Depending on the math we are a little more than a quarter of
the way through Season 41 of Jeopardy. And I think I will get little debate
from recent and long-term fans of Jeopardy that in many ways this is already a
far better season than Season 40 was at this time last year.
First, and to many most importantly, no endless postseason. This might seem
obvious but for those of us who were exhausted by the time we had to go through
the third round of Champions Wild Card and not even close to the end of the
run, it’s not a minor detail.
Second and more seriously, it’s clear that the writers for
Jeopardy have upped their game considerably this season. Perhaps it was out of
revenge for the producers being vocal about using ‘recycled clues’ while the
strike was still going on or perhaps they felt they had something to prove for
those who might have angry at them for going on strike during the first place.
Whatever the reason they have demonstrated, particularly when it comes to Final
Jeopardy, that they are running on all cylinders perhaps in a way that wasn’t
obvious during the reign of the super-champions that made Season 38 so much of
a joy.
And third the show has overcome my doubts that by the time the
next Tournament of Champions took place they would have a roster sizable enough
for it. I made it clear multiple times before we were subjected to the long,
flat, seemingly endless death march through the Jeopardy postseason of Season
40 that the expansion of the Tournament to 27 players was a flawed idea for
countless reasons. I’m not saying that the 2024 field was padded, per se, so
much as the fact that it led to my belief it offered very little when it came
to rewards. The idea of the show having even half as many necessary qualified
players by the time the next Tournament took place - I assumed it would be this coming February
at the earliest.
As is so often the case, Jeopardy has proven me wrong. Since
the first Jeopardy Invitational ended exactly 138 ‘normal’ Jeopardy games have
been played. And in that period 19 players have qualified for the upcoming
Tournament of Champions. That compares favorably to the first 135 regular
season games of Season 39 when only fifteen players managed to qualify – and several
of them only qualified retroactively when the show decided to admit players who
won three games during Season 39.
As someone who made very clear in previous articles that not
only should three-game winners be allowed to compete in the field normally but
argued that both Wild Card tournaments had taken an endless amount of time just
to let several qualified three game winners in anyway, I take a certain satisfaction
in the fact that the new producers of the show have realized that there is
little to be gained from reinventing the wheel. The Wild Card Tournament when
it takes place next year is only going to feature 1 and 2 game winners
as well as the two winners in the Second Chance Tournament. And considering my
general level of being impressed with those who will compete in that same
tournament I think we must give credit to the producers for having learned from
their mistakes.
To be sure we will have ‘just’ one super-champion competing in
this years TOC but as I’ve written before I think new fans have been spoiled by
the array of winners who came along in the immediate aftermath of Alex Trebek’s
passing. While we must give credit to Matt Amodio, Amy Schneider and Mattea
Roach for doing much to ‘save Jeopardy’ when it was struggling the fact remains
the super-champion while become more frequent in the last decade, has always
been something of a rarity. That is as it should be: if every Jeopardy champion
was a Cris Panullo or Ryan Long, it might become boring and we would appreciate
them less.
So with that in mind here is the official roster for the 2025
Tournament of Champions. For purposes of this column Lisa Ann Walter had been
excluded as she won a ‘special tournament’. As someone who saw how good Ike Barnholtz
was last year, I will be taking her seriously going forward.
I’ll go chronologically:
Lucas Partridge: 3 Games, $66,200
Lucas won the final game of Season 39 and then had to wait nearly
a year before he played his next game this April. He was actually ahead going
into Final Jeopardy on his first day back. But a very tough Final Jeopardy that
no one could get right, did him in. Lee Wilkins, who won with $2200 was
defeated the next day by:
Alison Betts, 5 Wins $121,500
The first ‘official’ player to qualify for the Tournament of
Champions since Ben Chan during his impressive nine game winning streak in May
of 2023. She was engaged in a back and forth battle with Marko Saric throughout
the game but ended up losing to him in another tough Final Jeopardy that no one
got right. Marko won one more game.
