You’re going to get another chance to see many of your recent favourites again on Jeopardy!.
Executive Producer Michael Davies announced today in a post on Jeopardy.com that a second chance tournament will be preceding the 2022 Tournament of Champions, and that tournament will feed at least one more player into the 2022 Tournament.
In this post, Davies also speaks of a few other items. Firstly, the champion of the currently-running Jeopardy! National College Championship will be in the 2022 Tournament. Secondly, the 4th placed player from the Jeopardy! National College Championship will be invited to this tournament, so that their career does not end without a loss. Thirdly, this Second Chance Tournament will be restricted to only those who have played since the cutoff for the most recent Tournament of Champions.
Davies is also planning on a Jeopardy! Book Club.
Editorially: I think that this is an absolutely stellar idea. Davies has not ruled out bringing other popular contestants from the past that the show thinks should get a second chance, and I look forward to seeing that as well. Davies’ specifically addressing the JNCC format issue was also welcome (Davies said specifically, “It’s an imperfect solution that resulted from necessary changes to the original tournament format and the fixed number of hours we were committed to deliver.”)
Which recent contestants would you like to see again? Leave a comment!
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Another reason this is a good idea – assuming this will be a Jeopardy! Primetime tournament on ABC this makes more use of the Primetime feature they specifically hired Mayim to host. (I hope more of their tournaments, including the TOC, are Primetime ones, was a little disappointed the Professors Tournament wasn’t)
I want to see Ken host the TOC, so I really hope they won’t move that one to primetime. It seems unlikely that they would.
Wonderful idea! It seems like Jessica Stephens (who played against Matt Amodio on the day he was defeated by Jonathan Fisher) would be the obvious candidate to receive an automatic slot for this tournament.
Side note, Michael Davies is doing an excellent job in his role as interim EP. The powers that be have to find a way to get him to stick around permanently.
She is the first one I thought of. Beats Matt and doesn’t even get a win.
To invite the fourth place finisher in the College TOC is very fair. A “second chance” tournament is a good way to fill out the field. Not bad at all.
Andrew Chaikin. He was wonderful!
Adam Levin – and there’s at least a few in the Jeopardy community that would probably agree with me.
Very interesting idea that seems to be at least partially fan-driven. I’m glad they were able to find a way to slot in the fourth place finisher of the NCC. They’re really working as well as they can with the poor hand they’d been dealt. The language used in Michael’s letter is intriguing. Does “postseason” imply that this tournament will take place after season 38 has ended, in lieu of a week or two of reruns?
I’m biased as we’re close friends and trivia teammates, but Rowan Ward, who came extremely close to halving the length of Matt’s run, would be fantastic. Also with friendship bias in mind I’d love to see Katie Sekelsky back!
(It should be noted that Rowan did not compete under that name – viewers of the show will have seen a first and last name that both began with N on the last day of the last season, though I’m not willing to type their deadname)
I strongly agree with including Rowan. Not only were they a super strong player, but it’s a great story: they should get a second chance to play under their true name.
As much fun as it would be seeing Katie back, as a 3-time champ she’s got no shot at a second-chance tourney. I assume this tourney would have to be solely for those who never won a single game, as it probably should be.
You beat me to it. I was here to suggest Rowan.
Hmmm… any thoughts on creating a list for us of the non-winners since the last TOC with the greatest number of correct answers or highest non-winning totals after FJ? It’ll be interesting to see how Davies and his gang decide who to choose for this second-chance tourney.
If it were my call, I’d go right down the line with either the 15 with the highest non-winning FJ scores or the 15 with the most correct answers. It’s the least-complicated way of making these decisions. Any other way could be perceived as favoring some contestants over others due to something aside from their gameplay, and that could end up being more controversial than it needs to be.
Adam Levin! The highest scoring runner-up in jeopardy history!!
Maybe too much time has passed but I want to second the commenter who mentioned Adam Levin.
Was Adam the highest runner-up in Jeopardy history?
Too much time has passed for Adam—at least in the context of this tournament.
Remember the early days of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire”?
We saw Regis Philbin one night a week. It was great!
Due to that success, we saw Regis twice a week. Better!!
Then the producers said why not three times a week? Or four? How about five times a week? That was not so great.
Overexposure is not good for an invited guest into your home (like television shows).
I’d say let’s take it slow with prime time “specials” and thereby keep the regular “Jeopardy” special.
I’m enjoying the prime time College Tournament this week. But let’s go slow with added specials before we cheapen the original and kill the best show on television.
I totally agree with your point, but like the Professors Tournament, some of the proposed new tournaments might not be in primetime and some might be during other primetime slots when other networks are airing reruns (like now during the Olympics). I guess it’s too early to create programming against March Madness. Would the World Series period be a good time for that? I think post-Memorial Day would be a good time as network series are pretty much over yet a lot of schools aren’t out yet.
Love this plan. I figured that with the College Tournament winner getting $250K instead of the normal $100K then that person might not be given a spot in the TOC. Glad they will be included.