hoards of fans, but a massive wager in the last round cost him dearly.

Heading into Final Jeopardy!, Isaac had $15,300 against Jay’s $16,200 and Erika Stromerson’s $600.

The clue in the category “1960s People,” read, “He said that California prison psych tests he took were ones he had designed, so he made himself look docile & unlikely to escape; then he did.”

Jeopardy!’s Isaac Hirsch loses 9-day streak on shocking mistake that left him ‘in horror’ & reliving wager in his sleep
The correct response was “Who was Timothy Leary?”

None of the players found the correct response, but Isaac’s wager of $14,000 put him in second place with a final score of $1,300 against Jay’s $1,799.

Isaac did a full 360 at his podium and held up his pink wagering scrap paper to the camera.

He looked astonished as it dawned on him that the amount was too large to win if he was incorrect while the credits played.

Fans were stunned across social media that the champ lost on a math error.

“Wow crazy ending there #jeopardy,” one internet user wrote.

“Ah man, I’m disappointed that Isaac lost, but at least he’ll be back in the TOC,” posted another.

ISAAC SPEAKS OUT

Isaac offered some insight into his mistake that cost him the game on Reddit.

“Okay, so why did I wager $14,000? The short answer is I did the math wrong,” Isaac explained in the comments of the game’s Reddit thread.

“(Although I guess it’s kind of obvious based on how I spent the first minute after the game looking at my scratch paper in horror.) I was trying to subtract 14,401 from 16,200, and somehow came up with 1300 instead of 1800 as the number I needed to arrive at if I got it wrong, hence the 14,000 wager.”

To make matters worse, Isaac added, “I spent the weeks after the taping seeing the bad math in my sleep. I remembered basically nothing about most of the games last week, but EVERYTHING about this game. All credit to Jay, who absolutely murdered me on the buzzer, especially in the first round.”

Isaac noted, “This was bound to happen — I barely survived yesterday and I was just really, really tired.

“It’s been a fun experience watching these air back and I appreciate how nice people have mostly been to me. I’ll have a lot to prove in ToC; not least that I can do basic arithmetic.”

‘I WAS IN SHOCK,’ JAY SAYS

Jay also responded in the thread and admitted he was shocked to have won.

“I haven’t had a chance to watch the episode yet, but I was in shock when I won. I wonder if it shows. Isaac is a great competitor and he wasn’t feeling his best. Any other day the results would have been different. I will be cheering him on in the ToC. Congratulations on a great run and good luck in the ToC,” he wrote.

Jeopardy! airs at 7 pm ET – check your local listings.

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Isaac Hirsch’s nine-day winning streak imploded on an oversized Final Jeopardy wagerCredit: Jeopardy!

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Isaac stared at his wagering scrap paper in disbelief realizing he’d made a math errorCredit: Jeopardy!

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Fans were stunned by the shocker defeat of the latest fan-favorite champ