Jeopardy! contestant Brian Henegar stuns Ken Jennings with priceless reaction after he's decla

May 2024 · 4 minute read

A JEOPARDY! contestant on Tuesday's episode has left the internet buzzing since he just couldn't believe he won.

Brian Henegar had a "priceless" reaction when he emerged with the highest score.

Returning champ Crystal Zhao faced Amanda Bain Wysocki, a social worker from Kansas City, Missouri, and Brian, a guest services agent from La Follette, Tennessee.

Crystal is a tech consultant from Bloomington, Minnesota who became the one to beat after a $4.1K win last episode.

She had the highest score when everyone was stumped on a Final Jeopardy that even Ken, 48, admitted was “tough” during tonight's intro.

Brian, who revealed he's a game show devotee with an orange-on-orange ensemble and Alex Trebek-style stache to boot - led by the end of Double Jeopardy though it was still anyone's game.

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Despite missing the last Daily Double, he kept his game face on and nabbed some high-value clues to go into Final Jeopardy with a slight advantage.

He had $13,800 while Crystal had $11,600, and Amanda had $5,400.

'AS I BELIEVE IS SLOWLY DAWNING ON YOU...'

Final Jeopardy under: "Novelists" read: "A 2012 book review noted subjects that 'sparked his ire:' capital punishment, big tobacco & 'the plight of the unjustly convicted.'"

Brian seemed like he was finished writing early and put his stylus pen down.

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Ken first turned to Amanda and then Crystal who were both incorrect, writing "[Upton] Sinclair" and "[Sinclair] Lewis" respectively.

Ken then turned to Brian who kept it current and correctly wrote: "John Grisham."

"Yes, that's correct. A reference to courtroom novels like The Chamber and Runaway Jury and the Confession," Ken began to explain.

As Ken was speaking, Brian burst into a reaction for the books.

He began panting and holding his chest in the best kind of surprise.

When Ken revealed his wager of $9,401 making him a big winner with $23,201, Brian began laughing out loud in shock.

Ken said since the celebration was hard to ignore: "As I believe is slowly dawning on you, you're the new Jeopardy! champion. He can't believe it!"

As Brian's winning score was displayed, he gripped the podium in disbelief and just kept laughing.

'HE WAS COMPLETELY SHOCKED!'

Fans loved the moment that, if nothing else, captured the sheer glory of winning America's longest-running game show.

"Brian's reaction at the end was priceless!," one Twitter user wrote.

"That priceless reaction reminds me of Mattea Roach," wrote another.

"Wowzers, that was quite the reaction from Brian when he learned his answer was correct. I hope we get an explanation! It almost looked like he picked a random novelist out of a hat and was completely shocked it was correct," wrote a third on Reddit.

“I love how excited today’s winner was!” wrote a fourth.

A fifth person said it: "Felt like it was an educated guess, as the clue suggested the subject was a lawyer, but it seemed Brian was by no means sure it was correct."

Crystal then buzzed into the Reddit thread to joke about her incorrect guess earlier on that was looking for Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown.

"I will probably never live down this Murphy Brown comment. I really have never seen either of them, but now I have learned that Murphy Brown is in fact a very white woman working in a newsroom."

'ALL MY STUDENT LOANS ARE PAID OFF!'

When 23-time winner Mattea won their first game just about one year ago today, they had a reaction to remember as well.

Mattea won their first game on April 5, 2022, and exclaimed "all my student loans are paid off!" 

The Canadian super-champ wound up, of course, covering more than just their tuition as their streak amassed $560K total.

SPRING WITH MAYIM & SPECIALS WITH KEN

Seventy-four-time winner Ken and Mayim Bialik, 47, were announced as the successors for the late Alex Trebek over the summer.

Ken is hosting until April 28th at which point Mayim will return on May 1 and helm the last four months of the season.

Fans will still get more of Ken - whom many have made clear they prefer between the two - as he is hosting Jeopardy! Masters, a round-robin 20-episode tournament in primetime on ABC.

The special is airing starting on May 8 and scored its first trailer today - it includes legends like James HolzhauerAmy Schneider, and Mattea.

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Speaking of specials, Jeopardy! is doing a gut reno on its 2023 Tournament of Champions expanding the event to 10 weeks and introducing a controversial new qualifier called Champions Wildcard.

"Any" 1-3 day winner will get a second chance in September who is interested.

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