‘Jeopardy!’ Shock as Another Fan Favorite Is Knocked Out of ‘Heartbreaking’ TOC

Martin Holmes March 1, 2024, 7:28 am

Jeopardy!‘s Tournament of Champions is turning into the Tournament of Death as it continues to deliver devastating results. Another fan-favorite front-runner was knocked out of the competition on Thursday night (February 29).

Juveria Zaheer, a psychiatrist from Whitby, Ontario, Canada, won fans over during her impressive underdog run through the Season 40 tournaments. Having lost to super-champ Hannah Wilson during her original Season 39 game, Zaheer returned to the Alex Trebek stage, where she won both the Second Chance and Champions Wildcard tournaments.

Having earned her TOC spot in dominant fashion, fans had high hopes for Zaheer ahead of Thursday’s episode. She faced off in a tense showdown with Kevin Belle, a trail planner from Silver Spring, Maryland, and Luigi de Guzman, an attorney from Arlington, Virginia.

Zaheer got out to an early lead, picking up right where she left off in the Wildcard by being super quick on the buzzer. After the first round, she’d answered 15 clues correctly and amassed $11,400, gaining a strong lead over Belle ($2,200) and Guzman ($1,600).

However, the competition heated up in Double Jeopardy, as Guzman found both Daily Doubles and doubled up on both of them to take a slim lead. Undeterred, Zaheer fired back and regained a slight lead of $1,400 heading into Final Jeopardy.

The scores going into Final Jeopardy stood at Zaheer on $23,400, Guzman on $22,000, and Belle on $5,800.

Host Ken Jennings read out the final clue, “The name of this service that began Nov. 14, 1994 echoes the Étoile du Nord, which linked Paris, Brussels & Amsterdam from 1927.”

Only Guzman came up with the correct response (“What is Eurostar?”), and added $21,999 to give him an episode-winning total of $43,999. This brought an end to the tournament for Zaheer despite putting up an admirable and fierce performance.

“This tournament has been heartbreaking so far tbh. Lots of drama this year!” one Jeopardy! Reddit user wrote, referring to the losses of front-runners Cris Pannullo, Hannah Wilson, and now, Zaheer.

“Juveria will always be one of my favorite contestants of all time. She can be proud of how she played today, let alone the tourneys she won. I hope she returns to the Alex Trebek stage again someday,” said another.

“This is like an All Star season of Reality Tv where all of the big names and favorites are going out early (i.e Survivor All Stars, Big Brother All Stars) and the people who do make it far don’t have as big of a following or weren’t the bigger names,” wrote another commenter.

Jeopardy, Inc!

“After watching second chance I was all in on Juveria. Bummed to see her lose but I really liked all three contestants so can’t be mad. Still thought she had a shot to go far,” added another.

Another wrote, “A heartbreaker for me as a huge Juveria fan, but certainly can’t take anything away from Luigi!”

Zaheer herself took to Reddit to comment on her time on the show, writing, “It’s midnight for Cinderella, but every moment of this experience has been the most unexpected gift of my life. So grateful to everyone on the Jeopardy! team who saw something in me that I couldn’t even see in myself.”

'Jeopardy!' Fans React After Another Shocking Tournament of Champions Exit

“Such an honour to share a stage with two incredible people and even better friends,” she continued. “Kevin was such a support through this process and is my family now. Luigi was the first person in the Jeopardy community who said, you’re really good – be brave and trust yourself. After our game, his parents came and found me to give me a hug. They are so gracious and generous and it showed me that Luigi comes by his kindness honestly.”

Guzman also commented, sharing, “When Juveria, Kevin, and I realized that we had been drawn against each other, I don’t think that I can describe the emotions in the green room. We each had to go to a different corner and collect ourselves. Not because we were nervous to get on stage, but because we were about to get on stage with competitors that have become our good friends.”

He added, “When I told you all that the best part of being on Jeopardy is the friends that you get to make, I wasn’t kidding. I was on stage with two of my best Jeopardy friends, in front of a bunch of other Jeopardy friends in the audience, and more Jeopardy friends watching at home. I feel very blessed to have had that chance.”

Jeopardy!, Weekdays, check local listings