Jeoparlore!: The Seven Tournament of Champions Players Who Never Were
Seven former Jeopardy! players who qualified or would have qualified for their respective Tournament of Champions years in regular circumstances but didn't appear, including current host Ken Jennings.
Preparing for the 2024 Tournament of Champions
Yesterday, the 15th official qualifier for the 2024 Tournament of Champions was determined by the two-day final for the Diamonds group of Champions Wildcard. 3-time champion Emily Sands of Chanhassen, Minnesota emerged victorious with a 2-day total of $42,199 for a grand prize of $100,000. 2-time champion Aaron Craig of Toronto, Ontario finished in second with a 2-day total of $10,000 for the $50,000 prize. Second Chance champion Jilana Cotter of Dade City, Florida rallied strongly for an attempted comeback, but a series of bad luck involving wagering clues caused Jilana to finish with a 2-day total of $3,000, earning the $25,000 prize for third place. Emily’s win allowed her to become the second woman to qualify for the upcoming Tournament of Champions, following 8-time champion Hannah Wilson, and she currently ranks 73rd of all-time on the leaderboard.
2024 will mark as the 31st TOC of the syndicated era and the third tournament following Alex Trebek’s tenure as host.
At this point in game show history, most Jeopardy! games have been archived and every TOC game since the revival has been documented, along with the original runs of most of the qualifying players throughout the 40 seasons. While every participant and most of the alternates for these tournaments have been established, there is a small selection of high-caliber players who did well enough in their original runs to qualify for their respective tournament years, but were not there based on producer’s discretion or other outside factors. We are going to review all cases one by one, with all the possible context that’s available.
1.) Barbara Lowe (1986)
The first player on this list is perhaps the most infamous case of them all, Barbara Lowe Vollick (5x, $35,192), a resident of Anaheim, California at the time of taping. Her run began strongly, defeating 1986 TOC semifinalist Lionel Goldbart in his 5th game, with a runaway. Barbara went on to win four more games, retiring as a 5-time champion and granting her a spot in the next TOC… or so we all thought. The story of Barbara’s absence from the 1986 TOC, along with her games never being re-aired, is one that remained a mystery for over three decades. Even now, we still don’t exactly know the full story. However, tons of speculation has catapulted to the forefront ever since and now we have more information than we did before.
In February of 2020, a Reddit thread summarizing the conundrum that was Barbara Lowe’s Jeopardy! stint was created, including the recollection of events from former head writer and editorial associate producer Harry Eisenberg. Her mannerisms at the time were described by him as “rather strange” and she was also alleged to be very combative towards Alex Trebek and the judges, with one example being a ruling on a supposed mispronunciation of Leopold & Loeb (pronounced as “lee-b” by her). This interaction is confirmed to have happened.
Notably, Eisenberg overestimated the amount of money Lowe actually earned while on the show, asserting that she won $50,000 when in reality it was about $15,000 less. He also incorrectly stated the year in which she appeared, stating that she appeared in 1987 rather than 1986. Putting Eisenberg’s comments about Lowe’s personality aside, the supposed reason she was pulled from the TOC and future reruns, however, was implied to be a bit more sinister than that.
Along with Eisenberg’s excerpt, Alex Trebek passively mentioned her streak in a 1990 interview for the book he was promoting that year, The Jeopardy! Book. In line with some of Eisenberg’s claims, Alex put forward the statement that she had lied on her application and was a contestant on four different game shows under several different identities and Social Security numbers. Despite these damning accusations, there wasn’t much proof given to support these claims. If the info is true, the evidence hasn’t been provided sufficiently to this day.
After 35 years of secrecy surrounding her run, a collection of VHS tapes containing her full streak was finally given to the National Archives of Game Show History. Her 5-day total was revealed on the archive on December 15th, 2022 and the tapes were subsequently all viewed and entered by the archivists of the website. Complaints about her conduct were apparently exaggerated, according to the accounts of archivist Andy Saunders of The Jeopardy! Fan, as well as Adam Nedeff of NAGSH. With the supposed scandal surrounding these games coming off as hyperbolic, Claire McNear of The Ringer provided a full and detailed account of the lore surrounding Barbara Lowe, including a long statement from Lowe herself, on May 2nd, 2023.
