2022 Tournament of Champions winner Amy Schneider is the sixth and final member of the Jeopardy! Masters line-up after landing the coveted Producers’ Pick spot. However, some fans are not happy about it.
The announcement was made on Friday, April 12, at the Inside Jeopardy Live! Event at Hudson Yards in New York City. Schneider, who competed in last year’s Masters, will join returning champ James Holzhauer, Season 1 finalists Matt Amodio and Mattea Roach, 2024 TOC winner Yogesh Raut, and Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament winner Victoria Groce. The tournament will be prime-time on ABC, starting May 1.
Schneider’s inclusion has been met with backlash. While the 40-game winner is a fan favorite, she had just competed in the JIT!, where she finished as runner-up. Many fans felt this should have disqualified her from Masters.
“Honestly not a fan of this decision,” wrote one fan on the Jeopardy! Reddit forum. “We just saw her in JIT, whats the point if she can lose that and just move on anyways.”
“I agree with this take,” replied another. “I love watching Amy play Jeopardy and I’ve enjoyed all the tournament play, but she did not finish in the top three of Masters last year and she did not win the JIT this year, so my question is why her? Why not Andrew [He] or Sam [Buttrey] or Cris [Pannullo] or Sam [Kavanaugh] or anyone else who didn’t do those things either?”
“Does seem kind of dumb. Why was she even competing in JIT if she had a spot in regardless?” asked one commenter.
Another wrote, “They should have just announced top 2 from JIT are moving on or made the tournament structured differently to include two players from the JIT into Masters.”
“Obligatory ‘Amy is great, but’… This is an awful choice,” said one fan. “Completely invalidates the last tournament.”
“The producers pick should have been a person who we would never have seen otherwise like Brad [Rutter] or The Beast [Mark Labbett] or someone else we haven’t seen on Jeopardy recently,” added another. “I don’t have the stats in front of me, but we’ve seen Amy play dozens of games in the last year and I personally would like to see someone else get a shot.”
Another wrote, “The “sport” of Jeopardy: You can lose two opportunities to get into the Masters and be invited anyway! Mind boggling decision.”
“If the producers had their way every single episode of Jeopardy would just be three Amy Schneiders competing against eachother,” quipped another commenter.
Fellow JIT competitor Jennifer Quail also commented, writing, “I don’t think anyone but the winner should go [to Masters]. Everyone in JIT was under the impression it was for one spot. That was allegedly the whole point.”
However, others felt that Schneider earned her spot, even if the process of getting there was awkward.
“It’s definitely clunky how they handled this… Realistically they wouldn’t have invited Amy had she not done well in the JIT, so I do think she earned her spot more than we realize,” said one Reddit user.
Sam Kavanaugh also commented, noting that he and his fellow super-champs “would admit Amy is the best player out of us and has achieved more in the game to qualify her for this position.”
“I thought it was going to be Cris Pannullo, but I’m happy with Amy,” said another. “I get why people are a little salty about it, but from my point of view, she’s a great player and a great personality and I enjoy watching her play.”
What do you think about Schneider being the Producers’ Pick? Should the spot have gone to a non-JIT competitor? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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