How did Mina Kimes win her semifinal round of Celebrity Jeopardy! from second place heading into Final Jeopardy even though she got the last question wrong? Just like much of today’s sports world, it’s all in the analytics and probabilities.
Kimes and SiriusXM radio host Katie Nolan competed in a semifinal that had a big sports presence, along with actress Lisa Ann Walter. However, it was Walter who had the lead going into the Final Jeopardy question about AI.
The clue was “The name of this virtual assistant was inspired by an ancient library once said to contain all the world’s knowledge.”
The answer was Alexa in reference to the famous library at Alexandria. In third place at $5100, Katie Nolan responded correctly. However, she wagered nothing and stayed there. Mina Kimes was in second and guessed Claude, losing $2210 from her $8000 total to end at $5790. And in the lead at $9600, Walter answered Babylon, risking $7000 and falling to third place.
Mina Kimes expressed her shock at advancing, even saying, “I didn’t get it,” as she celebrated her victory. But in a social media video, she explained that she did the best she could to put herself in a position to win regardless of whether she got the final clue right or wrong.
“I was able to win last night on the Celebrity Jeopardy! semifinals despite playing a pretty awful game, honestly, including Final Jeopardy. My brain completely glitched. However, I won really because of wagering strategies. I got some questions about it so I figured I would explain what I did here,” Kimes said.
As she walked through the scores heading into Final Jeopardy, she explained that she was at the mercy of Lisa Ann Walter in first place, who she predicted (correctly) would bet enough to cover her in case she doubled her money by getting the final clue right. Anticipating that wager, Kimes then bet enough to cover Nolan in case she was right and doubled her total, but small enough to still win in case Walter got her answer wrong.
“Your only chance of winning in second place is if first place is wrong. Otherwise, you’re out. So you have to operate from that place. And if you bet nothing, if you’re right, you win if they’re wrong. If you’re both wrong, you still win because they had to bet so much to cover you. So it’s the logical thing to do. Somehow, it’s still very scary when you’re up there to bet very little money, but it is the logical thing to do. Second place should always do that if they’re over two-thirds of the way through,” Kimes added.
Ironically, if Katie Nolan had bet it all, she would have won the game as the only contestant to get it correct. But as Kimes reasoned, it was hard to fault her strategy, anticipating that Kimes would also go for it all in an attempt to win. And in the end, like the increase in teams going for it on 4th down and forgetting about kicking field goals, she optimized her chances to win, and it paid off.
Mina Kimes has gone one step further than her Celebrity Jeopardy! appearance last year, where even she admitted she was disappointed in her own performance in the semis. She’ll get the ultimate chance at redemption this time around in the championship round.
About Matt Yoder