MN meteorologist Eric Ahasic’s ‘Jeopardy!’ streak ends and he takes home $160,601

After dominating six games in a row on “Jeopardy!” – and winning $160,601 in the process – Minneapolis meteorologist Eric Ahasic lost by a mere $2 on Tuesday’s show.

Watergate did him in.

Under the category 1972, the “Final Jeopardy!” clue was: “In June he said, ‘Don’t lie to them to the extent to say there is no involvement, but just say this is … a comedy of errors.’ ,

Barry Margulies, a professor from Maryland, answered first and incorrectly guessed HR Haldeman. California attorney Megan Wachspress followed with the correct response, Richard Nixon. And that’s when Ahasic’s heart sank, knowing he had written down John Dean.

“I totally overthought that one,” Ahasic said. “My first thought was disappointment. No one wants to lose. But then, honestly, I felt some relief. It was an emotional rollercoaster.”

Indeed, “rollercoaster” is a word the 32-year-old Ahasic used numerous times in describing his experience in competing on the show. A “Jeopardy” fan since Ken Jennings’ record-breaking streak of 74 consecutive wins in 2004, Ahasic applied 15 times before he finally made it onto the show.

On his first of two days on set in April – “Jeopardy!” films five episodes per day, twice a week – Ahasic learned he was not only going to compete in the first game of the day, he was up against Ryan Long, who had won nearly $300,000 over the course of 16 games.

“I thought I was probably going to lose,” he said. “It was probably going to be a one-and-done affair. I figured I’d have fun with it and remember all the moments. Twenty-five minutes later, I beat this guy. To kind of have a new life was wild.”

Ahasic performed remarkably well, finding and winning two Daily Doubles and taking home $18,401. And that was just the start. For five games in a row, he entered Final Jeopardy with enough money to ensure his win.

“Eric Ahasic has done it again,” host Mayim Bialik said at the top of Tuesday’s show. “Secured a win without being able to be caught in Final Jeopardy. It’s his fifth straight runaway game. Now to put that in perspective, only one other season 38 champion has achieved runaway status in five of their first six games and she’s one of the best players this game ever seen, Amy Schneider.” (Schneider won 40 games in a row from November 2021 to January 2022, placing her second behind Jennings.)

Ahasic, a meteorologist at the Chanhassen office of the National Weather Service since 2015, said the experience was nerve-wracking.

“They shoot the episodes back to back to back,” he said. “You’ve barely realized you won, they take you off set, you change your clothes, get touched up and you’re back on set to do it again. It was a grueling day, physically and mentally. I was shaking at times with nerves. You don’t get a lot of time to sit back and reflect.”

Ahasic said he started to hit a good rhythm during the second half of his second game.

“I kind of switched my grip on the buzzer,” he said. “And I started getting those Daily Doubles. My whole thought process was to keep riding the wave, and take it one question at a time.”

While he said he didn’t get much sleep after the first day, the second day (when he shot Monday and Tuesday’s episodes) was a bit easier.

“I never really felt comfortable, but the shaking had stopped. I was nervous, but kind of excited. I had already done all I could possibly imagine and then some, so I tried to just have fun.”

And once he lost, Ahasic said it was the first time in weeks he could truly relax.

“It was so much fun to stick around for the rest of the day,” he said. “Watching the game behind the scenes was awesome. That’s when you really get to meet your fellow contestants.”

When Ahasic hit the five-game mark, he became eligible for the show’s annual Tournament of Champions, which airs in November.

“I would have loved to keep winning,” he said. “But I won enough. And I am one of the lucky, privileged people who get to go back and play again.”