This week on Inside Jeopardy!, producers Michael Davies & Sarah Foss announced that the 2026 Champions Wildcard would be slightly different than the 2025 version. While the field size is identical to 2025—15—this year the show is reserving the right to use more statistics than “wins” and “money won” to determine the ultimate make-up of the field. (However, anyone with at least 3 wins will be guaranteed spots.)
In terms of things here at The Jeopardy! Fan, I unveiled the Unified Prediction Model earlier this year; this also can give us a sense of what champions might see a Champions Wildcard invite. Obviously, as this tournament will be taping before the field is announced on November 10, the requisite players will already have been informed that they’re competing (they’ll need to prepare for travel and the like), but it’s still fun to potentially speculate.
In terms of why the postseason announcement will be coming on November 10: the Tournament of Champions is very likely taping November 18–21, and this allows for a week of previews before the tournament tapes.
Any references to APM and Excitement Factor are of the regular-play calculations; these numbers will be higher than the corresponding metrics used later for the Tournament of Champions predictions.
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!
The Guarantees: 3-Time Winners
As of this writing, there are 5 3-time champions whose spot in the Tournament of Champions is not mathematically guaranteed: Tom Devlin, Brendan Liaw, Mike Dawson, Bill McKinney, and Geoff Barnes. I would venture that it would take a very unlikely set of circumstances to relegate Tom, Brendan, and Mike to Champions Wildcard. Assuming the long-term historical average of a champion having a 50% chance of winning their next game, the mean number of 3+-game champions between now and the end of the qualification period is 1.75; this means that Bill is very much on the bubble at this point. I am thus going to assume that Bill (APM 8,986, 34th; Excite 24,475, 30th) and Geoff (APM 9,651, 25th; Excite 24,825, 27th) will be relegated to Champions Wildcard.
The 2-Time Winners
James Corson (APM 11,279, 9th; Excite 30,190, 10th)
James picked up over $70,000 in two victories. We’ll be seeing him on the Alex Trebek Stage again. While the APM doesn’t exactly make him a favorite, he’ll certainly be a tough out.
Jonathan Hugendubler (APM 13,177, 4th; Excite 33,378, 5th)
Jonathan was the Giant Killer for Scott Riccardi, and currently has the second-most amount of winnings of any player in contention for Champions Wildcard. I do think that will be more than enough to send him through.
Dave Bond (APM 9,791, 23rd; Excite 25,521, 24th)
Dave was the carryover contestant from last season’s postseason cutoff; he’ll have had to wait a full year to find out if he’s making it through. While it would be a cruel irony for a change in format to knock Dave out this time around, I think his $51,400 in winnings will be enough to see him through.
Jason Singer (APM 11,575, 8th; Excite 25,829, 22nd)
While Jason was the center of a minor controversy back in July over both halves of married couples winning on the show, he was picking up strong victories and was only barely unseated by Scott Riccardi. We’ll be seeing Jason again for sure. (I can’t say I’m as sure about a JIT invite for his wife Susan, though.)
Dargan Ware (APM 15,222, 1st; Excite 38,136, 1st)
Dargan had two victories and had a massive score going into Final Jeopardy in the third, losing one of the highest-scoring games of all time between first and second going into clue #61. That’s enough to make sure we see him again, in my opinion, with his APM being strong enough to make him joint favorite to advance to the ToC along with Vickie Talvola.
Any Other 2-Time Champions?
I think Mitch Loflin (APM 10608, 14th; Excite 28731, 14th) has an outside chance of being invited; an invite might depend on if Bill McKinney is in the Tournament of Champions or Champions Wildcard. However, I think the remainder of the 2-time champions don’t have a compelling statistical or publicity case, especially compared to the 1-time champions below.
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:
The Most Likely 1-Time Winners
These six 1-time champions are who I believe are the likeliest to be invited back. (They”re ordered by money won, not by UPM rankings.)
Prasad Patil (APM 11,611, 7th; Excite 31,103, 9th)
I have a feeling that Prasad’s victory over Vickie Talvola is a major reason why the show felt it necessary to cast Champions Wildcard on more than just wins and money. Remember, had Vickie bet to cover, Prasad would have been practically guaranteed a Second Chance spot, while Vickie would have had plenty of money after 2 wins to qualify for postseason play. As it stands, I think Prasad’s stats are strong enough to garner a Champions Wildcard invitation.
Steven Hoying (APM 13,724, 3rd; Excite 35,957 3rd)
Steven Hoying was the bookend champion between a pair of ToCers in Andrew Hayes and Liam Starnes. While all of his stats were very strong, his case is made even stronger by having the toughest “strength of schedule” of anyone in the Champions Wildcard pool, boosting his Adjusted Performance Mean.
Stella Trout (APM 13,100, 5th; Excite 32,467 6th)
Stella had a very strong first game before nearly having a runaway, but losing, back in June to Joey Quismorio. Two strong performances rate well for Stella in both the Adjusted Performance Mean and Excitement metrics, enough for her to leapfrog her way in to Champions Wildcard.
Vickie Talvola (APM 15,211, 2nd; Excite 36,728 2nd)
I honestly suspect that Vickie will receive an invite for the same reason as Prasad Patil will: her run ended tragically early as the result of a conservative Final Jeopardy bet not working out for her. If she does, she’ll be close to favorite status alongside Dargan Ware (and potentially anyone making it into this event through Second Chance.)
Harvey Silikovitz (APM 10,948, 11th; Excite 35,761 4th)
The “H-Bomb” ended Laura Faddah’s run with one of the most dominant first games ever; unfortunately, his second game was not nearly as strong. However, the high variance plays well into his Excitement metric, and I think his incredibly strong first game is enough to see him get another chance on the Alex Trebek Stage.
Delaney O’Dea (APM 9206, 32nd, Excite 24525, 38th)
Delaney O’Dea’s Champions Wildcard case comes entirely from the publicity she received for winning a game of Jeopardy! at the age of 18. I could definitely see the production staff going either way on inviting Delaney.
Any Others?
Depending on the demographic distribution that the show wants to see in Champions Wildcard, I would absolutely not be surprised if we saw Judith Friedman, Erin Morin, Kiley Campbell, Allegra Hill, or Cindy del Rosario receiving invitations.
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 "Who Might We See In 2026 Champions Wildcard?"