Who Will Advance to the Tournament of Champions?

On Thursday’s (January 23) new episode of Jeopardy! three recently-crowned champions faced off for the opportunity to advance to the Tournament of Champions — namely, Will Yancey, Drew Goins, and Mehal Shah — in a Wildcard Finals match that was surprisingly marked with some near-miss answers and big backslides.

Yancey in particular had a tough night. He fell victim to this game’s apparent trend of adding S’s to an answer (on a Daily Double, no less), and only got one of the three DDs he found right. Worse, he also bet a good bit on Final Jeopardy but was the only one to get it wrong. (Instead of knowing that Ural was the river in the Orenburg Oblast that connects Asia and Europe, he guessed the Volga.) Despite so many incorrect answers, though, he was still very much in it until the last question, which landed him at a final total of $5,600. 

Shah, however, earned a big lead on night one by making a risky wager in Final Jeopardy, adding $12,000 to his $15,200 for a one-day total of $27,200. Goins, meanwhile, finished in second with $17,600 (but won the hearts of fans with his little dance move during the deliberation music).

Some commenters on Reddit were stunned by Yancey’s performance — “Not like Will to miss so many,” one fan wrote — but another warned that the second day could change everything for any of the three players.

“Between three players who have had ample time to get used to buzzing in at the right time, Drew got the short end of the stick, but the FJ get and his past dominant games could indicate a big comeback tomorrow. Will’s not out of this either: if he was able to find all three DDs in this game, it’s certainly not impossible that he could repeat that in game two,” they wrote. “Anything could happen tomorrow, basically!”

The Jeopardy! Wildcard Finals continue on Friday with the same three contestants, who are each vying for a spot in the ToC. (Note: There are two Wilcard entries to that tournament, after Lisa Ann Walter became unavailable for the ToC, but the players reportedly only knew of one at the time of the game’s taping, according to The Jeopardy Fan.) 

Jeopardy!, weeknights, check local listings