September 2023 Second Chance Competition — Week 1 Preview

Jill was the third contestant in the Zach Newkirk return game, where Zach faced off against 7-day champion Brian Chang. Jill played very well against such stiff competition, picking up $10,600 going into Final, even though she finished the match in third place.

Gabriel performed very strongly against ToC semifinalist Ryan Hemmel, but fell on the wrong side of his first Daily Double and Final Jeopardy. One thing that Reddit was quick to point out when the lineup for this competition was released was the incredible irony of Gabriel being introduced as a “script writer” in the middle of the WGA strike. That being said: it appears as though Gabriel does not write entertainment scripts, but instead is a writer for NBC Bay Area.

In his initial appearance, Derek finished third against Julia Markham Cameron and Verlinda Johnson Henning; however, he did have a 5-digit Coryat score, buoyed by the majority of his doing very well in the bottom two rows of the board.

Cody finished in third (second going into Final) against Kristen Thomas-McGill and John Vigna. Much like Gabriel in Monday’s line up. Cody is another occurrence of a player who had a very strong game, but landed on the wrong side of an early aggressive Daily Double (as well as Final).

David played against Natalie Tyson and Sam Stapleton in the first game guest-hosted by Mike Richards. (I invite everyone to read the Andy’s Pregame Thoughts for that game. I can’t believe how naive we were then, considering how the following six months played out.) David was playing very well before losing $10,000 on a very late Daily Double. In fact, David was probably the biggest omission from last year’s Second Chance competition. He’s also likely been keeping himself in the best “game shape”, helping many other prospective contestants prepare for their own appearances.

In her appearance, Susan played against Matt McAndrews and Amanda Ganske. Susan had over $20,000 going into Final Jeopardy, and then fell at the final hurdle on a clue about Dr. Seuss’s Oh, The Places You’ll Go!

In his appearance, Hari played against Leah Caglio and Dana Schumacher-Schmidt. Hari was tied with Leah going into Final Jeopardy, but a miss in Final sent him home. Another stark reminder that Jeopardy! is not quiz bowl—Hari was a star high school quiz bowler, but the history of this show is scattered with stories of those who dominated in scholastic competition but faltered in Studio 10.

Donna played in Anderson Cooper’s debut as guest host against Mike Nelson and Patrick Hume. Donna had a very strong all-Coryat $12,000 going into Final.

In his initial appearance, Matt played in Katie Couric’s debut as guest host against Justin Yeager and Laura Portwood-Stacer. Matt finished second after losing $7,000 on a pair of Daily Doubles in Double Jeopardy.