Silver Spring Resident Goes Down to the Wire on Jeopardy!

Morgan Halvorsen from Silver Spring went toe to toe on Jeopardy! with the defending champion before ultimately losing on Tuesday night’s episode of the long-running game show.

Halvorsen, a news and opinion editor for Morning Consult, describes herself on her Twitter profile as “a Mensan, playwright, major Star Wars geek and former English professor.” She was part of an online pageant which raised $40,000 for the Mensa Education and Research Foundation she told guest host Ken Jennings  – one of the winningest contestants in the show’s history – who is auditioning for the permanent job after the death of legendary host Alex Trebek on November 8.

I officially want to be characterized as "brainy Morning Consult editor" in everything. https://t.co/5Qk3wL5BIj

— Morgan Halvorsen (@MorganHalvorse4) February 9, 2021

As usual, the game came down to the Final Jeopardy round. The category was “The 50 states”.

The question (or clue as it’s called on the show): While it has only 31 miles of coastline on the Atlantic, its shoreline is almost 3,200 miles thanks to a large estuary and its tributaries.

Halvorsen guessed “What is Maryland?,” her home state, which was correct. Sadly for Halvorsen, John Focht – the previous day’s winner – got it right as well. Focht ended up with $34,000 to Halvorsen’s $18,601.

As a second place finisher, Halvorsen did not get to keep her earnings but she did take home $2000.

She also picked up a few new Twitter followers.

About Joe Yasharoff

Joe Yasharoff is MCM's Director of Content and Operations. He is also an adjunct journalism professor at the University of Maryland. Previously, Joe was the Managing Editor at NBC Sports Washington and Executive Sports Producer at FOX5 (WTTG-TV). He hosts the MoCo's Most Famous podcast for MCM.

View all posts by Joe Yasharoff