After weeks of twists and turns, Jeopardy! has finally crowned the winner of the 2024 Tournament of Champions.
Yogesh Raut towered above the competition throughout the finals, and his third victory allowed him to take the overall win.
Tuesday’s shocking episode featured the power going back and forth between him and Troy Meyer.
Ben Chan, who turned in another strong showing throughout the Tournament of Champions, struggled to keep up the pace.
Ultimately, Raut’s win came after he pulled ahead of Meyer when his opponent got the answer wrong at the start of Final Jeopardy!
Raut’s win secured him a healthy $250,000 prize and an entry in the upcoming Jeopardy! Masters tournament.
Changes are on the horizon for Jeopardy!
Yes, the show is all about tournaments these days and recycling competitors, but that will change very soon.
Raut, Chan, and Meyer recently felt the ire of Taylor Swift fans when they missed a significant clue.
Raut won three games during his initial appearances on the show, so it was inevitable that he would be one to beat during the tournament.
But the Tournament of Champions has featured many surprises, including Juveria Zaheer’s stunning loss and Celebrity Jeopardy! star Ike Barinholtz joining the competition.
It’s been a lot, and while fans will finally get some new faces next month, we’re getting another tournament before that.
The first-ever invitational tournament is coming up next
The first-ever invitational tournament is now underway.
The competition was a last-minute decision from producers due to the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. We haven’t had new faces on the show for a long time, but it’s because new faces deserve new clues.
The cast for the invitational tournament includes Andrew He, Amy Schneider, Sam Buttrey, Brandon Blackwell, Colby Burnett, Lily Chin, Arthur Chu, Leonard Cooper, Celeste DiNucci, Chuck Forrest, Dhruv Gaur, Victoria Groce, and Ben Ingram.
Matt Jackson, Alex Jacob, Mackenzie Jones, Sam Kavanaugh, Larissa Kelly, Alan Lin, David Madden, Pam Mueller, Terry O’Shea, Dan Pawson, Jennifer Quail, Amy Schneider, Monica Thieu, and Jason Zuffranieri round out the cast.
Jeopardy! has been in a rut
It has been trying for some fans with so many faces returning over the last few months because there’s nothing quite like the buzz of not knowing the background of competitors and how they play the game.
That’s been missing from Jeopardy! in recent months, so the sooner we return to that, the better.
We’d love it if the show kept returning players to the primetime editions because bringing these big names back should be more of an event.