Who won Game 4 of Greatest of All Time on “Jeopardy!”?

The third “Jeopardy!” match between the show’s three most celebrated players on Thursday had all the excitement of the previous nights but less of the drama, as the winner was clear before the host Alex Trebek revealed the final clue.

Ken Jennings shot ahead early in the match with a Daily Double asking him to name the 1832-33 crisis that ended when South Carolina backed down from its efforts to void federal law. (“What is nullification?”) Jennings maintained his significant lead when the Final Jeopardy clue again tested his knowledge of United States political history, asking him and his opponents to name the two now-defunct parties that each gave the country four presidents in the 19th century. (“What are the Democratic-Republican and Whig Parties?”)

Before the second game (each match comprises two games), Trebek warned viewers against the assumption that Jennings’s lead from the first game was too large to beat (he had 51,200 points to James Holzhauer’s 27,200 and Brad Rutter’s 17,600). But Jennings continued to lead the pack during the second game, especially after Holzhauer’s momentum was slowed by a missed Daily Double about a birthstone used for polishing that doubles as a color representing Florida State University. (“What is garnet?”) In a rare moment of frustration, Holzhauer grimaced when Jennings beat him to the buzzer on a clue about a “Star Wars” movie.