‘Jeopardy!’ Tournament of Champions Update & Big ‘Wildcard’ News

Martin Holmes September 27, 2023, 8:29 am

Ken Jennings in 'Jeopardy!' Season 40 — Jeopardy, Inc.

Jeopardy! has revealed all the details of its upcoming Champions Wildcard tournament, and it gives fans further insight into who will participate in the 2023 Tournament of Champions, plus when regular Jeopardy! will return with new contestants.

The Champions Wildcard, which kicks off on Monday, October 2, will feature brief winners from Season 37 and Season 38, as well as the three winners from the currently airing Second Chance tournament (which wraps up on Friday, September 29). The series will culminate in December with four overall winners, each earning a spot in the 2023 TOC.

This would bring the current total of TOC players up to 17. We already know 11 of the four-plus game champions from Season 39 will be taking part (Cris Pannullo, Ray LaLonde, Hannah Wilson, Ben Chan, Troy Meyer, Luigi de Guzman, Stephen Webb, Suresh Krishnan, Ben Goldstein, Matthew Marcus, and David Sibley). Also competing will be High School reunion champ Justin Bolsen and Celebrity Jeopardy! winner Ike Barinholtz.

A fan on the Jeopardy! Reddit forum believes another Champions Wildcard tournament featuring Season 39 champions will determine the final four TOC contestants, bringing the total up to 21, mirroring last year’s competition. However, this doesn’t take into account the next Second Chance tournament featuring Season 39 players.

On the August 7 edition of the Inside Jeopardy! podcast, showrunner Michael Davies said that once the writers’ strike is over, “we’ll head into our Season 39 post-season [Second Chance and Champions Wildcard], which will culminate with the Tournament of Champions.”

With the upcoming Champions Wildcard set to run until mid-December and then another edition of Second Chance and Wildcard for the Season 39 contestants still to come, it means the TOC is still a way off from airing.

And that’s not even considering the long layoff from regular non-tournament Jeopardy!, which hasn’t aired a new episode with new contestants since the Season 39 finale on July 28, 2023.

If these tournaments all go ahead as Davies stipulated, regular non-tournament Jeopardy! wouldn’t return until well into the first quarter of 2024. Certainly, many fans are itching to see new players rather than endless tournaments.

But, for now, viewers have two-plus months of Champions Wildcard action to look forward to. The official Jeopardy! website revealed the full format and schedule earlier this week, which features 108 returning winners from Seasons 37 and 38 (and the three Second Chance winners).

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The competition will include 56 games in total, split across four legs, with 27 contestants competing in each. Each leg (divided into “spades, diamonds, clubs, and hearts”) will feature nine quarterfinal matches followed by three semifinal matches and two final matches where one winner will be crowned.

Wildcard, which will be hosted by Ken Jennings, is scheduled to end on December 18, after which we will have four winners (one from each leg). Those four winners will then move on to the 2023 TOC whenever that airs.

The official Jeopardy! website has revealed the returning contestants competing in Wildcard Group 1: Spades. Check out the competitors and their match-ups below, including the dates the episodes will air.

Jeopardy!, Inc.

Correction: This article was edited on 09/27/23 to note that showrunner Michael Davies previously confirmed a Second Chance and Wildcard tournament with Season 39 players would air before the 2023 Tournament of Champions.

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