The real kicker for what may have caused the fallout between Lowe and the producers at Jeopardy! was an incident in her third game. According to Lowe’s account, she developed a bad case of gastroenteritis, and it turned out to be such an inconvenience that production for the episode was halted completely. Alex Trebek was seemingly furious, scolding Lowe for “costing the show time and money.” Following her tense but ecstatic fifth victory, Trebek gave Lowe a congratulatory hug as she sobbed with joy and relief. She had won just over $35,000 and was given a bid for the 1986 TOC.
After her run aired, Lowe claimed that a check wasn’t given to her for some time. According to her, this was a result of the show choosing to withhold her winnings for “costing the show money” during the show’s pause of production. This resulted in her filing a lawsuit, in which she compromised half of her winnings with the show keeping the rest of it. By her account, she only wound up with about $5,000, despite Harry Eisenberg claiming that she got the “full 50 grand,” a winning total which never existed.
Overall, this is probably the most convoluted story to talk about on this list since there are so many questions that still haven’t been answered. Although it has been proven that she had a 1981 appearance on Bullseye, her other alleged game show appearances aren’t currently known. The only other confirmed appearances were her prior appearances from the 1970s (Wheel of Fortune in ‘76 and It’s Anybody’s Guess in ‘77), which she seemed to be transparent about on her application. Those previous appearances wouldn’t have affected her eligibility. Some say that sexism and misogyny may have been a factor in the show’s treatment of Lowe, including The Jeopardy! Fan.
Many fans believe she should be given the option of playing in the inaugural Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament (JIT) to compensate for everything that happened. It may be too late for a TOC appearance, but with the current info that’s available, there doesn’t appear to be much justification for her omittance. This doesn’t necessarily make Lowe’s side of the situation factual, but a lot of Trebek and Eisenberg’s claims aren’t particularly substantiated and a couple of details are very easy to verify as incorrect, such as the money she won and the date of her appearances. On top of all of this, her return would be a very interesting promotional appearance for the show to advertise in all of its capitalistic glory. To my knowledge, Sony and Jeopardy! Productions have not commented on the situation. As it stands, Barbara Lowe is among a very small number of undefeated players in Jeopardy! history.
2.) Ramsey Campbell (2003)
This might be the most obscure addition to this list for people reading and there are a good deal of reasons for that. In reality, the run of Newport Beach, CA resident Ramsey Campbell is likened more to being an edge case of some sorts rather than an actual snub. For context, we’re going to have to go over the TOC qualifying periods for both 2001 and 2003. Campbell’s run took place at the bookend of the 2001 qualifying period and he instantly played like a TOC-caliber player, winning $20,000 in his first game (equivalent to $40,000 in current Jeopardy! values) and three more games for a 4-day total of $49,201.
In his fifth and final game, which notoriously took place on September 11th, 2001, a series of bad luck on Daily Doubles proved to be costly for him, as he finished in second place after entering Final Jeopardy! in a hotly-contested third place. Despite this disappointing finish to his streak, Alex Trebek remarked before walking over to the contestants for his traditional handshake: “Ramsey, we might see you in our Tournament of Champions. That's an impressive score, $49,000.” So what happened, exactly? How come he wasn’t there?
On the surface, it seems pretty clear as to why Ramsey wasn’t invited to the 2001 TOC: he simply lost his fifth game. There were also other 4-time champions from that season ranked ahead of him, such as Jason Parker (4x, $59,800). Notably, this was the final TOC with the old first-round values from $100 to $500 in tact, coupled with the fact that the 5-day limit was still set in stone. However, you’ll also notice that there are a couple of names in pink: Alan Bailey and Mark Dawson. Following Kevin Keach’s 5-day streak in which he became the 15th qualifier for 2001, Alan Bailey became the next 5-time champion followed by Mark Dawson a couple of months later.
Due to a full lineup already being established for the 2001 tournament, Bailey and Dawson were invited to the 2001 TOC as alternates in case one or two of the other players couldn’t perform, with two guaranteed spots in the 2003 TOC in case they weren’t able to play. The 2001 TOC ended up going exactly as planned, with all-time money winner Brad Rutter taking the grand prize of $100,000.
