‘Jeopardy!’ ends in rare tie after ‘Final Jeopardy!’ round. Watch what happened next

Two “Jeopardy!” contestants were tied after the “Final Jeopardy!” round on Wednesday, Feb. 23, marking a rare occurrence for the show.

And thanks to new rules established in 2016, a winner had to be declared. Here’s what happened.

Going into the “Final Jeopardy!” round, Christine Whelchel, a piano teacher from Spring Hill, Tennessee, had a small lead over two-time defending champion Henry Rozycki, a doctor from Virginia. Whelchel was at $19,000 and Rozycki had earned $17,000, with Patrick Byrnett far back at $8,800.

The subject for the final clue was “Play Characters” and the clue was: “A 1949 review noted the ‘wrong formulas for success’ of this character & ‘fatal misconceptions about his place in the scheme of things.”

All three contestants correctly guessed Willy Loman, the protagonist of the classic play “Death of a Salesman.” But Whelchel and Rozycki both ended up with $34,000, resulting in a tie between the two contestants.

Host Ken Jennings wasted no time in explaining what would happen next. He would read one final clue and whomever gave a correct response would be the winner.

The tiebreaker’s category was “Flowers,” with Jennings reading the following clue: “After its inclusion in a 1915 poem, this red blower became a symbol of fallen World War I soldiers.”

Whelchel correctly guessed “Poppy,” winning the tiebreaker round to be declared the day’s champion.

Ties are rare on “Jeopardy!,” but it also happened last week in a semifinal of the show’s National College Championship. Liz Feltner of Northeastern University correctly guessed the tiebreaker clue to move on to the championship.

After a tie during a January 2021 episode, TODAY reported that “Jeopardy!” also went to a tiebreaker in 2018 and 2019.

The tiebreaker, originally introduced for tournaments on the show, became the standard in 2016 for regular season play.

This story was originally published February 24, 2022 at 8:53 AM with the headline "‘Jeopardy!’ ends in rare tie after ‘Final Jeopardy!’ round. Watch what happened next."