Lisa Ann Walter had a major OMG moment in Jeopardy!‘s Tournament of Champions that left some viewers at home drop-jawed.
While competing against TJ Fisher and Mike Dawson on the Monday, January 26, episode, Walter, 62, got an answer wrong on clue 21, further plummeting her -$200 score. Host Ken Jennings informed her of the answer he was looking for, causing the Abbott Elementary actress to shockingly utter, “What the hell?”
Some audience members could be heard gasping, and others laughed at the comment before the game continued. Many viewers flocked to social media to debate whether saying “hell” during the episode was a big deal and if the word is even considered a curse.
“She’s human. Shocker!” one person wrote via X, while another echoed, “Omg she’s human.”
“Did not have Lisa Ann Walter casually breaking the Jeopardy! decorum on my bingo card 😂,” a third person wrote via the social media platform, while a fourth said, “🙄😂 Hell isn’t a curse word. She’s a lovely person and a fantastic actress. Who cares if she did curse. So many other things that are going on are worse than hearing a curse word.”
“I dont think anyone actually cares about curse words,” another person argued.
Other viewers took to Reddit to discuss Walter’s comment following the episode.
“How do we feel about Lisa cursing?” one Reddit user asked in a Jeopardy! discussion thread on Monday, while another questioned, “Did she say anything other than ‘hell’?”
“I don’t give a f***,” another person responded, while another admitted, “I curse while watching so much; especially when a contestant gets a wrong response for some BS…like answering ‘What is Dark Side of the Moon?’.. Sorry we were looking for What is THE Dark Side of the Moon….”
Elsewhere during the episode, Walter incorrectly guessed the answer to a Philadelphia-related sports question, which particularly stung considering her show Abbott Elementary is based in the city. (She previously told Philadelphia Magazine in July 2025 that her chances of moving to Philly were “pretty high.”)
“Lisa Ann Walter not getting the Philly question on Jeopardy. Poetry,” one person wrote via X, while another said, “How does Lisa Ann Walter get a Philly sports question wrong on Jeopardy. 🤣.”
Lisa Ann Walter Amy Sussman/Getty Images
“She said New Orleans, which has never even had a baseball team lol,” a third person pointed out, while a fourth person remarked, “It was brutal. 😂.”
Walter finished the episode with -$2,600, not qualifying for the Final Jeopardy. In the end, it was Fisher who won $15,199 and will be moving on to the semifinals. Despite the disappointing finish this time around, the Parent Trap actress is already a champion, having won season 2 of Celebrity Jeopardy! in January 2024. She brought home the $1 million prize for the Entertainment Community Fund.
After taking home the trophy, Walter recalled a moment she felt her late mother’s spirit guide her during her winning Jeopardy! question. (The question referenced a 1930 Mary Roberts Rinehart book titled The Door.)
“It said, ‘What four-word literary trope became famous because the guy killed the mistress?’ It’s the butler! The butler did it,” she recalled on Live With Kelly and Mark in March 2024.
She continued, “My mother was a teacher and read up to four mystery novels at a time. She came to me in that moment. First time she’s visited since she died, by the way — and she was like, ‘The butler did it,’ and I won a million bucks.”
