‘Jeopardy!’: Your Ultimate Guide to the 2024 Tournament of Champions
This… Is… Jeopardy!
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At long last, Jeopardy! fans are getting the strike-delayed Tournament of Champions… though it’s not like there’s been a tournament shortage on the syndicated game show lately!
This year’s TOC includes contestants from the past three Jeopardy! seasons, plus one celebrity player. Here’s a breakdown of the players, the match-ups, the odds, and the fan reactions.
When does it premiere?
The quarterfinals kick off on Friday, February 23, and will run until late March.
Who is hosting?
As per usual, former contestant Ken Jennings will helm the upcoming TOC. Jennings is now Jeopardy’s permanent and only host following Mayim Bialik‘s exit in December 2023.
Who are the contestants?
The 2024 Tournament of Champions will feature 27 contestants, 11 of whom are Season 39 alums with winning streaks of four or more games. This year, Jeopardy! producers also opened the TOC to Season 39’s three-game winners, of which there are eight.
The other eight contestants are the six winners of the ongoing Champions Wildcard tournaments — including one who is still TBD — as well as Jeopardy! High School Reunion winner Justin Bolsen and Celebrity Jeopardy! Season 1 winner Ike Barinholtz.
What are the match-ups?
Friday, February 23 — Emily Sands, Suresh Krishnan & Matthew Marcus
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Monday, February 26 — Cris Pannullo, Ben Goldstein & Jared Watson
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Tuesday, February 27 — Hannah Wilson, David Sibley & Yungsheng Wang
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Wednesday, February 28 — Nick Cascone, Jake DeArruda & Yogesh Raut
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Thursday, February 29 — Luigi de Guzman, Kevin Belle & Juveria Zaheer
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Friday, March 1 — Stephen Webb, Brian Henegar & Josh Saak
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Monday, March 4 — Ray LaLonde, Melissa Klapper & Ike Barinholtz
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Tuesday, March 5 — Ben Chan, Justin Bolsen & Emmett Stanton
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Wednesday, March 6 — Troy Meyer, TBD & Sean McShane
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Who is the favorite to win?
Of the 26 contestants revealed so far, The Jeopardy Fan’s prediction model projects that Cris Pannullo is the favorite to win, with +750 odds, though the site notes that Final Jeopardy might be his Achilles heel.
In second with +1100 odds is Ben Chan, known for his record-breaking streak of nine consecutive runaway games. “A final between Ben and Cris could be absolutely epic,” TJF’s Andy Saunders writes.
Who are dark horse candidates?
In terms of average Coryat score — which measures contestants’ scores with wagering discounted — Ike Barinholtz ($24,167) and Troy Meyer ($23,629) join Cris Pannullo ($25,036) in the top three TOC contestants revealed so far.
As for correct response averages, Barinholtz takes first place (99.7%), followed by Kevin Belle (94.8%), Pannullo (93.9%), and Meyer (93.7%). With those averages, we wouldn’t be surprised if Barinholtz, Meyer, or Belle eke out a surprise triumph.
How does it work?
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The nine players who win the quarterfinals will advance to the three semifinal games, and the three players who win their semifinal games will advance to the finals. Fans are expecting the finals to again be a first-to-three competition, meaning there will be at most seven finals games.
What’s the prize for the winner?
Apart from the ultimate trivia bragging rights, the TOC victor will earn $250,000, a championship belt, and an invite to the next Jeopardy! Masters, scheduled to kick off in May.
What do the fans think?
After Season 39 finished, fans expressed displeasure that only one woman, Hannah Wilson, had qualified for this edition of the Tournament of Champions under the usual four-time-champion criterion. “There’s no way they would go ahead with such an un-diverse tournament after the 50% non-male field from the last tournament,” wrote one person on the Jeopardy! Reddit forum.
Another wrote, “I would have liked to see more women in the TOC.”
(Fortunately, the scales have shifted — a little — with the addition of Emily Sands and Juveria Zaheer from the Champions Wildcard tournaments and three-time winner Melissa Klapper from Season 39.)
On a Reddit thread about the quarterfinals match-ups, viewers seemed pleased about some of the face-offs — especially with Ben Goldstein competing against Cris Pannullo after calling him out on the Alex Trebek Stage — but many fans didn’t know who they’d root for.
“These games are all going to be emotional and intellectual drains like none other,” one person wrote.
“Problem is, I like just about everyone,” said another.
Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions, Friday, February 23, Check Local Listings
