In Olden Days (By Which I Mean 2021) Jeopardy Could Begin Its Tournament of Champions Tomorrow. In Reality....

 

 

As any fan of Jeopardy worth their salt knows during the Alex Trebek Era a Tournament of Champions was set up when fifteen players had qualified for that Tournament. Sometimes this took more time than others which is why there was no Tournament of Champions in 2016 or 2018.

The last time the TOC took that format was in May of 2021 six months after Alex Trebek passed and two months before Matt Amodio ushered in the current era of the super-champion. While there have been endless variations to the Tournament format in the last two years (some I suspect which were beyond the control of the producers) we saw the old format a couple of times in the post-Trebek era. We saw it most famously in the 2021 Professors Tournament and then we actually show it the 2025 Champions Wild Card. (Though to be fair that didn't exactly play out according to plan either.)

It's still unclear as to how Jeopardy will handle the postseason format for Season 42. If the eligibility pattern for last season holds (a big 'if' I grant you) then it's not going to be until the first three months of the season are over that the eligibility for the 2026 Tournament of Champions will have finished. And considering the recent history of Jeopardy it's a near certainty that both the Second Chance and Champions Wild Card will occur before that to officially lock down that last spot. What intrigues me is that as of this evening  were the show to follow the rules of the Trebek era, they could at least in theory have the field for the Tournament of Champions right now. I will acknowledge it’s a bit of a stretch by those standards. It's a stretch to be sure but not much of one.

First we will turn to the holy gospel of all Jeopardy fans j-archive.com Amongst its many, many values is that at this point it is invaluable to determined the roster of upcoming Tournament of Champions. As of yesterday here is the 'official' lineup of champions for the 2026 Tournament. In fairness I will proceed chronologically:

Ashley Chan: 4 wins, $67,400

Laura Faddah: 8 wins, $92,599

Alex DeFrank, 4 wins, $102,400

Josh Weikert, 6 wins, $100,202

Bryce Wargin, 4 wins, $70,199

Andrew Hayes, 6 wins, $137,804

Liam Starnes, 6 wins, $123,584

Ben Ganger, 5 wins, $105,915

Scott Riccardi, 16 wins, $455,000

Paolo Pasco, 7 wins, $195,717

Steven Olson, 4 wins, $74,382

 

That's eleven official qualifiers. Now here are the four three game winners who have 'unofficially' qualified (I'll explain the difference in a minute):

Bill McKinney: $46,800

Brendan Liaw: $59,398

Geoff Barnes: $44,801

Matt Massie: $79,800

The qualifier of 'unofficial' is become as of today neither the official site nor the Jeopardy archive has listed these four players as officially in the next TOC.  To be fair, the only one I'm certain will be invited is Michael because his three day total is significantly higher than three of the people who have already officially been listed. And given the pattern of the last two seasons Jeopardy will likely not make up its mind one way or another until the deadline has passed. They did the same with Yogesh Raut and Nilesh Vinjamuri in both previous years.

 And to be fair we are very early in season 42. There are still nine weeks to go before the eligibility period most likely ends. During the first three weeks of last season no one qualified at all and by the end of October three more players were officially in. The show might not yet know if these three players scores are high enough to let them in or have them play in Champions Wild Card. In fact we did see this happen last season when Jay Fisher won three games but his total of $28,500 was so low that he did get invited to Wild Card instead of getting an automatic invite as all of the other players who won three games did.

On the other hand those scores are pretty good. Geoff's total, the lowest listed, is still better than three of the players who got invited back without having to jump through hoops. Brendan's is better than Neilesh Vinjamuri's and we all saw how that worked out.

So theoretically the producers could say tonight: "The field is locked and everyone who plays from this point on will be playing for the next Tournament of Champions. We're also officially abolishing the Second Chance Tournament and Champions Wild Card as of today."

Should they? That's a different story.

First of all, fair is fair and we should let the next few months play out anyway and see what happens. We could very well have three or four new players qualified; hell we might see another Jonathan Fisher or Cris Panullo come up. (They did each make their Jeopardy debuts in October.

But as to the Second Chance and Wild Card Tournaments being abolished – well I think its safe to say that even the most die hard originalist when it comes to Jeopardy (of which I am a card carrying member, don't forget) has to have changed their minds about the Second Chance Tournament last season. If they had not happened we would not have been blessed by the presence of Drew Goins throughout January and February and Juveria Zaheer's proving, even to herself, that she is a Jeopardy Master. Champions Wild Card is  a trickier thing  but if we were give that title retroactive to Victoria Groce I don't think anybody would complain that much of its existence, certainly not me after the last two years.

That said I do think its time the show decided to say that the winner of Celebrity Jeopardy will not appear in the Tournament of Champions. Don't get me wrong: Ike Barinholtz was magnificent in the 2024 Tournament of Champions and no one would be happier than me to see Kamau Bell competing against Scott Riccardi if it were to happen. But the fact is, it was always a bad precedent to set for the show and I think we all know it. I love Lisa Ann Walter as much as anybody but she doesn't need the $250,000 the same way every other competitor in the Tournament of Champions does.  I'd prefer she get an Emmy nomination instead and I think she would too. (Though happily the two are no longer mutually exclusive: thank you, Sal Saperstein!)

So those are my two cents and I'll be back with you either at the end of October or whenever the next player qualifies for the Tournament of Champions, whichever comes first. (And who can say which will happen at this point?)