'Jeopardy!' Contestant Returns to the Game After 50 Years for Full-Circle Moment
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Martha, come back!
Just over 50 years after her first appearance on the show, Martha Bath, a retired CPA from Seattle, returned to Jeopardy! for a second chance at the grand prize.
In 1972, Bath missed out on becoming champion of the game show. "Fifty years ago this spring, I was on the original daytime show with Art Fleming in New York,” she said to host Ken Jennings. She didn't go home empty-handed back then, earning a neat $40 and a set of encyclopedias (which she still has!), but it certainly wasn't what she'd hoped to earn.
This time around she got to come back for a second show, as reigning champion, but much to fans' disappointment, her reign was short-lived.
She won night one with a cool $30,800, bringing her lifetime earnings up to $30,840, as Jennings pointed out, after quickly winning two Daily Doubles and betting everything she had on Final Jeopardy.
"Love Martha Bath’s full-circle moment on @Jeopardy!" one Twitter user wrote in response. "She’s gutsy and brilliant. So fun to watch! #marthabath #jeopardy #champion"
"Martha Bath is my queen @Jeopardy," wrote another.
But in the end, Bath was too slow to hold onto the title of champion for long. One of her competitors regularly beat her to the buzzer the next night, and while all three of them got the Final Jeopardy right, only Michael Menkhus wagered enough to win.
Even Redditors were torn over it, knowing that the loss was fair but sad to see her go out that way.
"I was also rooting for Martha and wish she could have been faster on the buzzer. She is such a gem. I tuned in to watch the game thinking she would be victorious, with her incredible knowledge base and was so sad at the final outcome. But congrats to Michael on his victory and I'll bet he will have a long run. He's a great player," one wrote.
"I liked Martha very much and would like to have seen more of her. The fact that she got to be on Jeopardy twice in her lifetime tells me that set of Encyclopedias paid off!" another said.
"Same, shame she didn’t last longer," someone else responded.
So, consider this a formal petition to bring her back again.
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