Talk about a clinic in clue hunting. On Thursday, May 28, 2026, “Jeopardy!” champion Chris D’Angelo turned in one of the most commanding performances of the season, sniffing out all three Daily Doubles, answering each one correctly and cruising to a runaway victory that pushed his seven-day winnings to $174,201.
The Washington, D.C., content manager entered his seventh game with a six-day total of $124,201 and a clear strategy: control the board. He did exactly that, walking away with a $50,000 single-game payday in a contest that looked competitive — until suddenly it wasn’t.
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
If the first round was a duet, Double Jeopardy was a one-man show. D’Angelo ran the board from the opening clue, climbing to $17,800 before locating the round’s first Daily Double on the fifth clue. He wagered $2,200 in the category “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 Anne of Green Gables?” — pushed him to $20,000.
From clue five through clue nine, D’Angelo answered every clue that wasn’t a Triple Stumper. Two of those tripped up all three players, but the champ kept stacking. On clue nine, he found the third and final Daily Double in the category “Jobs.” With $21,600 in the bank, he wagered $1,600.
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.
The Final Margin
Epstein found a brief rhythm afterward, stringing together three correct responses before missing one. Bloom, who had been quiet for much of the round, then stepped up to ring in correctly on five clues. But the math had already tilted decisively. By the end of Double Jeopardy, D’Angelo had $34,000, Epstein had $7,200 and Bloom held $5,200 — a runaway, with D’Angelo’s total more than double Epstein’s.
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 nailed it 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
The $50,000 single-game haul pushed D’Angelo’s seven-day winnings to $174,201, a tidy jump for a content manager who has now made finding Daily Doubles look like a deliberate craft rather than luck. He’ll return on Friday to chase his eighth consecutive win.
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. With three opponents falling short and a Final Jeopardy clue everyone solved, the spotlight stayed firmly on D’Angelo’s strategy at the board.
“Jeopardy!” airs weekdays; check local listings. Episodes stream the next day on Hulu and Peacock.