For every TOC, there is a cut-off when it comes to contestants who qualify for the tournament. During the first ten seasons, the cut-off was always on the last episode of each season. This tradition changed during the beginning of season 11, when Steve Chernicoff finished his 5-day run as one of the biggest winners on the show at the time. From then onward, people were eligible for the earliest Tournament of Champions as long as their run ended before the upcoming tournament began. This qualification standard seemed to apply to the game before the 2001 TOC as well, even with the rare surplus of 5-time champions from the season in mind.
While Bailey and Dawson’s runs took place before the qualification period for 2003, TPTB followed through on their promise of giving them spots in the 2003 TOC. The latter player of the two ended up winning the tournament and the $250,000 grand prize. Regardless of this development, the qualification window for 2003 was not officially extended to include Ramsey Campbell, who would have qualified for the 2003 TOC upon uniformity of those who played with doubled clue values. Had this window been extended, it also would have made Rod Sanders the technical alternate, rather than actual TOC participant Kathy Cassity. While it’s a bit of a debate on whether it was a genuine snub or not, I’m willing to bet Campbell would have made it pretty far into the tournament if he had been given the privilege of participation.
3.) Ken Jennings (2006)
To casual fans: yes, you read that correctly. Despite having both the longest streak and the most money won in regular play, Salt Lake City, UT native Ken Jennings never formally participated in a regular Tournament of Champions. Ken’s run at the time was so unprecedented that the showrunners held the 2004 TOC in the midst of his run, airing the games once his 48th game was publicized. Upon his shocking defeat against Nancy Zerg on November 30th, 2004, the eligibility term for the 2006 season began.
In between qualifying seasons, there was a much bigger event that took place in lieu of Jennings’ record-breaking run, the 2005 Ultimate Tournament of Champions. Inspired by the magnitude of his streak, TPTB saw it fit to launch a 145-player tournament of the best possible champions from the previous two decades that they could find, including Ken Jennings himself. In sacrifice of a spot in the 2006 TOC, Jennings was given a bye into the fifth and final round of the tournament, where he faced off against previous all-time money winner Brad Rutter and previous one-day record holder Jerome Vered.
With this automatic place in the finals, Jennings was guaranteed at least $250,000, the same prize as the TOC grand prize. Jennings finished in second place behind Rutter to earn $500,000, with Vered finishing in third. Along with the $2,000,000 top prize, Rutter earned $115,000 from the earlier rounds for a total of $2,115,000, surpassing Ken Jennings in all-time winnings. Vered earned $139,801 from previous rounds to add to his third place prize for a total of $389,801 from the tournament.
Jennings actually did have the honor of facing off against both the winners of the 2004 and 2006 TOCs, Russ Schumacher and Michael Falk respectively, in the 2014 Battle of the Decades. In the preliminaries, Ken Jennings faced off against Michael Falk and 2004 TOC semifinalist Vinita Kailasanath. He emerged as the winner in a complete blowout over the other two. Jennings later went on to face Schumacher in the semifinals, along with 1986 TOC winner Chuck Forrest. While Forrest kept it extremely competitive, nearly dethroning Jennings in a big upset, Schumacher never got much mojo going throughout the game and was soundly defeated.
The results of those games arguably put the “what if” questions surrounding the 2004 and 2006 TOCs to rest. Jennings finished in second place to Rutter yet again in the finals of the same tournament, as well as the 2019 All-Star Games, before finally defeating him and James Holzhauer in the 2020 Greatest of All Time tournament. As of now, Jennings is presumably retired as a player and ranked #2 in all-time earnings between Rutter and Holzhauer. Jennings is currently one of the permanent hosts of Jeopardy! alongside Big Bang Theory actress Mayim Bialik.
4.) Jerry Slowik (2014)
CONTENT WARNING: This passage will contain elaborate details surrounding child sexual abuse. If this topic triggers you, I’d suggest skipping to the next entry on this list.
