Jeopardy!’s next postseason, culminating in the 2025 Tournament of Champions (and a potential Adriana Harmeyer/Drew Basile rematch), is officially on the horizon. The starting gun is the 2025 Second Chance Competition, with 18 non-winners from the past year back with a vengeance over the course of two weeks.
The Second Chance Competition sees the most deserving players who lost upon arrival since the last ToC get one last shot at glory. These players were either fan favorites, nearly won, and/or put up ferocious fights against super-champions.
2025 Second Chance field (combining players from the tail end of Season 40 and the ongoing Season 41) was announced via press release and on the Inside Jeopardy! podcast on Monday (November 4).
The press release states, “Second Chance features select contestants who didn’t become Jeopardy! in their initial appearances returning to the Alex Trebek Stage for the chance to change their destinies. The players who advance out of Second Chance will compete in the Champions Wildcard Competition for the opportunity to play in the 2025 Tournament of Champions.”
2025 Second Chance consists of two week-long competitions. It premieres on Monday, December 30, 2024, and the next competition occurs immediately after on Monday, January 6, 2025.
The two Second Chance winners will advance to Champions Wildcard: with one ToC spot up for grabs. After Second Chance, Jeopardy! goes straight into a brief Wildcard (for one and two-day champions), followed by the main event: the ToC.
The players returning for the Second Chance Competition, an emphasis seemingly on the players who lost to the past year’s biggest winners, are as follows:
Sam Cameron, a finance manager from Fargo, North Dakota (lost to current champ Greg Jolin).Enzo Cunanan, a student from Orlando, Florida (lost to 15-day champ Adriana Harmeyer).Lindsay Denninger, a writer from Smithtown, New York.Mike Ferguson, a chemistry professor from Edmond, Oklahoma (lost to nine-day champ Isaac Hirsch)Jonquil Garrick-Reynolds, a theatrical wardrobe technician from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada (lost to nine-day champ Drew Basile).Drew Goins, a journalist from Honolulu, Hawaii (lost to three-day champ and Clint Eastwood looklike David Erb).Zoe Grobman, a therapist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Josh Heit, a government relations professional from Silver Spring, Maryland (lost to Basile in a tiebreaker).Colleen Matthews, a speech-language pathologist from Portland, Oregon (lost to Harmeyer).Alex Michev, an attorney from Richmond, Virginia (lost to David Erb).Steve Miller, a retired medical transcriptionist from Eugene, Oregon (lost to Amar Kakirde).Gino Montoya, an attorney from Albuquerque, N.M. (lost to five-day champ Mark Fitzpatrick).Josh Moss, a new small business owner from Boston, Massachusetts.Ferdinand Percentie, a day trader from Altamonte Springs, Florida.Tekla Sauter, a nonprofit strategist from Chicago, Illinois (the Jessica Stephens of the season, she was sandwiched between Basile and Harmeyer).Kaitlin Tarr, an aspiring ceramicist from Denver, Colorado (lost to Harmeyer).Scott Tcheng, an E.R. doctor from San Francisco, California (lost to four-day champ Ryan Manton).Will Yancey, a lecturer of history from Banquette, Texas.
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As opposed to past years, the next Jeopardy! post-season will take place in the winter, but split Season 41’s contestant pool into two halves. This means that the remaining champions after the 2025 ToC will be in the 2026 ToC. This also means that the next group of deserving Second Chancers will be in the next postseason, with Monday, November 4’s episode being the cutoff.
What do you think of the Season 41 Second Chance Competition lineup? Let us know in the comments below!
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