I have to say, I wasn’t particularly a fan of how few people got to participate in last season’s postseason play, especially considering that there were 28 one-day champions who were left out.
What if I told you that there was a very easy way to see 46 champions make it to the postseason instead of the 32 we saw last season?
The following postseason schedule assumes that there is going to be three weeks of Second Chance play instead of the two we saw last season (a happening that has been hinted at numerous times over the past few months.)
My friends over at Geeks Who Drink have introduced a daily trivia game—Thrice! Existing to make daily clever trivia content accessible to a wide audience, it's a daily challenge that tries to get you to the answer via three separate clues. It has a shareable score functionality to challenge your friends and new questions every day will give you a new daily social ritual. You can find it at thricegame.com.
Are you going on the show and looking for information about how to bet in Final Jeopardy? Check out my Betting Strategy 101 page. If you want to learn how to bet in two-day finals, check out Betting Strategy 102. In case the show uses a tournament with wild cards in the future, there is also a strategy page for betting in tournament quarterfinals.
Are you looking for information on how to stream Jeopardy! in 2024? Find out information here on how to stream from most places in North America!
Do you appreciate the work I do here on The Jeopardy! Fan? Would you like to make a one-time contribution to the site? You may do so here!
You can find game-by-game stats here at The Jeopardy! Fan of all 17 players, now including Adriana Harmeyer, that have won 10 or more games on Jeopardy!
You can now listen to Alex Trebek-hosted Jeopardy! episodes from TuneIn Radio without leaving The Jeopardy! Fan — listen now!
Stage 1: Second Chance
27 players are invited to Second Chance, in three weeks of 9, with each week’s winner advancing to Champions Wildcard. (This hasn’t changed much from past seasons, with the exception of there being an extra week.)
Stage 2: Champions Wildcard
Here, you invite 30 champions along with the 3 Second Chance winners, competing in three groups of 11. Six episodes are taped during each “week”—the first being a qualifier destined for TuneIn Radio (or potentially the streaming services) with the bottom three seeds in each group of 11, and the winner advancing to the main week, set up as three semifinals and a two-game total-point final, and each week’s winner advancing to the Tournament of Champions.
Stage 3: Tournament of Champions
The top 16 players join the 3 Champions Wildcard winners, as well as Lisa Ann Walter and W. Kamau Bell, in the Tournament of Champions. As with some of the past tournaments, the top 3 seeds would receive byes to the semifinals, with their exhibition game going to TuneIn, similarly to past seasons.
We have many new offerings at The Jeopardy! Fan Online Store! Here are our current featured items, including our new Masters Season 3 Player List T-shirt:
Advantages (and Disadvantages?)
I would say that the largest advantage here is the increase in the number of returning players from 30 to 46. (By way of example, fan favorite Harvey Silikovitz goes from a 0% chance of qualifying under the old system to 58.96% in the proposed expansion.). A second major advantage to single elimination in Champions Wildcard is that it removes the extremely anticlimactic Final Jeopardy rounds that we saw last season in the quarterfinals, with players betting extremely small amounts in Final due to their spots in the semifinals being all but sewn up. Additionally, having three 9-player tournaments airing on television (instead of, say, a single 27-player tournament) ensures that each mini-competition is wrapped up in a single week, and also avoids having the Tournament of Champions begin in the middle of a week, giving both the fanbase and the show the weekend as a lead-up to build up hype for the event. This also continues to promote the show’s ongoing partnership with TuneIn Radio, providing a number of games to that service.
Certainly, a disadvantage to my above proposal would be an increase in the number of postseason games that will certainly draw the ire of some pockets of the Internet. (That said, in my editorial opinion, I believe those voices can and should be summarily ignored.)
In Conclusion
Certainly, I as a Jeopardy! fan would like to see more returning champions in postseason play, and I believe a lot of others would as well!
I hope everyone enjoys the next few weeks of play as we determine the last few postseason qualifiers!
Become a Supporter now! Make a monthly contribution to the site on Patreon!
Contestant photo credit: jeopardy.com
When commenting, please note that all comments on The Jeopardy! Fan must be in compliance with the Site Comment Policy.
If you are going to quote any information from this page or this website, attribution is required.
Have you had a chance to listen to our podcast game show, Complete The List, yet? Check it out! It's also available on Apple Podcasts.
Be the first to comment on "Andy’s Weekly Thoughts: How I Think The Postseason Should Be Expanded"