Jeopardy will hold first-ever Second Chance Tournament later this year
- TV Show
For decades, the only way to play Jeopardy more than once has been to win — but that's about to change.
The quiz show will hold its first-ever Second Chance Tournament later this year, executive producer Michael Davies announced this week, inviting recent contestants back for another shot at Jeopardy glory. Further details, including who will get to compete in the tournament, were not immediately available, though Davies specifically name-checked Jessica Stephens, who competed against super-champ Matt Amodio in his final game.
"I started thinking about a Second Chance Tournament almost the day I started on Jeopardy, when Jessica Stephens beat Matt Amodio, but lost to Jonathan Fisher by just $401," Davies wrote in a blog post on Jeopardy's website. "I thought, 'Wow, wouldn't it be a cool idea to have a tournament where we bring excellent contestants like Jessica back?' Like most good ideas, it was quickly apparent that many, many other people — both inside and outside the show — had had exactly the same thought, long before me. But now we're actually going to do it."
The Second Chance Tournament will take place "right before" the show's annual Tournament of Champions, Davies added, and will "feed at least one player into" that event. (This year's Tournament of Champions is expected to air in the fall, though no date has been announced.)
"More details to follow, including the criteria we will be using to select the rest of the participants," Davies continued. "To be clear, though, the eligibility time frame will be the same as for this year's ToC: We are looking at contestants who appeared on Jeopardy since the last Tournament of Champions who we believe deserve a second shot. I know there will be many contestants from previous years who will be howling at this point, and I do not rule out a future opportunity to compete again for some of you. But for now this is part of the postseason for this season. We are all so excited at the prospect, and we look forward to seeing some wonderful contestants again on our stage."
Davies added that the fourth-place finisher in Jeopardy's National College Championship will also be invited to compete in the Second Chance Tournament. The college tournament's unusual rules will produce four semi-final game winners, but allow only the three highest-scoring winners to advance to the finals. (As Davies explained, "It's an imperfect solution that resulted from necessary changes to the original [college] tournament format and the fixed number of hours we were committed to deliver.") The National College Championship is currently airing weeknights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
Related content:
America's favorite answer-and-question game.
| type |
|
| rating | |
| genre | |
| creator |