As it turns out, though, the contestants apparently had a slightly different clue in front of them that skewed Valenzuela’s perception.
It seemed like such a bizarre mistake, and Valenzuela’s explanation that he read the clue wrong was also weird.
But while all three contestants had first written down the correct answer of “Tree Hugger,” Valenzuela actually crossed it out and guessed “Carl Sagan” instead, which ended up being incorrect.
An Illinois resident, Vincent Valenzuela was having some troubles throughout the episode, but came up big in the final minutes thanks to a timely Daily Double, making the Final Jeopardy a more interesting scenario.