JEOPARDY!’s Drew Goins helped bring the game show to the top spot in ratings over Ryan Seacrest’s Wheel of Fortune, as viewers have tuned in to cheer on the fan favorite.

Drew appeared on Jeopardy!’s Champions Wild Card Tournament the week of January 20 to January 26.

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The U.S. Sun can exclusively reveal 8,430,000 viewers tuned in to watch the game show that week, according to Nielsen.

Wheel of Fortune came in second place with 8,111,000 viewers.

Drew and the tournament helped Jeopardy! knock Wheel of Fortune out of the top spot for syndicated programs.

The U.S. Sun previously reported 8,310,000 viewers watched Wheel of Fortune for the premiere week of September 9 to September 15.

As for Jeopardy!, which is hosted by Ken Jennings, 7,113,000 viewers tuned in for the episodes.

GOINS FOR DREW

Drew quickly became a fan-favorite during the Second Chance Tournament.

He revealed his regret of getting a Taylor Swift question incorrect during his first stint on the show, which he was able to redeem in the tournament.

Drew also made audiences laugh with a wardrobe malfunction, as the outline of his nipples could be seen through his sweater.

For the Thursday, January 23 episode, the journalist from Hawaii went up against returning champs Mehal Shah, a software engineer from Seattle, Washington and Will Yancey, a lecturer of history from Banquete, Texas.

Drew, Mehal and Will earned their spots in the two-day finals after dominating the preliminaries and semifinals of the tournament.

In Final Jeopardy!, Mehal was in the lead having scored $15,200.

Will came in second with $11,600 while Drew was closely behind with $10,800.

Ken introduced the last category as “World Geography” as the players placed their wagers – where Drew can be seen dancing to the famous Jeopardy! think music.

Mehal and Drew both accurately wrote down “What is Ural?” as Mehal made the biggest wager of the trio.

After betting $12,000, he went into the grand finale with $27,200.

Drew came in second with $17,600 while Will dropped to third with $5,600.

Jeopardy! Champions Wildcard Tournament came to a dramatic end on Friday, January 24, as Drew took on Will and Mehal again.

Their scores from Thursday’s game carried over to Friday – leaving Mehal with an early lead of $27,200, Drew with $17,600 and Will with $5,600.

Host Ken, 50, then introduced the final category of “Composers.”

No one was able to accurately guess the question for Final Jeopardy!

After adding up their combined two-day scores, Mehal was the standout winner with $46,200.

Drew was in second with $17,600 and Will was in third place with $5,600.

The show is currently airing its Invitational Tournament.

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CELEBRITY JEOPARDY!

The U.S. Sun previously reported on ratings for Celebrity Jeopardy!, which is airing now.

The premiere episode on January 8 brought in 3,028,000 viewers.

The episode featured actor Max Greenfield, actress Camilla Luddington and comedian W. Kamau Bell.

The January 15 episode, featuring actresses Melissa Peterman and Jackie Tohn, and writer Neil deGrasse Tyson, brought in 2,648,000 viewers, a slight dip from the week prior.

The January 22 episode had fewer viewers with 2,519,000 tuning in.

This episode had contestants Seth Green, Margaret Cho and Rachel Brosnahan.

The January 29 episode had the lowest of the season with 1,835,000 viewers watching Roy Wood Jr., Brian Jordan Alvarez and Phoebe Robinson compete.

The February 5 episode had 2,173,000 viewers, while the February 12 show had 2,010,000.

Jeopardy! Contestant Rules

Passing Jeopardy!’s online Anytime Test is hard enough, but there are also many rules players must follow once they make it to the stage:

• The returning champion is always at the leftmost podium and keeps playing until they lose.
• Contestants don’t have to say “who is” or “what is” in the first round but must do so in Double Jeopardy! and Final Jeopardy.
• Contestants can change their responses as long as Ken Jennings or the judges haven’t made a ruling.
• The minimum wager for a Daily Double is $5. The minimum wager for Final Jeopardy! is $0.
• Written responses in Final Jeopardy! do not have to be spelled correctly, but they must be phonetically correct (the judges decide this).
• If there’s a tie after Final Jeopardy, the tied players enter a bonus clue shootout, and whoever buzzes in first correctly wins.
• If all three contestants wager everything in Final Jeopardy! and are incorrect, leaving them with $0, there will be no returning champion (it’s happened before—six times).

CELEBRITY CONTESTANTS?

The ratings drop also comes after the series received backlash over the “unknown” celebrity contestants chosen this season.

One fan wrote on Instagram, “Neil is the only ‘celebrity’ this season I’ve heard of.”

A second sarcastically wrote, “Oh… I thought you said ‘Celebrity Jeopardy.’”

A third commented, “These are celebrities????”

Another said, “Celebrity’ Jeopardy! is used a bit loosely here. Neil is the only celeb on the show.”

A fifth commented of the January 22 episode, “Tbh, I didn’t know any of them prior to tonight.”

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