'Jeopardy!' creating new 'Second Chance Tournament'

"Jeopardy!" is adding a new tournament to a roster that includes the Tournament of Champions, Teachers Tournament and others, to give deserving runners-up another opportunity to compete.

Addressing "the criticism of the tournament structure, and specifically the fact that one of our four semifinalists will not advance to the final, I get it," wrote executive producer Michael Davies on the "Jeopardy!" website Wednesday. "It's an imperfect solution that resulted from necessary changes to the original tournament format and the fixed number of hours we were committed to deliver."

He then announced with a jocular casualness that the venerable TV quiz show "will invite the fourth place finisher back for our postseason Second Chance Tournament that will precede, and feed, at least one player into the Tournament of Champions" — adding, after a pause, "I may have just broken the Jeopardy!-verse."

Davies said he "started thinking about a Second Chance Tournament almost the day I started on 'Jeopardy!,' when Jessica Stephens beat Matt Amodio, but lost to Jonathan Fisher by just $401. I thought, 'Wow, wouldn't it be a cool idea to have a tournament where we bring excellent contestants like Jessica back?' "

"Love love LOVE this idea!!!" added Amy Schneider, who recently made show history as its highest-earning woman and highest-earning transgender contestant, and who displaced Amodio in second place for consecutive games won, with 40 to his 38. Fan-favorite Schneider announced Tuesday that she was leaving her longtime job as a software engineer in order to write a book, lecture and pursue other post-"Jeopardy!" opportunities.

Stephens, who competed against Amodio in October, tweeted, "One thing that is very exciting to me about the Second Chance Tournament is knowing before the cameras even start rolling how supportive Jeopardy! fans are!" All-time champion and interim co-host Ken Jennings tweeted that, "After almost two decades of people asking me about this … it's finally happening!"

Promising to follow up with criteria for invitation to the new tournament, Davies said the eligibility time frame "will be the same as for this year's ToC: We are looking at contestants who appeared on 'Jeopardy!' since the last Tournament of Champions who we believe deserve a second shot. I know there will be many contestants from previous years who will be howling at this point, and I do not rule out a future opportunity to compete again for some of you. But for now this is part of the postseason for this season."