Are These Jeopardy! Players Winners Or Losers?

Last week I discovered that Jeopardy!, the TV game show, has a losers tournament. Of course, they don’t call it that. The official name is the Second Chance Tournament, but I am not pulling any punches–these are losers! I know. I have been there, I have done that.

As host Ken Jennings explains on each episode of the SCT, the show has contacted players who have previously appeared on Jeopardy! and finished second in their first and only game. These lucky losers are being invited to chance to play again, matched against two other “non-winners.”

We are now in the middle of a complex tournament schedule, which eventually will yield a grand champion. Give me a break. The winner of this tournament will be a champion as much as Suzette Charles was Miss America in 1984. You all remember Miss Charles, don’t you? She was the runner-up who was elevated to the Miss America Crown when the true winner, Vanessa Williams, was relieved of her duties after some mildly scandalous pictures appeared in Penthouse Magazine. Not quite the same for MIss Charles as having Bert Parks sing her down the aisle.

Are these second-chance players any good? Who can tell? The answers for which the contestants must provide the questions are softballs. In the real Tournament of Champions, a contestant might need to know what year Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony was first performed. In this tournament, all that the players might need to know about Herr Beethoven is his first name.

Do I sound a bit hostile, a tad bitter? Certainly, I do! I finished second in my one appearance on Jeopardy! too! And no one is inviting me back to take another shot at it. I will admit that in my game I was a rather distant second, thousands of dollars behind the winner, while these SCT invitees were narrowly defeated in their original contests. But perhaps that means they choked the first time around, playing like a quarterback throwing a last-minute pick-six interception instead of driving his team to the game-winning touchdown.

Hard feelings aside Sony Productions, if you ever throw a second chance tournament for former players who are now seniors, have slowed reflexes, and can’t quite see the game board, I’d appreciate a call. Just keep the questions easy. And don’t worry, I’ve kept my pictures out of Penthouse, scandalous or not.

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