‘Jeopardy!’ ends in rare tie after ‘Final Jeopardy!’ round. Watch what happened next

Two “Jeopardy!” contestants were tied after the “Final Jeopardy!” round on Wednesday, Feb. 23, marking a rare occurrence for the show.

And thanks to new rules established in 2016, a winner had to be declared. Here’s what happened.

Going into the “Final Jeopardy!” round, Christine Whelchel, a piano teacher from Spring Hill, Tennessee, had a small lead over two-time defending champion Henry Rozycki, a doctor from Virginia. Whelchel was at $19,000 and Rozycki had earned $17,000, with Patrick Byrnett far back at $8,800.

The subject for the final clue was “Play Characters” and the clue was: “A 1949 review noted the ‘wrong formulas for success’ of this character & ‘fatal misconceptions about his place in the scheme of things.”

All three contestants correctly guessed Willy Loman, the protagonist of the classic play “Death of a Salesman.” But Whelchel and Rozycki both ended up with $34,000, resulting in a tie between the two contestants.

Host Ken Jennings wasted no time in explaining what would happen next. He would read one final clue and whomever gave a correct response would be the winner.

The tiebreaker’s category was “Flowers,” with Jennings reading the following clue: “After its inclusion in a 1915 poem, this red blower became a symbol of fallen World War I soldiers.”

Whelchel correctly guessed “Poppy,” winning the tiebreaker round to be declared the day’s champion.

Ties are rare on “Jeopardy!,” but it also happened last week in a semifinal of the show’s National College Championship. Liz Feltner of Northeastern University correctly guessed the tiebreaker clue to move on to the championship.

After a tie during a January 2021 episode, TODAY reported that “Jeopardy!” also went to a tiebreaker in 2018 and 2019.

The tiebreaker, originally introduced for tournaments on the show, became the standard in 2016 for regular season play.