December 25, 2024
Jeopardy!/Youtube
Zoe Grobman, a Philadelphia therapist, lost to a Penn student during her first 'Jeopardy!' appearance in October. She'll have another chance to play during the Second Chance competition, which premieres Dec. 30.
"Jeopardy!" contestant Zoe Grobman, a therapist from Philadelphia, was sent packing in her first show in October, when she lost to a local college student. But she'll soon get another shot at the trivia competition through the Second Chance Tournament.
The competition welcomes back promising players who went one-and-done – whether it was because they faced an unstoppable trivia whiz like Chris Pannullo or because of a simple slip-up – to "change their destinies" and compete for a spot in the next Tournament of Champions. The Second Chance Tournament will air weeknights at 7 p.m. on ABC from Monday, Dec. 30, through Friday, Jan. 10. It has not yet been revealed when Grobman's episode will air.
MORE: Test your local knowledge with this Philly-themed 'Jeopardy!' category
The field of competitors includes 18 contestants who have played since the last "Jeopardy!" Tournament of Champions in March. The top players in the tournament advance and compete in the Champions Wildcard Competition, playing for the chance to make it into the 2025 Tournament of Champions. The last Second Chance Tournament, which finished airing in January, ran for four weeks and sent four players to the Champions Wildcard Competition. Since there are two weeks of play this time around, there may be only two players moving on.
Grobman's original "Jeopardy!" appearance aired Oct. 15, but it was bumped to a later time slot due to the second Pennsylvania Senate debate between Bob Casey and Dave McCormick airing on 6ABC. In the episode, Grobman faced returning champion Eamonn Campbell, a lawyer from Vermont, and Rishabh Wuppalapati, a University of Pennsylvania sophomore from Illinois.
The game was pretty tight throughout, with Campbell and Wuppalapati trading leads. Grobman scored big with a Daily Double, and she entered the "Final Jeopardy!" round in second place with $11,100, just $4,500 off Wuppalapati's lead. She got the final question, in the category "Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speeches," correct, but so did Wuppalapati, who earned more cash and secured the win.
Grobman later shared her thoughts on the episode on Reddit and gave props to "genius" competitor Wuppalapati, whom she said went to the same high school as her although they never met before the show. She said she remembered seeing Campbell and Wuppalapati during practice rounds and thinking I "really didn't want to face" them. She also said she studied buzzer technique before playing, was "beating myself up" about missing a math clue, and that she almost thought she won the game.
"I'm not sure if it'll show up on screen but there was a brief moment before Rishabh's answer was revealed where I thought I might have actually done something incredible and pulled off a come from behind victory, but alas it was not to be," Grobman wrote.
After his Oct. 15 victory, Wuppalapati went on to win two more games. His three-day earnings totaled more than $55,000. Typically, the roster for the Tournament of Champions is selected based on who won the most games since the last tournament. Wuppalapati's three wins could be enough for an invite to the illustrious tournament, and if Grobman makes it through, the two Philly-connected players could have an epic rematch down the line.
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