Danger! Fan sees major setback at this year’s Tournament of Champions

DANGER! Fans have expressed slight concerns to the board about the 2023 Tournament of Champions.

Just six contestants officially qualified midway through this season – and netizens also admitted the list isn’t teeming with diversity.

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Jeopardy!’s annual brain teaser – and for $250,000 – with winners from the previous season became a hot topic on Reddit this week.

In the middle of season 39, which will end in August – the tournament will be broadcast in September – a user started a thread expressing that the lineup looks a bit bare at the moment.

The Reddit user wrote: “So we’re about halfway through the season and only 6 people are eligible for the TOC so far.

“I know that there is still a long way to go and that there are still many candidates to be seen, but does that seem like little?”

“I think they need 21 candidates for the new format [from last year].

“(Assuming they do the same thing they did last year.) Will they be looking for triple winners to fill the list? Would it be by number of wins or dollars made?”

There aren’t even many three-pointers this season.”

‘SMALLER TOURNAMENT’

Other fans agreed that there’s no way the show can host a tournament that lasts that long or has that many star players.

When one user replied: “It doesn’t seem like much to me either. Also, it would be nice if a woman could qualify as a multi-day winner. At the moment it’s only men.”

A third defended, “You need to remember that the last Tournament of Champions spanned two seasons – ’37 and ’38,” allowing for more time between events to collect Superchamps.

As a fourth wrote, “I think you’d just have a smaller tournament.”

The 2022 tournament featured 21 titans including eventual winner and 40-day champion Amy Schneider, 38-time winner Matt Amodio and 23-time winner Mattea Roach, all of whom had more wins than any competitor since.

Of course, it’s worth noting that Season 37 and Season 38 combined produced the most Super Champions – or more than 10 game winners – than any other period in history.

But even if the game show were to let in a few 3-day winners – which used to be the threshold for qualification – there are two problems.

One is that there would not be any female contestants who would make it, as none have won that many this season.

The other is that this may seem unfair to 3-day champions from the past two years who have not been able to compete.

THE 2023 LINEUP IS TAKES SHAPE

Officially qualified so far are former poker ace Cris Pannullo with 21 wins, four-day winner Matthew Marcus, six-day winner Troy Meyer, fan favorite Ray Lalonde with 13 wins, five-day champion Luigi de Guzman and more Four-Day Champion and Priest David Sibley.

It takes four wins to qualify, but Jeopardy! notes that the mile marker is at the “producers’ sole discretion”.

The game show also announced this year’s Celebrity Jeopardy! Winner Ike Barehnholz has also accepted an invitation in an unprecedented move.

They also invited the divisive 3-day champion Yogesh Raut as he had such a high-scoring run, although – or perhaps even especially – after he blew up the show with all his worth on Facebook after broadcasting his run had blown up.

In addition, the winner of the High School Reunion Tournament, which will air over the next three weeks with Mayim Bialik, will also receive a ticket.

That’s nine participants in total – and if there are two from the new Second Chance tournament, that would be eleven.

The total number is still far from the 21 players of the previous year.

But it is a consolation that the ToC 2023 will not remain the only big winning tournament this year.

Ken Jennings also hosts 6 Legend Jeopardy! Master in prime time this spring.

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