Jeoparlore!: Four Champions Who Didn't Return the Next Episode
We're rewinding back in time to cover the four known instances in which a player did not return the next day after winning the previous game.
When Champions Don’t Return
In my nearly two decades of watching Jeopardy!, I’ve become very enchanted with some of the rare phenomena surrounding this show. Perhaps one of the rarest occurrences in the show’s history is when a champion doesn’t immediately return after winning at least one game. I’m not referring to when a player would win 5 games and retire undefeated, or when a player gets brought back due to a faulty clue that affects the outcome of the game. Rather, I’m referring to when a player runs into an unavoidable circumstance that prevents them from being able to play their following game. As of current-day knowledge, there are only four known instances of this occurring.
Priscilla Ball (2009)
The earliest known instance of a champion not returning to defend comes from season 25’s Priscilla Ball, a federal contractor at the time living in Montgomery Village, Maryland. She first appeared on January 16th, 2009 against challenger Fayaz Kabani and 1-time champion Meagan Grote. It was a competitive game between all three, with each player reaching five-figure totals before Final Jeopardy!: $10,400 for Meagan, $12,600 for Fayaz, and $19,000 for Priscilla. With these totals, Priscilla technically had a crush game, meaning that a minimum cover bet would still put her ahead of second place even if wrong, so long as the other players don’t answer correctly.
Surely enough all three players were wrong, with Priscilla dropping $6,201 (the minimum cover bet) to finish the game with $12,799. She was then scheduled to return on the following Monday, January 19th, 2009. However, to the surprise of a fair amount of audience viewers, three new players were introduced, including 5-time champion and final 2009 Tournament of Champions qualifier Matt Kohlshedt.
This was pointed out by then-host Alex Trebek at the beginning of the episode: “No, there’s nothing wrong with your set or with the introductions. Normally the third player introduced is the returning champion, but the lady who became champ on Friday—Priscilla Ball— was taken ill and unable to compete today. She will come back later on in our season as a returning co-champion.”
She then returned on April 9th, 2009, defending against 1-time champion Jeff Mangum (no, not the Neutral Milk Hotel singer) and Rick Robbins. Interestingly, Priscilla was actually not introduced as a returning co-champion at the time, unlike the other three players that’ll be mentioned here. Priscilla was on top of her game, garnering 27 correct responses before Final Jeopardy!, and holding a lead with $18,800 vs. $16,200 for Jeff and $3,600 for Rick.
Rick and Priscilla were correct with Priscilla adding $13,601 to win with $32,401 for a 2-day total of $45,200. Her 2-day total was actually shown at the end of the episode, despite her initial winnings not being shown in the intro. She finished in second place the next day, picking up an extra $2,000. James Hoist became champion, winning $24,801 that episode but finishing second the next day.
Claudia Corriere (2015)
On December 18th, 2015, returning champion Claudia Corriere, a church musician and homemaker from Kennsaw, Georgia at the time, appeared at the champion’s podium to defend her title against challengers Julie Graves and Kiyana Holderbaum. She had won $7,800 in her previous game and went into Final Jeopardy! with $16,200, compared to $14,300 for Julie and $6,400 for Kiyana. All three players were correct, with Claudia only adding $5,000 out of a possible $12,401 needed to fulfill a minimum cover bet. Despite this, her two opponents didn’t wager enough for it to matter, and she ended the episode as a 2-day champion with a total of $29,000.
Following that week’s taping, according to an article by Andy Saunders of The Jeopardy! Fan, Alex Trebek couldn’t fulfill a week’s worth of tapings on the next taping day because he needed to get knee surgery. In the midst of this taping delay, Claudia had received a job offer that she felt obligated to effectuate. Because of this, three new players appeared Monday and Alex Trebek had to use a cane to help with mobility, which also prevented him from walking out during his introduction.
Claudia wound up returning on January 18th, 2016 to defend against returning co-champion Mike Drummond and challenger Randi Kristensen. She was introduced as a returning co-champion with $29,000, a rarity in itself in a Jeopardy! world that no longer allowed ties, following the introduction of tiebreakers in regular games the previous season.
Alex Trebek pointed this out in his introduction: “Two familiar faces, as you noticed in our introductions. Mike became the champion on Friday last. Claudia was the champion with us about four weeks ago, but she couldn't come back to defend because she got a good-paying job, and we didn't wanna stand in the way of that. So she returns today. Randi is the newcomer. She's the inexperienced one. But she did very well on her test, and so we're not worried about you.”
The game was somehow even more intense and competitive between the two champions than it was between Jeff Mangum and Priscilla Ball, as both players were neck-and-neck tied going into Final Jeopardy! at $13,800, with Randi in third place with $6,000. Now despite Randi’s distant third placement, she was actually in a pretty unique position here to win.
When two players (and in much rarer instances, three) are tied before Final Jeopardy!, the standard protocol that the players follow is going all-in and answering correctly, in hopes that the other player wagers less. If they were to miss, however, both players would lose all their money, leaving the other player wide open to winning. The most infamous instance of this occurring is when Manny Abell won with $1, following a triple stumper.
