‘Jeopardy!’ Reddit Fans Get Big Shout out in Second Chance Tournament — See Reactions

Jeopardy! fans on Reddit got a shout-out during Tuesday’s (December 30) episode, courtesy of contestant Dondi DeMarco, who went on to cement his spot in the Second Chance tournament finals.

The episode saw DeMarco, an operations executive from New York, taking on Ricky Chandak, a financial insurance senior from Boston, Massachusetts, and Emily Johnson, a dog walker from Honolulu, Hawai’i. All three former contestants were competing for a spot in the finals, hoping to advance to the Tournament of Champions.

It was a competitive game, with all three scores relatively close heading into Final Jeopardy. However, DeMarco came out on top, winning the episode with $27,201 and punching his ticket to the finals. But it was something DeMarco said earlier in the episode that captured the attention of one particular subset of fans.

During his contestant interview segment with host Ken Jennings, DeMarco gave a shout-out to the Jeopardy! Subreddit, thanking them for their kindness and support.

“As you know, I’m sure, there’s a very active online community supporting Jeopardy. I wasn’t really aware of it at the time I went on the show. It wasn’t something I followed,” DeMarco told Jennings. “But I have a sister who is much, much nerdier about these things than I am. After my show had aired, she said, ‘Do you ever look at the Jeopardy Subreddit?’ And I said, ‘No.’ She said, ‘You should go look and see what they’re saying about you.'”

“They were saying very nice things,” he continued. “They were talking about statistics and coreat [scores] and other things that I had no idea what any of that meant, but it all sounded nice.”

DeMarco said he reads the Reddit threads more now. Jennings mentioned the Subreddit again later in the episode, saying, “Reddit isn’t always right.”

“This subreddit getting the entirety of Dondi’s interview today was wild!” wrote one Reddit user.

“Can we now tell people we were personally mentioned on Jeopardy? It’s at least as honest as saying I was Time Magazine’s 2006 Person of the Year…” quipped another.

“I wasn’t sure it was this subreddit! I was thinking, ‘Surely I must be missing some other forum’… Maybe I should talk here more,” another added.

Another said, “Just learned about this Sub, while watching today’s episode. One of the contestants mentioned it. So, of course, I had to join!”

“Same here! Heard the contestant and here I am!” replied one user.

“Wow, a lot of new people today! Happy we (well, I rarely post here, but I’m a long-time lurker) got mentioned. Congrats to Dondi!” wrote another.

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Another poked fun at Jennings for saying “Reddit isn’t always right,” writing, “Excuse me, Ken? Reddit isn’t always right?!?”

“That shot made me wonder if he’d ever lurked in here before, haha,” asked one fan, with another adding that Jennings has taken part in several Reddit AMAs (Ask Me Anything) over the years.

“Here to bask in/represent the sub in its additional celebrity….great game! All second-chance players this cycle have proved to be excellent invites,” said another.

DeMarco now moves on to the finals, which air on Thursday (January 1) and Friday (January 2). He will be joined by Abigail Arnold, who qualified in Monday’s (December 29) game, and the winner of tonight’s (Wednesday, December 31) game between Ryan Sharpe, Jenna Hayes, and Dan Puma.