Postseason Field Revealed For Road To 2026 Tournament Of Champions

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Posted By: Andy Saunders November 17, 2025

We now know who the 59 players are who have a chance to win the 2026 Tournament of Champions, as the show unveiled today on Inside Jeopardy!.

These 59 players have been placed into three separate events: the first 27, all non-winners, have been placed into three weeks of Second Chance, with each week’s winner moving to Champions Wildcard. They will be joined at that point by 12 more players in a 15-player Champions Wildcard tournament, whose winner will gain the last spot in the 21-player Tournament of Champions, beginning January 19, 2026.

Here are the 59 players:

Tournament Of Champions (Beginning January 19, 2026):

  1. Scott Riccardi, Somerville, NJ (16 wins, $455,000)
  2. Laura Faddah, Memphis, TN (8 wins, $92,599)
  3. Paolo Pasco, San Diego, CA (7 wins, $195,717)
  4. Andrew Hayes, Tupelo, MS (6 wins, $137,804)
  5. Liam Starnes, Barrington, IL (6 wins, $123,584)
  6. Josh Weikert, Collegeville, PA (6 wins, $100,202)
  7. Ben Ganger, Goshen, IN (5 wins, $105,915)
  8. TJ Fisher, San Francisco, CA (5 wins, $100,723)
  9. Lisa Ann Walter, Washington, DC (Season 2 Celebrity Jeopardy! winner)
  10. W. Kamau Bell, Chicago, IL (Season 3 Celebrity Jeopardy! winner)
  11. Alex DeFrank, Brooklyn, NY (4 wins, $102,400)
  12. Allegra Kuney, New Brunswick, NJ (4 wins, $92,600)
  13. Steven Olson, Princeton, IL (4 wins, $74,382)
  14. Bryce Wargin, Kansas City, MO (4 wins, $70,199)
  15. Ashley Chan, Lewisville, TX (4 wins, $67,400)
  16. Matt Massie, South Charleston, WV (3 wins, $79,800)
  17. Tom Devlin, Washington, DC (3 wins, $73,199)
  18. Brendan Liaw, Vancouver, BC (3 wins, $59,398)
  19. Mike Dawson, Portland, OR (3 wins, $57,000)
  20. Aaron Levine, Seattle, WA (3 wins, $48,999)
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Champions Wildcard (Beginning January 5, 2026):

  1. Bill McKinney, Boston, MA (3 wins, $46,800)
  2. Geoff Barnes, Washington, DC (3 wins, $44,801)
  3. James Corson, Frederick, MD (2 wins, $70,800)
  4. Jonathan Hugendubler, Baltimore, MD (2 wins, $63,601)
  5. Dave Bond, West Henriette, NY (2 wins, $51,400)
  6. Jason Singer, Portland, ME (2 wins, $48,801)
  7. Dargan Ware, Bessemer, AL (2 wins, $47,801)
  8. Stella Trout, Houston, TX (1 win, $28,800)
  9. Vickie Talvola, Jersey City, NJ (1 win, $26,407)
  10. Cameron Berry, Brighton, MA (1 win, $24,600)
  11. Harvey Silikovitz, West Orange, NJ (1 win, $23,600)
  12. Ian Morrison, Aurora, CO (1 win, $22,009)
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Second Chance (Beginning December 15, 2025):

Week 1:

  1. Eugene Huang, Paramus, NJ (March 25, 2025)
  2. Allison Willard, Weddington, NC (March 31, 2025)
  3. Erin Li, Queens, NY (April 7, 2025)
  4. Dave Widmayer, Portland, Oregon (April 10, 2025)
  5. Pete Johnston, Lansing, MI (July 15, 2025)
  6. Ivanna Lopez, Tampa, FL (July 16, 2025)
  7. Erik Nielsen, Hollywood, CA (September 25, 2025)
  8. Chris Turner-Neal, New Orleans, LA (October 8, 2025)
  9. Evan Argyle, Salt Lake City, UT (October 14, 2025)

Week 2:

  1. Jasmine Zhou, Woodland, CA (December 17, 2024)
  2. Melanie Hirsch, Silver Spring, MD (March 26, 2025)
  3. Guy Branum, West Hollywood, CA (April 4, 2025)
  4. Rachael Gray, Cuyahoga Falls, OH (April 18, 2025)
  5. Bob Callen, Lexington, KY (April 21, 2025)
  6. Michelle Tsai, Honolulu, HI (May 7, 2025)
  7. Andrew Wang, Winnetka, IL (July 11, 2025)
  8. Aaron Himmel, Long Island, NY (November 4, 2025)
  9. Molly Murray, New York, NY (November 6, 2025)

Week 3:

  1. Jenna Hayes, New York, NY (December 24, 2024)
  2. Emily Johnson, Savannah, GA (March 11, 2025)
  3. Mustafa Hameed, Los Angeles, CA (March 24, 2025)
  4. Dondi DeMarco, New York, NY (April 15, 2025)
  5. Abigail Arnold, Waltham, MA (April 23, 2025)
  6. Keegan Olson, Vancouver, BC (May 6, 2025)
  7. Ricky Chandak, Boston, MA (July 4, 2025)
  8. Dan Puma, Chicago, IL (July 8, 2025)
  9. Ryan Sharpe, Oakville, ON (September 15, 2025)
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5 Comments on "Postseason Field Revealed For Road To 2026 Tournament Of Champions"

  1. WWORDuke | November 17, 2025 at 4:47 pm |

    For Second Chance, I’m saying Mathieu Dionne got hosed. He was leading Laura Faddah entering Final Jeopardy and the FJ was about Laura’s hometown. I am shocked they didn’t give him a second chance.

  2. Thomas G. | November 18, 2025 at 1:23 pm |

    Congratulations to all going into this tournament.

  3. M | November 18, 2025 at 2:26 pm |

    They should have placed all of the 3-game winners into Wildcard. Giving some of them guaranteed ToC places and dropping others into Wildcard based solely on the dollar value won is arbitrary. The number of games won is far more important than the dollar value won, and should be treated as such when setting the tournament fields.

    • Andy Saunders | November 18, 2025 at 2:29 pm |

      …you do realize this has been happening for 40 years, right? The show has taken wins and money won to determine who its top players are to fill the ToC field dating all the way back to the 1980s.

      (General Admin note: Making format suggestions that lack any sort of knowledge on the mathematics of tournament formats will be summarily removed.)

  4. Jeff | November 29, 2025 at 5:48 pm |

    This will be such a fun postseason, as I have seen players play on the Alex Trebek Stage that will be appearing in all 3 Tournaments. 🙂

    Also have met some of their relatives and some great people!

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