‘Jeopardy!’: Juveria Zaheer Speaks Out After Wild ‘JIT’ Game

Brittany Sims February 27, 2025, 7:30 pm

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for the Thursday, February 27 episode of Jeopardy!]

A Jeopardy! player hopes that the audience at home and in the studio could feel the magic that she felt while playing. After the last quarterfinals of the Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament, Juveria Zaheer, Season 40 Second Chance and Champions Wildcard winner and 2024 Tournament of Champions quarterfinalist, spoke out about her time in the tournament.

Zaheer, from Whitby, Ontario, Canada, played against Seth Wilson, 12-game Jeopardy! winner, and Jackson Jones, 2019 Teen Tournament semifinalist and 2023 High School Reunion Tournament runner-up.

The game started off pretty equally as all three game show contestants correctly answered questions. However, Zaheer fell to last place when she bet it all on the first Daily Double. The crowd went wild when the psychiatrist found it, cheering and hollering in their seats. “The structure called this, after the old city of Tokyo, was built; over centuries it expanded greatly, then contracted,” the clue read.

Zaheer was close when she responded with, “What is Edo?” However, host Ken Jennings said that they were looking for the structure, Edo Castle. She bet $1,500, losing all of her money. Zaheer then guessed wrong on an “X Marks the Brand” question, putting her in the negative.

During the introductions, Jennings asked Wilson if he has stayed close to his all-star team since his time on Jeopardy! All-Stars. “I have. My dear friend and All-Stars teammate, Ben Ingram, got married a couple of years ago, and he invited me to come perform the ceremony, so I get to see him and be part of a special moment for him. It was really wonderful,” Wilson, an editor and adjunct professor, shared.

“That’s fantastic!” Jennings said. “He wanted his Jeopardy! career to be front and center at the wedding, no matter what his partner thought.”

This news comes just days after JIT contestant Roger Craig announced that he got married to another Jeopardy! player, Julia Collins.

By the end of the first round, Zaheer was in last place, despite answering the last handful of questions correctly, with $2,600. Wilson, from Oak Park, Illinois, was in second with $4,200. Jones, a conflicts analyst assistant, led with $5,200.

Zaheer’s luck turned around in Double Jeopardy! when Wilson found the first Daily Double. He was incorrect and had made it a true Daily Double, bringing him down to $0. A lot of the questions went unanswered by all three contestants in that round. Jennings even noted, “These are tough.”

However, the questions Zaheer answered, she got right, and she eventually caught up to Jones, from Louisville, Kentucky. She passed Jones when she bet it all on her second Daily Double. “Head to the end of the alphabet for this bone that forms an outer wall of the eye socket,” the clue read.

“What is the zygomatic bone?” she answered correctly, bringing her total to $13,200.

It was a battle for first place as all three contestants breezed through the rest of the second round. However, Zaheer still stayed on top. She ended Double Jeopardy! with $16,000. Meanwhile, Jones was in second with $10,800, and Wilson had $6,400 going in to Final Jeopardy!.

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The Final Jeopardy! clue read: “Born in Amersfoort in 1872, he helped found an art movement noted for the use of straight lines & primary colors.”

Wilson answered correctly with “Who is Mondrian?” He wagered $6,399, bringing his final total to $12,799. Jones was also correct and wagered $5,201, making his total $16,001. Zaheer also answered with Mondrian and wagered $5,601. Her final total was $21,601, making her the night’s winner.

The crowd went wild as Zaheer put her head down on the podium. The game show ended in thunderous applause and cheers.

“What an enthusiastic audience! Did Juveria travel with a large entourage? Or just a LOT of really big Juveria fans?” a Reddit user asked.

After the tournament, Zaheer shared her thoughts on the platform.

“A huge shout out to my pals who came to watch, many of whom I have met through J! – being able to look out into the audience and see people you love makes all the difference in the world,” she wrote.

“Back to tournament play for a second – I know that it’s divisive, and we all love regular Virginia Jeopardy, but I have been so grateful to feel like a part of something much bigger than me. Tournaments have a beginning, middle, and end; it’s very much a let’s do this together and put on a show summer camp vibe. And I think (I hope!) it lets the audience at home fall in love with the Drew Goinses and Will Yanceys and Jilana Cotters and Rowan Wards, while also getting to see old favourites and legends,” she continued.

“As a player, I still can’t believe that I got to have a little bit more magic every single time, and I hope that the audience can feel a little bit of that magic too,” Zaheer concluded.

The first semifinals will take place on Friday, February 28. The nine winners will compete, and then only three will move on to the finals before the champion is crowned after two wins.

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