Syracuse native finishes in 2nd place on Jeopardy! after Daily Double drama – syracuse.com

How much did Syracuse native Chuck McKeever win on his favorite game show?

McKeever, a 2008 graduate of Fayetteville-Manlius High School and the son of former The Post-Standard reporter Jim McKeever, came in second place on Tuesdays episode of Jeopardy! He finished behind now 5-day champion Tyler Rhode after some Daily Double drama.

During Double Jeopardy, Rhode was on top with $12,800 and McKeever had $8,800, but McKeever had a chance to take the lead when he landed on a Daily Double. He lost $4,100 when he struggled with the clue: Meaning snakelike as an adjective, it refers to a green mineral as a noun. He guessed adamantine, but the correct response was what is serpentine?

But then McKeever got $4,000 back with another Daily Double a moment later, when host Mayim Bialik gave him this clue: Halab is the name in Arabic for this largest city of northern Syria, heavily damaged in the recent civil war.

What is... he said with a pause. Aleppo? Correct, Chuck.

At that point, McKeever had $12,300 and Rhode had $16,800, while fellow contestant Abby Haddican trailed with $5,000. Rhode only slightly widened the gap heading into Final Jeopardy, but sealed his win when he was the only one to get it correct. The clue was, Galileo thanked this astronomer because you were... practically the only one, to have complete faith in my assertions Haddican lost all her money when she guessed Copernicus and McKeever lost $5,899 when he guessed the same, while Rhode added $10,000 to his total for a final score of $27,600 when he accurately wrote Who is Kepler?

McKeever finished with $6,801 and an experience of a lifetime, ultimately taking home $2,000 for finishing in second place.

McKeever, who now lives in Seattle and works as a GED instructor at Seattle Central College, told syracuse.com | The Post-Standard that he grew up watching Jeopardy! while growing up in Central New York. He got more interested in it while watching with his college friends while attending the Ohio State University.

We would play along on TV, he recalled. I started beating them really badly and they started saying Oh, you should try out for the real show.

He said he took the online test when he was 23, but did really badly. Earlier this year, though, he was inspired to give it another try and performed much better; he received an invitation to the show after a virtual audition due to Covid-19.

What makes someone good at the show? In addition to teaching, McKeever is a hiker and writer; he authored the book A Good Place for Maniacs: Dispatches from the Pacific Crest Trail. But he credits years of watching the show to learn similar themes in categories, even though the questions and answers will never repeat themselves.

(There are some) people and events that seem to come up more than others, he said. The golden rule is the first thing that comes to mind in a particular category is probably that one. Itll be Isaac Newton and not some obscure person youve never heard of.

He also joked that he has a good memory for the important things, or random facts that may not be useful to most people in every day life.

Jeopardy! airs weeknights at 7:30 p.m. on Fox 68 in the Syracuse area, though McKeevers episode aired Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. due to pre-game coverage of the World Series Game 6 between the Atlanta Braves and Houston Astros.

Update: An earlier version of this story said McKeever took home $6,801. Second-place finishers on Jeopardy! take home $2,000 and third place takes $1,000.

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Syracuse native finishes in 2nd place on Jeopardy! after Daily Double drama - syracuse.com