In what very possibly may be the darkest story in modern Jeopardy! history, let alone this list, is the scandalous chapter of 5-time champion Jerry Slowik from Arlington Heights, IL. A while after earning $121,800 following his fifth win, the 30th season of Jeopardy! finished with one of the strongest fields of fifteen Jeopardy! players in the show’s history. With a perfect Final Jeopardy! record, four out of six runaways, and a Coryat average of just over $18,000, Slowik was widely considered to be a favorite to win the 2014 Tournament of Champions, even with the intimidating presence of super-champions Julia Collins and Arthur Chu. But only several months after his game show appearance, Slowik got caught up in an incident that nobody had predicted or expected out of him.
On March 21st, 2014 at around 7:45 PM, the police were called on Slowik when he was found in a 2007 Hummer, suspiciously parked in a cul-de-sac. According to Chief Steven Hurley, officers observed him in a car with an underage girl, both partially clothed. They had met a week beforehand when Slowik was working security at a shopping center and they had arranged to meet up for a movie. The teenage girl went there with a friend, who later left her with Slowik. She then called her mom asking for a ride home and informing her that she had been sexually assaulted. The girl and her mom sought out the police department to press charges the following day.
Slowik was taken into custody a week later and interviewed about the incident. A felony charge against him was filed on April 16th and his first court date was set to be in October 2014, the month following the taping of the 2014 TOC. The story broke into the mainstream news in late August and early September, just about a month before the taping for the TOC. The matter of the case wound up being unresolved during the October hearing and the two-day trial was moved by Judge David Reddy to February 9-10, 2015. On February 13th, 2015, Jerry Slowik pleaded guilty to the felony he was charged with and he was sentenced to six months of jail time with work release privileges, as well as five years of probation and life registration on the Wisconsin sex offender registry. While Slowik isn’t the only multi-day champion to be reprimanded for committing a felony, his story is among one of the most disturbing crime stories in game show history.
5.) Cindy Stowell (2017)
On August 31st, 2016, Austin, TX native Cindy Stowell walked into the Sony Pictures Studios to play her first game against 7-time champion Tim Aten. With a rewarding $4,000 Daily Double and a lone solve in Final Jeopardy!, Stowell defeated Aten with $22,801 in earnings. Despite some tougher games along the rest of her run, Stowell racked up over $100,000 in earnings with an 86% Final Jeopardy! solve rate and an accuracy rate of 91%. While Trebek and the other players knew that she was a strong player upon observation, they didn’t know that she was dealing with adversity far greater than they could imagine.
After qualifying for the show, Stowell was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer and recorded her seven games during Stage IV. On December 5th, 2016, eight days before her first show was set to air, Stowell passed away at the young age of 41. Due to her prognosis stating that she had only months to live, Stowell was provided a DVD copy containing three of her episodes so that she could view them in case she succumbed to the disease before the show airings.
In her post-game interview, Cindy Stowell revealed that she was indeed dying of terminal colon cancer and was planning to donate all the money she won to cancer research, so that others wouldn’t have to suffer the same fate that she did. According to their 2017 blog, Cindy funded her earnings towards the Cancer Research Institute. Alex Trebek went on to announce during the 2017 TOC that the show would be donating $10,000 to the same institute, equivalent to the prize for semifinalists. All fifteen contestants wore a ribbon to signify colon cancer awareness in her memory, as she would have otherwise played the TOC for that year.
6.) Larry Martin (2019)
Cancer is one of the most brutal diseases in the world, and it unfortunately didn’t stop at Cindy Stowell. On January 25th, 2019, merely months after his $100,000 victory in the 2018 Teachers Tournament, Larry Martin from Kansas City, MO unexpectedly passed away after a bout with pancreatic cancer. The elementary school teacher was widely beloved by teachers, parents, and students alike, and a packed gymnasium viewed all of his tournament games in May of 2018 when they first aired. One year following his winning moment, people were spread throughout the same gymnasium to celebrate his life, accomplishments, and impact on the entire school. Students also signed and shared their favorite memories involving Mr. Martin on a school banner that same day. Larry Martin was 61 years old.
As a result of Martin’s tragic passing, the vacant spot for the 2019 TOC was given to 3-time champion Emma Boettcher under the discretion of the showrunners, in a nod to her defeat of James Holzhauer. This decision was slightly controversial at the time, for there were seven 4-time champions ranked ahead of her who people felt were unfairly leapt over. Despite this, Boettcher won both of her quarterfinal and semifinal matches, giving the showrunners and viewing audience the rematch that they wanted.
