I am a trivia nerd. I'm in Learned League. I am in more than one pub quiz group. I love Jeopardy. Jeopardy tournaments are fun. Seeing the best of the best in trivia battle it out over the course of days or weeks until a champion is crowned is exciting – up to a point. Thanks to the writers strike, Jeopardy, everyone's favorite quiz show, hasn't had a regular, non-tournament game since July.
When the Writers Guild of America went on strike, Jeopardy producers decided to continue the show – without writers. Numerous season 39 champions went on record that they would not participate in any tournament held during the strike. Producers delayed the season 39 Tournament of Champions and filmed new episodes using recycled or leftover material from previous seasons.
A seemingly never-ending series of tournaments followed – the Second Chance Tournament for season 37 contestants, the Champions Wildcard for seasons 37 and 38 contestants, the Second Chance Tournament for season 39, and the Season 39 Wildcard. The tournament-o-rama concluded with the Jeopardy Invitational Tournament, which I will not refer to as "JIT," no matter how much Ken Jennings would like me to. It was a lot. I am ready to see some new faces.
With her victory over fan favorites Amy Schneider and Andrew He, Victoria Groce, known as the Queen on the primetime trivia show The Chase, proved herself to be Jeopardy royalty and finally put an end to over seven months of tournaments. The returning champion, Lucas Partridge, who was on a three-day streak when we last saw him, now has the record for the longest reign on Jeopardy, a record likely to stand for a while, at least until the next strike.
