STEVEN OLSON DOMINATES JEOPARDY! TO REACH THE SEMIFINALS — BUT THE FINAL CLUE STILL GAVE VIEWERS A MOMENT OF DOUBT
Steven Olson turned Friday’s Jeopardy! encore into a statement performance, dominating the competition from the middle of the game and punching his ticket to the semifinals of the 33rd Tournament of Champions.
The August 14 episode was an encore presentation of the game originally aired January 23, 2026, but the result still delivered plenty of drama. Olson faced attorney Matt Massie and politics professor Josh Weikert in a quarterfinal matchup that ultimately became a runaway.
The turning point came in Double Jeopardy!.
After trailing slightly at the end of the first round, Olson found another gear. He answered 15 clues correctly in the round and collected $10,000 on two Daily Doubles, transforming what had been a competitive game into a one-sided race.
By the time the contestants reached Final Jeopardy!, Olson had built a massive $25,800 lead. Massie had $5,800, while Weikert sat at $5,600.
The category was “Capital Cities,” and the clue asked for one of two Canadian provincial capitals that share their names with national capitals.
The correct responses were St. John’s or Victoria.
Both Olson and Massie came up with correct responses, but Olson had already done the damage. He wagered $7,117 and finished with $32,917, officially securing his place in the semifinals.
Massie doubled his score to $11,600, while Weikert wagered nothing and finished with $5,600.
For Olson, however, the victory was about much more than getting the final clue right.
His performance throughout the game was remarkably consistent. He finished with 25 correct responses against only four incorrect, while his buzzer percentage was more than 42%. His $18,600 Coryat score also demonstrated that the runaway wasn’t simply the result of aggressive wagering — he was consistently finding the right answers on the board.
And his Daily Double performance was arguably the biggest difference-maker.
Olson converted both of his opportunities in Double Jeopardy!, adding thousands to his total while his opponents struggled to keep pace. Once he opened up the lead, there was little opportunity for Massie or Weikert to mount a comeback.
The Final Jeopardy! clue itself was a clever Tournament of Champions-level geography question because neither answer is among the world’s most obvious capital-city pairings.
St. John’s, the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador, shares its name with St. John’s, the capital of Antigua and Barbuda. Victoria, meanwhile, is the capital of British Columbia and shares its name with Victoria, the capital of Seychelles.
That detail also explains why simply answering “St. John” would not have been enough. There is another Canadian city called Saint John, New Brunswick, making the precise name particularly important.
Ultimately, the final clue did not determine the winner — Olson had already taken control long before it appeared.
And that may be the most impressive part of his victory.
Tournament games often come down to a single Daily Double or a perfectly timed Final Jeopardy! wager. Olson did not need that kind of rescue. He built his advantage clue by clue, then protected it when the game reached its final stage.
With $32,917 on the scoreboard and a semifinal berth secured, Steven Olson has now shown exactly why he belongs in the Tournament of Champions conversation.
The encore may have been a repeat broadcast.
The performance, however, looked anything but ordinary.