For the second time, Jeopardy! honored some of the best moments of the past year-plus on the show with its Jeopardy! Honors. This was taped the night before the Tournament of Champions and aired last night on YouTube.
Due to inclement weather in Los Angeles the week of taping, this year’s event was held indoors—on the set of Wheel of Fortune.
Awards were given out in a number of different categories; they’re being listed here in order of presentation on the YouTube broadcast.
Best Celebration: Brian Henegar
Brian’s shock at being judged correct in Final Jeopardy in his opening victory on April 4, 2023 and glee at being named champion was notable enough to even get recorded in J! Archive! “Brian puts his hands to his mouth wide open in surprise and puts a hand on his chest”, and “Brian’s gleeful reaction demonstrates the joy of the moment for him” perfectly encapsulated just how happy he was to be named a Jeopardy! champion—and the moment earned him the award for Best Celebration.
Best Interview: Martha Bath
In Martha Bath’s first appearance on the show, she spoke about how she had been a contestant on the Art Fleming version 50 years prior. Her final score was $40, also winning a set of encyclopedias. Seeing Martha win on this version 50 years after playing with Art Fleming was enough to see her go viral—and also now win the award for Best Interview.
Martha was not in attendance for the event, as she was on a trip to Egypt and Jordan.
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Best Signature: Yungsheng Wang
Yungsheng Wang won Best Signature for his multilingual sign-in, as demonstrated in the below photograph. This is actually his second Jeopardy! Honors victory, having won Best Dressed at the 2022 ceremony.
Yungsheng Wang won this year’s Jeopardy! Honors for Best Signature. (Credit: Jeopardy!/YouTube)
Jeopardy! Style Award: Robert Kaine
Although there were many honorable mentions in this category, including Erin Portman’s “interrobang” earrings, the three-piece suit from Lawrence Long, Skyler Gailing’s dinosaur sweater, Tyler Vandenberg’s “dress blues”, and the Bro-Hawks (T.J. Tallie and Dave Rapp), Robert Kaine first wore a LEGO bow tie in his first appearance; his return to Champions Wildcard this past fall saw him wear a full LEGO tie and LEGO pocket square on the stage; this has led to him picking up the show’s yearly fashion award.
Robert accepted the award while wearing a very stylish gold LEGO bow tie.
Best Comeback: Andy Tirrell
Andy Tirrell was at -$1,000 in his opening game, against 21-time champion Cris Pannullo. No matter, Andy came back to take victory, unseating Cris and etching himself into Jeopardy! lore. It also earned him Best Comeback at this year’s Jeopardy! Honors.
Perfect Game Award: Yogesh Raut, Kyle Daly, Kristina Mosley
Season 39 had a moment that hadn’t been seen on the show in 25 years: all 61 clues were responded to correctly. Thus, the show awarded a special Perfect Game Award to the three players in the January 12, 2023 game: Yogesh Raut, Kyle Daly, and Kristina Mosley.
Breakthrough Performance: Juveria Zaheer
For being able to complete the gauntlet of Second Chance through Champions Wildcard and into the Tournament of Champions, the show awarded a Breakthrough Performance award to Ontario’s Juveria Zaheer. Juveria has been gaining fans worldwide from her performance and now has a Jeopardy! Honors award on top of that.
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Most Valuable Player: Cris Pannullo
Due to his 21 victories and over $700,000 in winnings, Cris Pannullo was awarded Most Valuable Player.
Alex Trebek Person of the Year, Presented by Jean Trebek: Amy Schneider
Amy Schneider was presented the Alex Trebek Person of the Year award for her tireless work in speaking out against injustices against the trans community. This work is becoming increasingly important and Amy is a perfect recipient of this award.
In her speech, Amy made sure she to credit Jeopardy! itself for its own part in presenting members of the LGBTQ+ community as just people, saying that the first time she ever saw a gay man presented just as a person was on Jeopardy!
Kudos to both Amy for her work in fighting injustice, and to Jeopardy! for its own work in highlighting representation.
Hall of Fame Induction: Steven Dorfman
Steven Dorfman, one of the initial writers on the syndicated version of the show when it returned to the airwaves in 1984, is this year’s Hall of Fame inductee. Many of the show’s irreverent categories and clues of the early decades of the show were at the hand of Steven, and Jeopardy! would absolutely not be the show it is today if it wasn’t for the hand of Steven.
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My gut tells me that in the not-so-distant future, you’re going to find yourself winning one of these Honors for the years of dedication you’ve put into writing about and recapping the show.
Thank you for your support.
However: I think it’s likelier that I’ll become a contestant at some point. (And we all know what the chances of that are.)
Someday, Emma Stone and you will be on the same taping session and she will tell you that she is a long-time fan of your blog.
I loved that a writer got the induction to HoF – without the skill and wit of the writers, Jeopardy is just another trivia show.