Does Jeopardy! have enough "champions"?

[TMC]

https://www.tvinsider.com/1082489/do...-of-champions/

Jeopardy! producers have promised another Tournament of Champions competition for 2023, but does the show have enough contestants to fill the brackets? That is becoming a concern for some fans.

If the show continues with the same format as the 2022 tournament, it will require 21 contestants to fill out the brackets. However, as pointed out on the Jeopardy! Reddit forum, we’re halfway through Season 39, and so far, only six contestants have qualified for spots in the TOC. Not only that, but as of now, all the eligible players are men.

“So we’re about half way through the season and there are only 6 people eligible for the TOC so far. I know there’s a long way to go, and a lot of contestants to see yet, but does that seem low?” asked a Reddit poster.

“I believe they need 21 contestants for TOC with the new format. (Assuming they’re doing the same thing as last year again.)” they continued. “Are they going to be looking at three time winners to fill the roster? Would it go by number of wins or $$ earned? There aren’t even many three-timers so far this season.”

As of this moment, the six contestants who have qualified for the 2023 TOC are Cris Pannullo (21 wins), Ray LaLonde (13 wins), Troy Meyer (6 wins), Luigi de Guzman (5 wins), Matthew Marcus (4 wins), and David Sibley (4 wins). It takes four consecutive wins for a player to qualify for the TOC.

However, spots in the competition can be earned through wins in other specials and tournaments. For example, Jeopardy! producer Michael Davies recently revealed that Celebrity Jeopardy! winner Ike Barinholtz will be participating in this year’s TOC. Again, though, this is another man; no women have yet to qualify for the TOC.

Despite the low number of eligible contestants at the moment, other fans on the Jeopardy! Reddit forum seemed less worried. “The number of eligible contestants is pretty normal, historically it’s taken ~2 years to fill a ToC,” said one commenter. “I’m sure they’d have to go to 3-time champs, or offer more second chance spots to make it an annual thing. It’s all up to producer discretion.”

“Davies and Sarah [Foss] have specifically said that there’s no guarantee they do the same format used in last year’s TOC in any future TOC’s,” added another. “As noted by others, that was used due to the pretty particular scenario faced last season, with the unusual number of super champs and other streakers, plus the second chance competition qualifiers. They’re more likely to go back to the traditional format – or develop a new one, perhaps a hybrid.”

[James28]

I think it would be easier to just go back to the old ToC format already with the rate we're going in season 39 as far as filling spots for the next Tournament of Champions goes. And how is David Sibley going to qualify for the ToC if his cash winnings didn't exceed $100,000 (only winning $78,000)?

Plus, we've also had three more ToC qualifiers since that initial TV Insider article was posted last February: Stephen Webb, Hannah Wilson, and Ben Chan (Ben Chan fell ill after his third game on April 14 and later returned to defeat Hannah Wilson on May 15 and continue his streak). And I guess Justin Bolsen could also be counted as a ToC qualifier since the winner of the High School Reunion Tournament got $100,000 also.

[Dude111]

I think the good days of it are over

[James28]

This month, we had a six-time Jeopardy! champion named Suresh Krishnan, who had accumulated $96,595 in cash winnings (plus a $2,000 cash prize for a second-place finish).

Mr. Krishnan only stood at $53,999 after his fourth win, and $82,194 after his fifth win, and at one point, I feared that he was going to be the next Megan Wachspress (a ToC qualifier from season 38 who only had $60,000 in cash winnings). I was hoping that Mr. Krishnan could reach the $100,000 threshold after his sixth game, but he fell short of it, as I explained above. Mr. Krishnan already looks like a real possibility for the next Tournament of Champions if there really aren't that many $100,000-ers to have qualified.

[James28]

Ben Goldstein is even worse than Megan Wachspress; He didn't even cross the $50,000 mark over his five wins last week (not counting the $2,000 cash prize for second place in his sixth game last Friday (June 23)).

$49,298 might sound a fair amount in the era before clue dollars were doubled in 2001, but in the post-doubled era, it's just underwhelming.

And stuff like this makes me wish it weren't too late for Davie Leffler to be entered into a Tournament of Champions. I hope future six-figure Jeopardy! champions never again get shut out of a ToC like Mr. Leffler had been.

(Dave Leffler was a four-time Jeopardy! champion with cash winnings exceeded $100,000, yet was inexcusably shut out of the 2019 ToC in favor of a Emma Boettcher/James Holzhauer rematch.)

[James28]

Last March (during Jeopardy!'s infamous 40th anniversary season of tournaments), Yogesh Raut became the first Tournament of Champions winner not to get above $100,000 in regular play since Vijay Balse (a four-time champion who had only $82,400 in regular-play cash winnings) in 2010. Mr. Raut is only a three-time champion with $96,403 in regular play.

During Jeopardy!'s current 41st season, only one major champion crossed the $100,000 mark: Mark Fitzpatrick ($107,201 over five wins). And in the non-tournament portion of season 40 (after mid-April 2024), Adriana Harmeyer was the biggest winner (15 wins, $349,000). Other major champions in season 40 who have crossed the 100-grand mark are Alison Betts (five wins, $121.500), Amy Hummel (five wins, $100,994), Drew Basile (seven wins, $129,601), and Isaac Hirsch (ten wins, $215,390).

[James28]

The next Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions will take place from January 27 to at least February 11, 2025 (Yes, they're still going with this new "best-of-seven" format for the finals of the next ToC, in addition to the Second Chance and Champions Wildcard tournaments, none of which I am a fan of. I was hoping for their discontinuation this season because of them only being done because of StrikeMageddon, but nope.) The eligibility period for the 2025 ToC was from April 10 to December 16, 2024.

Seven major regular-play champions from that eligibility period had their cash winnings exceed $100,000:

• Adriana Harmeyer (the biggest winner of StrikeMageddon-damaged Season 40; 15 wins, $351,600)
• Isaac Hirsch (9 wins, $218,390)
• Drew Basile (7 wins, $132,601)
• Greg Jolin (season 41's current biggest winner; 5 wins, $138,002)
• Alison Betts (5 wins, $124,500)
• Mark Fitzpatrick (5 wins, $109,201)
• Amy Hummel (5 wins, $102,994)

Apparently the 2025 ToC participant with the fewest cash winnings is Weckiai Rannila (3 wins, $38,200). If it wasn't for StrikeMageddon, anyone in the ToC field with regular-play winnings fewer than $80,000 wouldn't have qualified for it at all.

Source: TV Insider.