"I actually do know her name" — Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions finalist Adriana Harmeyer opens up about losing due to a spelling mistake

Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions 2025's five-day finals concluded on February 13, 2025, with the episode airing on ABC. The final saw Neilesh Vinjamuri emerge as the winner of the 2025 season and take home the prize money of $250,000. Meanwhile, Adriana Harmeyer and Isaac Hirsch finished as the runners earning $75,000 each.

While Neilesh finished the final round with the most points, Adriana was in the lead in the second Double Jeopardy! round. However, the lead was soon taken away from her when it was found that Adriana had misspelled one of the answers, namely actress Cristin Milioti's surname, and faced a deduction of $3,200.

Adriana reflected on her spelling mistake, under Jeopardy's Day 5 Reddit thread published on February 13, 2025, and noted that she knew the name's correct spelling. However, when she was on the stage, she didn't know how to misspell the name.

"I actually do know her name. I'll spend the rest of my life thinking about why it came out that way," she wrote after congratulating Neilesh for his victory.

Adriana's comment (Image via Reddit/@u/AdrianaHarmeyer)

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How did Adriana Harmeyer lose the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions finals?

Neilesh Vinjamuri came on Day 5 of Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions finals with two wins in his corner. Meanwhile, Adriana Harmeyer and Isaac Hirsch had just one win under their belts. So the first person to secure their win was going to be crowned the winner of the 2025 season.

Day 5 began with Jeopardy! round and in the end Neilesh took the lead with $6,600 on his scoreboard. Isaac was right behind him with $3,400 and Adriana finished the first round with $2,000. Adriana soon picked up the pace in the Double Jeopardy! round and took the lead after answering one of the Daily Doubles correctly and increasing her score to $8,000.

Later in the Double Jeopardy! round, the finalists faced a question from the "POP CULTURE JEOPARDY!" category. The clue featured an image of an actress who portrayed the mother on How I Met Your Mother and the daughter of Carmine Falcone on HBO’s The Penguin.

Adriana knew the answer and wasted no time buzzing in and noting that the answer was “Who is Miloti?”. Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions host Ken Jennings announced that the answer was correct and it increased her score to $13,600.

However, Adriana’s lead was soon taken away when Ken Jennings informed everyone that his team had reviewed her response in the "POP CULTURE JEOPARDY!" category. While her answer was correct, she had misspelled the actress’s surname—writing "Miloti" instead of the correct spelling, "Milioti."

As a result, $3,200 was deducted from her score, bringing her total down to $10,400. This small mistake proved costly for Adriana, as it allowed Neilesh to seize the lead, finishing the second round with $13,600, while Isaac trailed with $7,800.

For the Final Jeopardy! round, the contestants just had to answer one question and it was from the "GREEK MYTH" category. The clue for the question read:

"Panoptes, meaning all-seeing, was the byname of this legendary figure, slain by Hermes while standing guard over Io."

All the finalists answered the questions correctly and all of their scores were increased. Since Neilesh was already in the lead coming from the second round, he finished the third round with the highest points and was declared the winner of the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions 2025.

While Adriana was upset about her mistake, she commented under Jeopardy's Day 5 Reddit thread noting that she was happy to compete against her fellow finalists.

"It wasn't my day, it wasn't my tournament, but I feel so fortunate to have reached this point and shared the finals stage with two brilliant competitors. Isaac is so good at this and pulled out some truly impressive daily doubles and finals," she wrote.

The Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions finalist continued:

"Huge congratulations to Neilesh, who showed throughout this tournament why he's a deserving champion. Both are Jeopardy greats for a reason! This whole tournament was an incredible experience, full of wonderful people," she wrote.

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Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions 2025 episodes are available to watch on Hulu.