However… Randi chose to risk it all. She answered incorrectly, leaving her with $0. Claudia and Mike… also answered incorrectly… and wagered everything. In a shocking conclusion, the amount of returning champions went from two to zero, a situation that I doubt will ever be replicated. It was the fourth regular game in syndicated history to have no winner.
Zach Newkirk (2020)
From June 9th through June 12th, 2020, Zach Newkirk was on a tear, winning four straight games in a row for a total of $85,669. His 4th victory allowed for him to be eligible for the 29th Tournament of Champions (2021), with a guaranteed spot if he ended up winning his 5th game the following Monday. However, upon his awaited return for his 5th game, the COVID-19 pandemic had struck the United States, hitting its peak during March of 2020, which is when these four episodes were taped. As a result, season 36 was ended early and traveling restrictions were put into place, allowing for only California residents to compete on Jeopardy! for an extended period of time.
Because of the unprecedented lockdown, Zach’s streak was put on hold for several months, with a lot of uncertainty around his position in the Tournament of Champions, as he was eventually ranked 16th for the season upon Brayden Smith’s 5th win, one spot below the 15 spots available. Just 20 days before Zach’s long-awaited return, the final game hosted by Alex Trebek aired on January 8th, 2021, originally slotted to air on Christmas Day of 2020.
In the immediate episode after Trebek’s tragic passing, Ken Jennings was brought in as a guest host, long before being announced as an official co-host of the show in July of 2022, along with Mayim Bialik. By the time Zach returned to the show, he was slotted in between challenger Jill Tucker and 7-time champion Brian Chang. Before the episode started, the 2021 Tournament of Champions hadn’t been announced yet, and Brian hadn’t been officially added to the tracker yet.
The match lived up to being the clash of the titans that it was hyped up to be, with Jill also posing as a credible threat to both players and their streaks. Zach had the advantage though, picking up both Daily Doubles in the second round and racking up $23,600 before Final Jeopardy!, compared to $12,600 for Brian and $10,600 for Jill. In the final round, all three players were correct with Jill adding $10,500 for $21,100, Brian adding $11,001 for $23,601, and Zach adding $1,601 to win with $25,201.
Following Zach’s win, he had a 5-day total of $110,870, making him an automatic qualifier for the Tournament of Champions. During his victory, Ken Jennings also announced that the roster for the 2021 Tournament of Champions “has already been finalized” and that Brian and Zach have both become the first qualifiers for the 2022 Tournament of Champions. After his 5th win, Zach won one more game for a 6-day total of $124,871 before losing his 7th game to Steve Crupi on February 1st. Him and Brian were both eliminated in the TOC quarterfinals, receiving $5,000 each.
Ben Chan (2023)
The most recent and final incident where a contestant did not return was this year, when Ben Chan was unable to return to the show due to receiving a positive COVID-19 test after his third win. Even though “it was a very mild case,” he couldn’t risk putting his opponents in any more jeopardy than they were already in. In his first three games, aired from April 12th through April 14th, Ben won $69,001 with each game being a runaway before Final Jeopardy!, meaning that he had a total in each game so insurmountable that the player in second place couldn’t surpass him, even with an all-in wager.
While he was away from the show, another multi-day champion broke through onto the scene. Hannah Wilson, a data scientist from Chicago, IL, racked up some big wins in 8 games, picking up $229,801 and becoming one of the top 50 highest-earning players in Jeopardy! history. She had already qualified for the 2023 Tournament of Champions and by May 15th, she was beginning to look like a viable candidate in becoming the next player to win at least 10 games. Ben was set to return that day and many viewers were fearing for him, mirroring the situation between Zach Newkirk and Brian Chang.
Despite the fearsome reputation Hannah had built by this point, Ben was not at all fazed by her in his return on May 15th, 2023, blowing out Hannah and challenger Wendy Swanson before Final Jeopardy! with the help of all three Daily Doubles, in which he gained a combined $13,000. He had a stunning lead with $41,000, compared to $6,800 for Hannah and $4,400 for Wendy, also extending his streak of runaway games. All three players were correct in Final Jeopardy!, with Wendy adding $4,200 for $8,600, Hannah adding $6,799 for $13,599, and Ben adding a whopping $19,000 to win with $60,000, the second-highest earning total of the season.
With 4 wins and $129,001, Ben became eligible for the 2023 Tournament of Champions. However he didn’t stop there, as he won his next game, in yet another runaway, with $27,999. This made him the first player to win his first five games in runaways since 2001. He closed out the week with three more runaway victories, marking the longest streak of runaway games by a contestant starting with their debut game. He won his 9th game in a runaway, totaling $252,600 in all-time winnings for him, before unexpectedly losing his 10th game in his very first non-runaway.
Despite the sudden loss, he has the highest runaway rate (90%) of all players in regular gameplay, following the lifting of the 5-day limit, including all-time greats such as James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings, Amy Schneider, and Matt Amodio. Along with Hannah, he will return this fall for the 2023 Tournament of Champions, barring any unavoidable circumstances.