Jeopardy! dedicates entire category to Ontario but one question stumps every contestant

Jeopardy! turned the spotlight on Ontario on Monday night with a category entirely dedicated to the province.

“Worst Case Ontario” made its game show debut, with one question stumping every contestant and proving Canadian geography is not universal knowledge.

“If you’re not Ontarian, these are imaginary situations,” Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings said on the show.

Sam Meehan, an attorney from Santa Cruz, picked the first clue about Ontario for $1,000.

“Zombies (& not the slow ones) are making their way from Detroit to this city across the Ambassador Bridge,” the question read.

Meehan quickly snagged the correct answer, guessing “Windsor” for the clue.

The next question about Ontario tested the contestants’ sports knowledge.

For the $800, Jennings asked, “The intra-province rivalry between the national capital's Ottawa Senators & these provincial capital NHLers comes to a fever of hate.”

Jake DeArruda, a delivery dispatcher originally from Ludlow, Vermont, slipped up on his chance.

“What are the Flames?” DeArruda said before Meehan swooped in with the correct answer, “What are the Toronto Maple Leafs?”

That streak continued when Meehan identified Toronto’s tallest landmark, with the winning $600 after correctly guessing this clue: “King Kong, he's real, & he's climbing this 1,815-foot structure, his eye filling the window of the revolving restaurant.”

“What is the CN Tower?” Meehan said.

However, Meehan’s success took a downward turn when Canadian geography took front-and-centre for $400.

“This province directly to the west makes a series of nighttime cow-tipping raids, causing general chaos,” Jennings said.

“What is Saskatchewan?” DeArruda tried.

“What is Alberta?” Meehan attempted next.

“Sarah?” Jennings asked the final contestant, a PhD candidate from Durham, North Carolina. Her response: silence.

“Let me narrow it down for you. Manitoba,” Jennings finally answered himself.

For the second last question of the game, DeArruda had more luck with the provincial category.

“Worst case? Ill-tempered aquatic creatures emerge from this Great Lake upon which Thunder Bay sits,” Jennings said.

“Superior,” DeArruda answered.

Earlier this month, Toronto-based scenic artist Ray Lalonde's ended an impressive winning streak on Jeopardy!

Lalonde, who was hoping for his 14th victory on the long-running trivia game show, had amassed winnings of US$386,400 going into his final show in early January.

Lalonde is among only 16 contestants in the show's history with winning streaks of at least 10 games, according to Andy Saunders, the Guelph, Ont.-based blogger behind "The Jeopardy! Fan."