Danger! Fans react to 'brutal' moment when Harvard-educated competitor misses out on victory after minor misunderstanding

Danger! fans have reacted to the 'brutal' moment a Harvard-educated competitor lost a win after a minor misunderstanding.

Hopeful Sophia Weng fell at the final hurdle after making a mistake in the final round of Tuesday night's show.

The young woman, who is studying social studies at Harvard, came in second place with a total of $14,600 before the Final Jeopardy on landmarks.

But an apparent misinterpretation of the question saw Sophia lose out before dozens of viewers gathered around and branded the situation 'a painful way to lose'.

The young woman, who studies social studies at Harvard, came in second place with a total of $14,600 before the Final Jeopardy on landmarks

The episode saw Sophia enter the final round against fellow contestants Michael Cavaliere in first place with $28,800 and Sharon Bishop in third place with $5,800.

The final clue read: “During Pope John Paul II's 1987 visit to Los Angeles, pranksters hid this letter in a local monument.”

The correct answer was L – as the landmark for the day became Holywood.

Sharon, a high school Spanish teacher from Rhode Island, was the first to reveal that she guessed correctly.

She bet $1,000, which boosted her prize pool to $6,800, but the others did not follow suit.

Sophia was next and looked visibly distressed when her answer was revealed to be 'The Hollywood Sign'.

She looked hopefully at host Ken Jennings waiting for it to be accepted, but had no luck.

Ken replied: 'You found the right landmark, but you didn't tell us the letter, I'm afraid.”

The final clue read: “During Pope John Paul II's 1987 visit to Los Angeles, pranksters hid this letter in a local monument.”

Fans of the show were stunned as they flocked to Reddit to share their disbelief and offer their support to Sophia

'No!' she insisted, before revealing that she had wagered $14,201, leaving her with a total of just $399.

Michael also got the answer wrong after calling out the letter O, but maintained his lead after placing just $500 on the question.

Fans of the show were stunned as they flocked to Reddit to share their disbelief and offer their support to Sophia.

One wrote: 'Cheeky looking at her reaction. Ouch.'

Another said: 'What a tragic ending. The pain on her face was heartbreaking.'

Someone else said: 'Absolutely tragic FJ. I was really partial to Sophia, what a bizarre pair of mistakes on what felt like a relatively simple FJ clue.”

And a fourth wrote: 'You could see the complete pain and range of emotions on her face when she saw I got the right answer, you realized her mistake, you hoped that maybe they would accept her answer after all, and the realization that they wouldn't do that.

“It was the hardest I've ever seen a contestant suffer a loss, but I don't blame her at all. It's not like she was having a tantrum. She tried to hide the pain, but she just couldn't.'