LeVar Burton’s debut as 'Jeopardy!' guest host overshadowed by record for lowest score ever

Monday marked LeVar Burton’s highly anticipated debut as a fill-in Jeopardy! host, and while it remains to be seen if the episode broke any ratings records — judging by the amount of love he’s been getting that could very well happen — we do know that a different kind of record was broken. The record for lowest score ever.

The contestant was Patrick Pearce, a product specialist from Fountain View, Calif. With his total number of wrong answers dipping into double digits, Pearce seemed on the verge of climbing out of the hole most of the night before taking a major blow during a Daily Double, and it was a question about U.S. government buildings overseas that finally put him into record-breaking territory.

Pearce’s negative $7,400 breaks a record previously held by Stephanie Hull since March 12, 2015, when she posted negative $6,800, according to Slate.

Of course viewers on Twitter took notice of Pearce’s accomplishments, both by having a little fun with him and also feeling his pain.

On what was supposed to be Burton’s big night, one fan perfectly pointed out the elephant in the room. With an obvious push among his fans to boost Burton’s episode ratings, Pearce’s record-breaking performance was most likely on display in front of an even bigger audience than would have normally been watching Jeopardy!.

Jeopardy! airs weeknights, check your local listings.

Watch what happened when viewers spotted an incorrect answer given on Jeopardy!:

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