MN meteorologist Eric Ahasic dominates on second ‘Jeopardy!’ episode with $21,600 win

Ross Raihala, Pioneer Press
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Minneapolis meteorologist Eric Ahasic dominated his second appearance on “Jeopardy!” Tuesday, winning $21,600 for a two-day total of $40,001.

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Host Mayim Bialik opened the episode by saying “If you missed yesterday’s show, you missed an exciting game” and that Ahasic “brought the heat” in defeating reigning champion Ryan Long, who won nearly $300,000 over the course of 16 games.

Pitted against a features editor from Salinas, Calif., and a marketing analyst from Seattle, Ahasic took an early lead, even though all three contestants struggled in the texting abbreviations category. He also found the round’s Daily Double, but lost $3,200 – a true Daily Double – in a question about the cabinet.

He also told Bialik about his cat – Potato, or Tato for short – which doesn’t have any teeth due to a genetic condition. “Apparently they don’t need them to eat dry food, wet food, anything … he’s doing just fine.” (And, despite his name, Tato does not eat potatoes.)

Thanks to a four-out-of-five run in a category about author pseudonyms, Ahasic wrapped the first round with $3,400, just $200 short of the marketing analyst.

In the second round, Ahasic quickly assumed a dominating lead and found, and won, both Daily Doubles. For the first, he earned $3,400 by identifying the New Mexico state flag and then added $3,800 more with a question about actress Margot Robbie.

Ahasic entered Final Jeopardy! with $25,800, assuring him a win over his competitors, who had $10,000 and $7,400. The category was Writing Old and New and the answer: “This 2013 bestseller shares its title with the first section of a poem from seven centuries before.” None of the three knew it was “Inferno,” but Ahasic lost just $4,200.

A meteorologist at the Chanhassen office of the National Weather Service, the 32-year-old Ahasic has been a fan of “Jeopardy!” as a teen and finally landed on the show after applying annually for 15 years. His third episode airs at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday on KARE 11.

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