Chris D’Angelo, a content manager from Washington, D.C., delivered a commanding performance on “Jeopardy!” on Thursday, May 28, 2026, finding all three Daily Doubles, answering each correctly and dominating the competition with a $50,000 single-game victory that brought his seven-day total to $174,201.
D’Angelo entered the night with $124,201 in winnings from his first six games and executed a board control strategy that transformed what started as a competitive match into a runaway victory.
A Tight Start Turns Decisive
D’Angelo opened the night opposite Ken Bloom, a physics professor from Lincoln, Nebraska, and Ariel Epstein, an executive research director from Belle Mead, New Jersey. For the first 15 clues, D’Angelo and Epstein traded the lead in a back-and-forth duel. Each missed one clue along the way, but D’Angelo edged ahead with $4,200 to Epstein’s $3,200.
The first inflection point arrived on clue 17, when D’Angelo uncovered the round’s lone Daily Double. Sitting on $5,000, he went all-in. The category was “Erring,” and the clue read: “Oh boy, where to start? This ancient Egyptian placed the Earth at the center of the universe & said astrology was a legitimate science.”
“Who is Ptolemy?” he answered, doubling up to $10,000. Incorrect responses from Epstein and Bloom helped widen the gap. By the end of the Jeopardy! round, D’Angelo had $11,800, Epstein sat at $3,600 and Bloom held $1,600.
Double Jeopardy Becomes a Solo Act
D’Angelo’s dominance became unmistakable in the second round, where he took control from the opening clue and climbed to $17,800 before hitting the first Daily Double on the fifth clue. He wagered $2,200 in “Alliterature.”
The clue: “Regarding this title location, Anne Shirley remarks, ‘Just as soon as I saw it I felt it was home.'” His response — “What is Green Gables?” — pushed him to $20,000.
Between clues five and nine, D’Angelo correctly answered every clue except for two Triple Stumpers that baffled all three contestants. On clue nine, he uncovered the third Daily Double in “Jobs,” wagering $1,600 from his $21,600 total.
The clue noted that the job didn’t require pilot training but did require passing the ATSA, an exam administered by the FAA. “What is an Air Traffic Controller?” D’Angelo offered, this time with a touch of uncertainty in his voice. He was right, lifting his total to $23,200 and locking up the sweep of all three Daily Doubles.
Epstein managed three correct responses in a row before missing one. Bloom then stepped up to ring in correctly on five clues. But D’Angelo had already built an insurmountable lead, ending Double Jeopardy with $34,000 to Epstein’s $7,200 and Bloom’s $5,200.
The Final Margin
Final Jeopardy arrived under the category “Latin Phrases.” The clue: “An 1863 Congressional ‘Act relating to’ this was decried in the press as a ‘bill to appoint a dictator.'”
All three contestants answered correctly with “habeas corpus.” Bloom wagered $5,000 to finish at $10,200. Epstein wagered $3,201 to land at $10,401. D’Angelo, playing the comfortable math of a runaway, wagered $16,000 and ended the night at $50,000.
Eight in a Row on the Horizon
His Thursday performance — locating every Daily Double, going all-in on the first one and never trailing after clue 17 — was the kind of run that turns a solid champion into a player viewers start circling on the calendar. D’Angelo will return to chase his eighth consecutive win.
D’Angelo returned Friday, May 29, and kept the streak alive, winning his eighth consecutive game and earning $20,000 to push his cumulative total to $194,201. His opponents were Matt Patrick, an attorney from Bloomfield, New Jersey, and Lili Driggs, a writer from New York City. During the contestant interview segment, D’Angelo revealed that he and his wife never took their honeymoon — they married in 2020 — and pledged to splurge on a trip to Tokyo with his winnings.
The streak ended Monday, June 1, when a brutal Final Jeopardy clue in the category “Idioms & Expressions” — asking about Mississippi cardsharp bans in the 1830s — stumped all three contestants. D’Angelo entered the final round with $11,200, wagered everything, and finished with $0. Peter McFerrin, an energy industry professional from Corona, California, survived by wagering a surgical $1,701 from his $20,700 lead — just enough to cover a correct D’Angelo response — and won with $18,999. D’Angelo finished his run with eight wins and $194,201 in total earnings, securing a spot in the 2026 Tournament of Champions.
“Jeopardy!” airs weekdays; check local listings. Episodes stream the next day on Hulu and Peacock.
