A Tale of Two James: A Season 42 Jeopardy Update

 

 

With the 2026 postseason in the books Season 42 resumed on February 23^rd. And three full weeks we have two players both named James who have qualified for next year's Tournament of Champions: one unofficially but looking good, one a certainty.

The potential qualifier began his run on February 24^th.  Facing off against Trey Hart, who'd won his second game the day play resumed, James Hirsh, a lawyer from Toronto managed to win one of the most thrilling games played so far in Season 42 with all three players finishing Double Jeopardy with $15,600 or more.  James won with $32,418. He then ran away with the next two games.

Then on Friday he ran into Diana Miller, a fellow attorney. The two of them fought it out in both rounds along with Tim Leung. At the end of Double Jeopardy James led with $16,400 to Diana's $11,600 and Tim's $9800. It came down to Final Jeopardy.

The category was COMPANIES. Historian Louis Hyman wrote this company's sales method undid the power of the 'consumerism of Jim Crow'. Diana was the only one to figure it out: "What is Sears and Roebuck?" I didn't know that, according to Ken: "With the Sears and Roebuck catalog black shoppers didn't have to worry about racist shopkeepers, they could shop from home." James thought it was Coca Cola?" and left with $67,418.

The Jeopardy Archive doesn't officially have James Hirsh listed for the next Tournament of Champions but that's to be expected; typically that doesn't happen until after Jeopardy makes it decision leading up to the next Tournament of Champions. That being said it's $10,000 more than Mike Dawson won in that number and $7500 more than Brendan Liaw won and both men were invited back without having to deal with the Wild Card business. I'm relatively confident he'll be brought back and when he is, he'll be competing against another James.

One week after James Hirsh was defeated James Denison, a college professor from Alexandria, Virginia made his first appearance. He demonstrated a verve for correct answers and responding correctly on Daily Doubles. He finished Friday with $24,200 to his nearest opponents $12,200. And on Final Jeopardy we got a sense of the kind of player he was.

The category was COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD. "Its island province of Anodon lies at 1.4 degrees south latitude; its mainland begins at .92 degrees north latitude." James figured it out: "What is Equatorial Guinea?" He only needed to wager $201 to win; but he bet $11,999. He ended up winning $36,199.

Watching James the during the last week is very much like watching Icarus; it is thrilling to watch him fly so high but the way he plays he kept getting dangerously close to the sun. At first it was thrilling: he managed to win $81,798 in two days, the kind of total one associates with super-champions. But it was an incredibly risky way to play as well and it only paid off as long as two things happened: he got every Daily Double right and his opponents kept getting Final Jeopardy wrong.

We saw the seeds of his downfall in his third appearance against Sapana Vora and Tim Swankey on Tuesday. All three played excellently and at the end of Final Jeopardy James had $20,000 to Sapana's $13,200 and Tim's $9000. Then came Final Jeopardy.

The category was BOOKS & AUTHORS. "In this 1897 work the title character enters an in with his face almost entirely covered in bandages."

Tim thought it was The Count of Monte Cristo. Not a bad guess but wrong. He lost $4602 leaving him with $4398.

Then came Sapana. She wrote down Phantom of the Opera. Closer but also wrong. She bet $6801 and finished with $6399.

It came down to James who was the closest with Dracula. It was actually The Invisible Man. (Full Disclosure: I knew the correct response but only from a different Jeopardy clue. James wagered $10,999, leaving him with $9001.  This time his big wager in Final Jeopardy could have worked against him big time but he held on. (I expect that we'll see Sapana and possibly Tim in the next Second Chance Tournament.)

In Game 4 for the first time Tim got a Daily Double wrong and it cost him everything. He was still ahead at the end of the Jeopardy round. He played well throughout the game and managed to win but yet again all three players got Final Jeopardy wrong.

Yesterday against Luke Henson and Lydia Cawley he started out like a rocket. At the end of the Jeopardy round he had $11,000 to Luke's $3600 and Lydia. Then on the sixth clue of Double Jeopardy he found the first Daily Double. He had $13,800 to Luke's $6000. He bet $5400 in LAKES & RIVERS:

About 2/3 of Venezuela's oil output comes from the Basin of this large lake, now greatly polluted as a result. He guessed: "What is Lake Titicaca?" It was actually Lake Maracaibo. He dropped to $8200. To his credit he recovered and finished with $14,400. But Luke went on a late run and finished with $8400 while Lydia had $1200.

It came down to Final Jeopardy. The category was 21^st CENTURY WOMEN. "The Iowa legislature passed a resolution declaring February 22, 2024 her day across the state."

Lydia guessed:  "Who is Coco Gauff?" That was wrong. She lost $27.

Luke wrote down: "Who is Caitlin Clark?" That was correct. (Ken: "The 22^nd because she's jersey number 22." And well known in Iowa basketball.) Luke bet almost everything to finish with $16,798.

It came down to James. And his response was: "Who is Collins?" His wager of $5999 was irrelevant as Luke became the new Jeopardy champion.

Now to be clear $99,400 in four games is an impressive total by anyone's standard. We've seen more than our share of Jeopardy players who've won five, six or even eight games who never got that high. (I won't embarrass them by naming names; I've done that indirectly too often in recent years.) And it certainly was exciting to watch James Denison play.  But we can also see him as the flip side of so many super-champions we've watched the past few years; the Matt Amodios, the Amy Schneiders and of course the original Jeopardy James, Holzhauer. Perhaps if Denison had been more cautious in the last Daily Double he encountered he might be finishing this week. Still I won't deny it wasn't a lot of fun watching him flirt with danger even if danger came back to bite him.

I'm going to wait until the end of the month to remind my readers how many players are on the roster for next year's Tournament of Champions. What I know for sure is that the triumphs of these two James's are going to cause me endless headaches – and fun – by the time we get there.