This will probably come a shock to the OP, but not everyone in the world reads/watches science fiction or fantasy stuff. I’d even venture a guess that it’s a very miniscule percentage of the world.
Not really. I’d wager the vast majority of the planet doesn’t have a gnat’s knowledge of SF/Fantasy. But if you are going to appear on Jeopardy!, you are stupid not to have at least swotted up a bit on the topic.
I agree in general. If you’re going to be on Jeopardy!, brush up on those areas you know you’re weak in. The problem is, there’s a lot of trivia out there, and only so much time to study. Everyone has gaps in their knowledge, and no one can possibly study every fact under the sun.
That said, Damien really did give a remarkably poor performance. Someone on the Jeopardy! forum at previously.tv called it the quintessential Jeopardy! nightmare. He was pretty much in negative scores for the entire game. He finally managed to get above zero near the end–only to get his last question wrong and end up back in the red as the game ended! It had to be embarrassing for him. But to his credit, he was very gracious in defeat.
As you say, none of the players seemed to have much of a breadth of knowlege, but poor Damien was a special case.
Look, one thing I know from experience is that the Jeopardy! tests are hard, and that a stupid person can’t possibly pass them. If you’re on the show, you’re very smart.
But ALL of us have blind spots, subjects we don’t know anything about. Put up a category about Country Music or Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey or even Discworld and I’d look like a moron to millions of viewers.
Never been accused of either of those traits. 
What is real-world Earth?
Oh wait, no turtle, just elephants. Infinite elephants.
I quit watching Jeopardy because I can’t stand Trebeck, but back in the old Art Fleming days, my mom was on, and it was pretty surprising how much nervousness affected her. Not only was her voice “off” but she missed at least one question that was a pretty easy guess - I got it almost without thinking, and I was just a kid!
There’s also the luck of the draw regarding categories - again, my mom knew lots of stuff about movies of the 40s, but when she was on, the questions were about current movies, and she didn’t know anything about any of them since she and my dad never went to movies.
So I’m guessing nerves and unfortunate categories, along with screwing up early on, can set a pretty grim tone for many contestants. It’s hard to imagine a stupid person making it thru the screening process. But what do I know…
I only caught the last few minutes while waiting for The Great Pumpkin 
but Damien was the only one that got Final Jeopardy right. Alex said something about him writing down an answer on paper while the other two were writing. When they rolled the credits, they showed him on-stage with everyone and his piece of paper said “Djibouti” (although it wasn’t in the form of a question).
Yesterday’s game still isn’t up on Jeopardy Archive, but searching previous games, there have only been two questions ever asked about Terry Pratchett, with one of those being the only time Discworld was ever asked about. Looking up anytime “fantasy” was ever in a question, doesn’t come up with a whole lot of questions, and even a lot of those aren’t related to fantasy books.
I agree that if you are going on Jeopardy, you should study up as best you can, but there are a lot of subjects that would be a better use of your time.
Not true, the champ also got it right. And the show was preempted here for football, so I had to watch it quite late at night.
For the record, I did not get “Discworld”, or “Djibouti”, but I did know several that the contestants all missed; “Gallup” and “Memphis” spring to mind. There are some days I watch the show and know I could have kicked ass.
I had no idea what Discworld was until I read this thread.
Don’t be so quick to judge, OP. I bet there are a few things I consider common knowledge of which you would have no clue.
mmm
Probably.
Damien is still a moron. The whole panel were sub-standard by any metric.
Well, certainly by the metric of knowing anything about Pratchett. 
I wouldn’t say that. The champion was pretty cute. And if your metric is “number of appearances on a game show” they’ve all got me beat by a country mile.
Point taken. 
Whoops, you’re right. But then I don’t have any idea what Discworld is, either.
I read a lot of fantasy and I don’t know anything about Discworld, either.
No, you were right the first time. It’s just turtles all the way down.
Well, I got that answer, but I’ve never read it, nor do I care to.
I didn’t get Sheik Djibouti, though.
But Damien would still beat the pants off Wolf Blitzer.