Elgin woman loses “Jeopardy!” crown

A late rally by local trivia maven Elisabeth Carrel on “Jeopardy!” wasn't enough for her to walk away as champion a second time.

Carrel, an Elgin resident and Arlington Heights native, finished in third place on the show that aired Tuesday afternoon, after betting too much in “Final Jeopardy.”

The answer was: “In 2005, a sculpture of an elephant was installed outside this country's embassy in Washington, D.C.” The question, “What is Ivory Coast?”

Carrel had been in first place with $8,800 leading into “Final Jeopardy” and wagered $7,601, to end with $1,199.

All three contestants answered wrong. She and another contestant guessed Kenya. And Carrel ended up losing by $2,800.

“I was disappointed of course, but I don't feel bad because nobody got ‘Final Jeopardy' in the end,” Carrel said.

But don't cry for her.

Her two-day total on the show is $25,000 — she won $24,000 on the show that aired Monday and gets $1,000 for her third-place finish.

Carrel got off to a rocky start in the first round and at one point, was actually $2,200 in the red. By the end of the round, she had climbed out of the hole and finished it with $200.

She rallied in the second round and even made it a “true Daily Double” by betting all of the $3,000 she'd earned to that point on an answer about whose art is on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City — it's Alexander Calder's.

Her correct response gave her $6,000 — much to the audience's delight — and she finished the second round in first place with $8,800.

Carrel rarely misses trivia night on Wednesdays at the Elgin Public House, where she plays with a team of eight that frequently changes its name during the trivia tournaments.

During the telecast, Carrel gave a shout out to her trivia team, which has won at least three of those tournaments.

At the time, the team was “Where's the Beef Villa Olivia Newton John Boy,” a mashup of the Beef Villa restaurant in Elgin, the Villa Olivia Country Club in Bartlett, pop singer Olivia Newton-John and John Boy from “The Waltons.”

They now call themselves the “Gila Monsters.”

It was not known late Tuesday whether the public house was planning anything special for Carrel.

She is expected to receive her winnings later on this year. She plans on making repairs to her historic Elgin house, traveling and, of course, buying shoes.