"I’m so bad at Daily Doubles": Jeopardy! 14-game champion Harrison Whitaker opens up about his defeat

Jeopardy!'s 14-game champion, Harrison Whitaker, was defeated as he stepped onto the stage to play against Libby Jones and Brendan Thomas on Monday, December 1, 2025, winning $373,999.

 The 27-year-old researcher, originally from Terre Haute, initially dominated the game but made a mistake in the final round of Jeopardy! in his 15th game, ultimately losing to recruiter Libby Jones from Davenport, Florida.

Now, Harrison talked to the executive producer of Jeopardy! in the Winner’s Circle video about his caffeine intake and said that he is exhausted from the continuous play, while also reflecting on his game, especially the Daily Doubles Round, which led to his defeat. He said:

"I’m so bad at Daily Doubles. It’s almost a relief not to have them."

Here's what the champion said on his Jeopardy! experience in the Winner's Circle video

In his Winner’s Circle interview, the conversation begins with Sarah Whitcomb-Foss reminding Harrison of the milestone he just hit as she asks him,

"Harrison Whitaker, you are now a 14-game Jeopardy champion. Wow. How does that sound?"

Harrison laughs at it, saying, "sounds pretty crazy," adding that he was grateful for winning even one round in Jeopardy!.

Once he earned his 10th win, Harrison officially became a Jeopardy! champion, which definitely surprised him as he notes, still amazed:

"It’s incredible to know that my name is alongside some of the absolute greats and people I’ve admired for most of my life, really."

As Sarah asks him about whether he felt relaxed walking into Final Jeopardy! with nothing on the line after five straight runaway wins, he says:

"I don't know. I mean, on the one hand, yeah, you do get to relax in Final Jeopardy, but the game that happened before in so many of those games was so tense and so close and so down to the wire that relax isn't the word I'd use. I don’t like Final Jeopardy. I don’t like the risk. So I do everything I can to avoid having it be the deciding factor."

Talking about the Daily Doubles, Sarah mentions how the last five didn’t go his way and that he didn’t find a single one in his final game. Harrison sighs:

"Yeah, I mean, I'm so bad at Daily Doubles. It's almost a relief not to have them. But something about the extra time and thinking, it just makes me second-guess myself and come up with answers that I never would have said if it was a normal question."

He further explained why he watches Jeopardy! at double speed:

"Yeah, well, it started by wanting to watch as much Jeopardy as possible in preparation. But then eventually, I realized that in a high pressure situation, ultimately, it's going to feel like it's going that quickly. So when you're preparing, you have to prepare in more difficult conditions than you'll actually face."

As the 27-year-old is living in England, which has made watching Jeopardy! difficult, he tells Sarah that he keeps up through compilations on YouTube on the World of Jeopardy channel and also leans heavily on J. Archive for the clues and database.

Lastly, talking about his caffeine intake throughout the 14 games won, Harrison states that he doesn’t usually drink caffeine, but once he did before his first game, he couldn’t stop, adding:

"But I wasn’t going to leave anything to chance when it came to this. I had a Coca-Cola before my first game. I was completely wired, and I’m afraid to get rid of it now."

Stay tuned for more updates.