TV History Is Made With The Lowest 'Jeopardy!' Score Ever

Monday’s episode of the long-running game show “Jeopardy!” was widely anticipated for LeVar Burton's debut as the guest host, but the show was effectively hijacked by Patrick Pearce and his record-breaking score of -$7,400, the lowest in the show’s history.

Bad Answers For 200: Pearce is a product specialist from Fountain Valley, California, according to an Entertainment Weekly report. Although he ended the Jeopardy round with a measly $200, he crashed wildly through the Double Jeopardy round and broke the previous lowest score record of -$6,800 held by contestant Stephanie Hull from March 2015.

Pearce’s negative earnings disqualified him from the Final Jeopardy round, which was won by returning champion Matt Amodio of New Haven, Connecticut, who extended his four-day winning streak to $122,400.

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I Want That Gig For 800: But Pearce wasn’t the only history maker on that episode. Burton, who came to fame in the 1976 television mini-series “Roots,” won an episode of “Celebrity Jeopardy!” in 1995 and had publicly mused about someday hosting the program. Last September, he responded to talk about longtime host Alex Trebek’s possible retirement by offering himself as a replacement, claiming that he had been "preparing my whole life" for that role.

After Trebek passed away last November following a lengthy bout with cancer, Burton’s fans organized a petition drive on Change.org to have the actor named as Trebek’s permanent replacement. “Jeopardy!”, which is produced by Sony Pictures Television, a division of Sony Group Corp. SONY, did not include Burton in its initial roster of interim guest hosts, but he was thankful for his arrival on the show, even if his gig is only through July 30.

“As a longtime viewer of the show, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to guest host ‘Jeopardy!’” Burton said in a CBS News interview. “I'm proud to be here to honor Alex's legacy. I'm going to do my best to ensure that these talented ‘Jeopardy!’ contestants enjoy their moment here as well.”

Photo: Screen shot of Patrick Pearce's historic "Jeopardy!" performance courtesy of Dan Kois' Twitter page.