James Holzhauer won the tournament for the $250,000 grand prize, with Boettcher claiming $100,000 for second place, and 2019 Teachers Tournament winner Francois Barcomb attaining $50,000 for third place. Ryan Bilger, who won four games one month after Boettcher’s fourth and final regular game, was given the alternate position for the 2019 TOC. Since all fifteen players performed as planned, Bilger returned for the 2021 TOC in a situation that almost mirrored the Dawson/Bailey arrangement for the 2003 TOC.
The fifteen contestants wore a purple ribbon during the taping of the 2019 TOC to not only honor Martin’s memory and gameplay, but to also show support for longtime host Alex Trebek, who announced his Stage IV pancreatic cancer diagnosis on March 6th, 2019. The first ever Jeopardy! host, Art Fleming, succumbed to the same disease on April 25th, 1995 at the age of 70. With a longstanding passion for his occupation, as well as a stubbornly optimistic desire to defeat the disease that took Fleming and Martin away from us, Trebek fought long and hard against pancreatic cancer to the point of nearly reaching remission.
Trebek’s battle against cancer was so elongated that he was able to continue hosting for the entire 2021 TOC qualification period, in what would eventually be labeled the final TOC class of contestants to play under Alex Trebek’s tenure. On November 8th, 2020, Alex Trebek passed away peacefully in his sleep at the age of 80. His final shows aired for the next two months, with Brayden Smith’s losing game being the official cutoff for the 2021 TOC window.
7.) Brayden Smith (2021)
From December 15th to December 17th, 2020, Las Vegas, NV resident Brayden Smith’s first three games aired on television. He was an immediate crowd favorite, catching all three Daily Doubles and answering them correctly in each game and picking up $93,800 in winnings. In his fourth game, he ran into a challenging competitor in Amanda Barkley-Levenson but was able to shake her off with a small win of $3,999. After his 4th game aired, Jeopardy! made the decision to air two weeks worth of “best of Alex Trebek” episodes before going forward with Trebek’s final week of episodes. The choice was made to honor his memory and to avoid pre-emptions on Christmas Day, which would have been the airdate of the final episode under Trebek’s hosting otherwise.
Smith’s fifth and sixth games were taped on October 26th, 2020, the second-to-last taping day that Trebek hosted before his passing nearly two weeks later. While he was able to wrestle off another tough challenger in David Kaye for a win of $17,999, he unfortunately couldn’t get a good flow going in his sixth game. He went home with five wins and $115,798 + $2,000 for second place, becoming the final 5-time champion under Alex Trebek’s hosting and the last player to qualify for the 2021 TOC.
In perhaps the most heartbreaking and shocking development out of any entry on this list, Brayden Smith passed away exactly one month after his final show aired. He was 24 years old. He had spent several days at a Southern Nevada hospital before he died from surgery complications. “The outpouring of love for Brayden is overwhelming,” tweeted Debbie Smith. “We can’t express how much your beautiful comments are comforting us during this painfully sad time. Thank you.” Following Smith’s greatly untimely death, Steve Moulds was the player next in line for the 2021 TOC due to Zach Newkirk’s run being delayed by COVID-19 restrictions until after Trebek’s passing. The COVID-19 pandemic also resulted in there being two alternates for the tournament, rather than just one.
During the last quarterfinal game of the 2021 TOC, guest host and 2017 TOC winner Buzzy Cohen took a moment to remember him in a statement before the commercial break: “You've now met all 15 of the players who qualified for the TOC. Well, almost all. Brayden Smith, the incredible young man who won five shows and $115,000 in January, passed away earlier this year. Brayden's family has established a fund in his name and Jeopardy! will be donating to that fund. We want to express our best wishes and condolences to his family.”
On January 10th, 2022, Brayden Smith’s parents filed a lawsuit against the Nevada hospital in Clark County District Court, alleging negligence and medical malpractice. According to the suit, doctors and nursing staff did not provide Brayden the blood thinners necessary to avert blood clots following the removal of his colon. Dr. Keith Beiermeister asserted in the lawsuit that Brayden’s death was a consequence of the Nevada hospital’s “breach of the standard of care.” At the time of writing this article, the status of the lawsuit is currently unknown.
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