Amy Hummel, 5 wins, $100,994
I’ve written about Amy extensively before so now I’ll just
tell you that she lost her fifth match to:
Weckiai Rannila, 3
wins, $35,200
Weckiai had one very big payday and two small ones. She was
defeated by Matthew Smith, who the very next day was beaten by:
Allison Gross, 3 wins, $44,598
I will just mention that this period of four female qualifiers
for the Tournament of Champions was last seen in Season 38 when Christine
Whelchel, Margaret Shelton, Maureen O’Neill and Jackie Kelly, all managed to
win 4 games in the course of less than a month. This group had their streak in
a similar span. Allison would give way to:
Will Stewart, 3 wins, $70,501
Will had three big paydays and won his two of his three games
in decisive runaways. He seemed unbeatable until:
Grant DeYoung, 4 Wins, $81,203
Grant won all four of his games playing in a tall swiveling
chair, not unlike the one Troy Meyer did throughout his original six game
winning streak all the way to the Finals of the 2024 Tournament of Champions.
Chris D’Amico moved ahead of him on the very last clue of Double Jeopardy in
his fifth appearance which allowed Chris to prevail in Final Jeopardy. (All
three players knew the correct response that day.) But the next day Chris fell
to:
Amar Kakirde, 4 wins, $55,899
Amar’s paydays were small because three of his matches were
runaways and not ones that left him with much margin for error to bet. He lost
to Abby Mann in another tough Final Jeopardy that no one got right and Abby’s
run was cut short by a little-known player named
Adriana Harmeyer, 15 wins $349,600
Drew Basile, 6 wins $129,601
Isaac Hirsch, 9 wins, $215,390
Well you know about those three already so I won’t waste time.
However there was one last qualifier before Season 40 ended.
Neilesh Vinjamuri, 3 wins, $53,099
Neilesh was defeated by Davey Morrison just two days before
Season 40 ended. Morrison lost on the last day of the season to Rachel Bradley.
Now a brief recap of Season 41 and there will be some new
names.
David Erb, 3 wins, $90,754
Described as a Clint Eastwood look-alike by some on Jeopardy
sites David locked up his first two games with $30,000 at the end of Double Jeopardy
and wagered everything on a Daily Double late in the Double Jeopardy round of
Game 3 to come from behind. Then the next day he was outplayed by Maddie Carvel
and Alex Michev and Maddie ended up winning.
Ryan Manton, 4 wins, $83,179
Mark Fitzpatrick, 5
wins, $107,201
Risabh Wuppalapatti, 3 wins, $52,802
He managed three impressive wins involving some very tough
Final Jeopardys. However he went into Final Jeopardy trailing Kelly Gates and
that was enough to make the difference as everyone knew the correct response
for Final Jeopardy that day.
Will Wallace, 4 wins, $79,998
Greg Jolin, 5 wins, $135,002
And last but not least:
Kevin Laskowski, 3 wins, $52,999
Kevin is an Episcopal priest with an interesting array of
knowledge. He didn’t know as many Bible quotes as you’d think but somehow knew
more about cocktails and rap music than I do. And while I’m loathe to use terms
like a higher power in this context, given that in his second win he only took
the lead on the last clue of Double Jeopardy and in his third win he was
trailing going into Final Jeopardy and the leader got it wrong…well, all I’m
saying.
His luck didn’t hold last night but it was a near thing. The
game was so close that it was a three way tie until Laurel Day responded
correctly on the last clue of Double Jeopardy broke it to put her in the lead. All
three players knew the correct response for Final Jeopardy so Laurel won. (She
lost today, so that’s as far as her luck ran.)
Does this roster have the luster of the three Tournaments of
Champions in the post Alex-Trebek era? Perhaps not. But this is, honestly, what
a long term fan like myself is used to from a Tournament of Champions ever
since the five day rule at the start of Season 20. And as anyone who has
watched the last three Tournament of Champions know all too well, past
performance is no indication that you will even end up in the semi-finals of
the TOC when game play starts. Cris Panullo and Ryan Long are painfully aware
of that fact.
I imagine my next official report on Jeopardy will come close
to the end of the year, barring another entrant in the TOC. As always I’m
looking forward to it and this time there are no overwhelming favorites to
cloud the picture. Stay tuned.
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