Jeopardy!‘s Second Chance Tournament continues as returning players Josh Heit, Zoe Grobman, and Enzo Cunanan went head-to-head in the January 7 game.
And, according to one of these three players, this particular match has some interesting lore as they also address a major Daily Double fumble from the game. As viewers will recall, the final outcome of this game saw Enzo place in first, with Zoe not far behind in second, and Josh in third place, but perhaps the nerves of the day could have had something to do with this particular game as Zoe revealed via Reddit that this game filmed on Election Day 2024.
“These games taped on Election Day and the collective anxiety was certainly in the air,” Grobman wrote in the comments section of the episode’s Reddit thread. “In retrospect, I’m grateful for the legal requirement to have our phones off and away which allowed us to have as much semblance of normalcy as it is possible to have when you are taping Jeopardy! with a Rolling Stone photojournalist present,” she added.
Since I was 3 my dream in life was to appear on Jeopardy! and I recently achieved that goal. Tune in next Tuesday, 10/15 to see if I embarrassed myself on national television or not. Check your local listings to see where Jeopardy! airs in your town pic.twitter.com/X3Hb0UfhuU
— Zoe (@Theraquizt) October 8, 2024
A therapist hailing from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Zoe previously competed on an episode that aired in October 2024, during which her performance was strong enough to earn her a spot on Second Chance. Unfortunately, as mentioned, above, Zoe didn’t manage to win this match, one contributing factor was her fumble during the third Daily Double from the category, “Potent Quotables.”
The clue posed, “This pale dry sherry gets title billing in a Poe tale,” the corresponding, “What is amontillado?” was mispronounced in such a way that it cost Zoe $6,000. But she didn’t let that throw off her game.
“Josh and Enzo were both incredibly quick on the buzzer and were beating me out early on,” Zoe admitted in her comment. “I had a moment where I knew I had to redouble my focus to try to get in more.”
As for her Daily Double mispronunciation, she wrote, “I have had 2 months to sit with that Daily Double and have quite a lot I could say about it… so suffice it to say that I have some strong emotions about a mispronunciation costing me at least $12,000 and two more games of Jeopardy. That said I have no regrets about going big on that daily double. It was absolutely the right move to make against two buzzsaws and if I’d bet small I wouldn’t have won whether or not I remembered how to say Amontillado. Live by the DD, Die by the DD. (I’m sure I’m going to have at least one Smart Alec friend buy me a collection of Poe for my birthday in March),” she noted.
Following the Daily Double loss, Zoe noted, “I knew I was going to have an uphill battle to be in contention in FJ. I really laser-focused in on the buzzer lights and am proud of how much that helped. I was well aware that not only did I have to earn back a lot of money, but also I had to allow Josh to earn enough money so that Enzo would have to bet enough in FJ to put him below double my score if wrong in order for me to have any shot of winning.”
In the end, Zoe’s strategy worked heading into Final Jeopardy, which saw her enter the round with $6,600, Enzo with $15,600, and Josh with $9,600. Sadly for Zoe, Enzo also provided the correct Final Jeopardy response, meaning the bet that brought her final score to $12,001 wasn’t enough to outdo Enzo’s final score of $19,400.
The category for Final Jeopardy was “Facts About Countries,” with the clue reading, “It has 40,000 people & a workforce of 42,000, more than half commuting from nearby, including Vorarlberg state in a neighbor country.” The correct response was, “What is Liechtenstein?”
“When Josh missed FJ I had a shocked moment where I thought I might have somehow actually pulled this off. Unfortunately for me, Enzo managed to change his answer in time,” Zoe revealed.
“This was an amazingly even game with great performances by both Josh and Enzo,” Zoe complimented her fellow competitors. She also went on to give praise to the Jeopardy! staff “who made us feel so comfortable on an incredibly high-stress day.”
And although Zoe may not have moved forward in the competition, she wouldn’t deter anyone from chasing after their Jeopardy! dreams. “While it of course would have been lovely to get to call myself a Jeopardy! Champion, I’m still so grateful for the two experiences, I had, which is two more than most people get… We all root for each other,” she added and concluded that fans should “take the Jeopardy! Anytime Test and soon this could be you!”
