Jeopardy! is going to be running a “Teen Reunion” tournament—which looks like it will be called a “High School Reunion Tournament”—this season.
The news was announced on today’s “Inside Jeopardy” podcast. The 27 players in the field will be competing over 14 episodes: 9 quarterfinals, 3 semifinals, and a “two-day total point affair” final. The tournament is set to air from February 20–March 9, 2023.
“We didn’t want to lose that sort of college energy [this season],” said Jeopardy! Executive Producer Michael Davies in a press release. “We knew we had these 27 players who are all of college age who come from our existing JEOPARDY! community, so this was a great opportunity to bring them back.”
The 27 players are going to be players who competed on the show in the two Season 35 Teen Tournaments held by the show (in November 2018 and June 2019); those tournaments included such fan favorites as Avi Gupta.
Unfortunately for the legions of fans of 2018 Teen Tournament finalist Emma Arnold, the contestant list released by the show does not have Emma on it—nor does it have 2019 Teen Tournament finalist Ryan Presler. On “Inside Jeopardy” today, the show did say that some players were unavailable and that they would be invited back in some capacity. Sophia Weng, who was a quarterfinalist in the 2019 Teen Tournament, was also not on the contestant list.
The winner of this tournament will be given a Tournament of Champions invitation—which I think is a nice touch, being that the winners from these respective tournaments four years ago were unable to compete in a Tournament of Champions. First prize in the tournament will be $100,000.
This isn’t the first “Teen Reunion” tournament that the show has run; in 1998, the show ran a tournament featuring players from their 1987, 1988, and 1989 Teen tournaments in Boston.
The contestants set to compete are:
Justin Bolsen, a freshman at Brown University in Providence, R.I. from Canton, Ga.
Maggie Brown, a junior at the University of West Florida in Pensacola, Fla. from Pensacola. Fla.
Tim Cho, a senior at Columbia University in New York, N.Y. from Savoy, Ill.
Avi Gupta, a senior at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. from Portland, Ore.
Jack Izzo, a senior at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. from San Diego, Calif.
Jackson Jones, a junior at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. from Louisville, Ky.
Rohan Kapileshwari, a senior at the University of Texas at Austin from Winston-Salem, N.C.
Rohit Kataria, a junior at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. from Wheelersburg, Ohio
Rotimi Kukoyi, a freshman at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill from Hoover, Ala.
Sreekar Madabushi, a junior at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Ga. from Basking Ridge, N.J.
Anish Maddipoti, a junior at the University of Texas at Austin from Austin, Texas
Lucas Miner, a junior at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. from Miami, Fla.
Hannah Nekritz, a senior at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. from Stamford, Conn.
Teagan O’Sullivan, a freshman at American University in Washington, D.C. from Watertown, Mass.
Dan Oxman, a senior at the University of Maryland in College Park, Md. from South Orange, N.J.
Isabella Pagano, a freshman at CalTech in Pasadena, Calif. from Libertyville, Ill.
Stephanie Pierson, a junior at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill from Macon, Ga.
Alison Purcell, a senior at the University of Texas at Austin from Houston, Texas
Caleb Richmond, a sophomore at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. from Bedford, N.H.
Audrey Sarin, a senior at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo from Redmond, Wash.
Audrey Satchivi, a senior at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind. from Carmel, Ind.
Claire Sattler, a senior at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. from Bonita Springs, Fla.
Autumn Shelton, a junior at Princeton University in Princeton, N.J. from Lamar, Mo.
Rhea Sinha, a recent graduate at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. from Chatham, N.J.
Eesha Sohail, a recent graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles from Bakersfield, Calif.
Maya Wright, a senior at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. from Peachtree, Ga.
Shriya Yarlagadda, a sophomore at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. from Grand Blanc, Mich.
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Will it be a prime time event on ABC?
Being that ABC has said nothing about this as of yet—I would say that it is incredibly unlikely that this will be a prime time event.
Ok, I don’t see them doing fourteen games though, do you think there will be an exhibition game with the two winners and the highest runner up?
27 players ÷ 3 = 9 quarterfinals
9 quarterfinal winners ÷ 3 = 3 semifinals
3 semifinal winners = 1 final (2 games, total points, like over 95% of past tournament finals)
9 + 3 + 2 = 14.
Jumbled thoughts again, oh boy!
1: I missed the entire 2018 Tournament, but I did manage to watch a few clips online. Based on what I saw, Emma Arnold seems like an absolute sweetheart and I really hope she does well in this tournament.
2: How was it decided which 3 of the 30 competitors in the past two tournaments would be excluded from this?
3: In my mind, this pretty much confirms that the new ToC format is gonna stay. Not the biggest fan, but I won’t fight it 🙂
Thanks again for all you do!
2 were unavailable; after that, I don’t know.
Well, ____. Apparently, the three not chosen were either unavailable (2) or picked as alternates for the tournament (1). I’m hoping Emma falls into the “unavailable” category, since that way she’ll be invited back at some point no matter what. I really wanted to see her on the show again. 🙁
the podcast mentioned that the 28th contestant will serve as an alternate, should one of the 27 be unable to compete on taping day.
How they decided which person was excluded from the regular field was not disclosed.
The teen tournament was Alex Trebek’s favourite tournament.
according to this week’s “Inside Jeopardy” podcast
Emma Arnold is going to college at Cambridge (England) and was unable to make it back for the taping.
Sophia Weng had other commitments as well (some sort of conference) and couldn’t attend.
Ryan Presler is still in high school (having been an 8th-grader during his teen tournament appearance) and will be the alternate when they tape in January.
27 players who attend many different universities. I note that three attend U Texas (Austin) which despite it’s popular reputation as a “football school” is also respected academically, and, two attend U North Carolina (Chapel Hill.) The field also has players attending other academially renowned schools. It can be said that Jeopardy attracts some of the brightest people