All good things must come to an end. After an incredible run, partially thanks to Abbott Elementary‘s Lisa Ann Walter, Drew Goins lost in the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions semi-final on Thursday’s (February 6) episode. He faced off against Drew Basile and Neilesh Vinjamuri, with Vinjamuri beating both Drews to head into the ToC final.
“Neilesh was the person I was least looking forward to playing just because he is such a dominant player,” Goins told TV Insider. The 30-year-old watched the other semi-final rounds with his fellow competitors before taking the Jeopardy! stage. “I went out there knowing that this would be the hardest game of my Jeopardy! career. And it was. The two guys I was playing against were just absolute buzzsaws and so knowledgeable,” he admitted.
During the semi-final, Goins found the first Daily Double, wagered everything, and got the first Daily Double right. He doubled his score to 7,200. He did the same thing when he found the second Daily Double, but he got the answer wrong. Goins spent the rest of the game “trying to claw my way back.”
By the time Final Jeopardy! arrived, he was still in contention to win if he scored the final right and his competitors got it wrong. Vinjamuri had racked up 8,800, Basile had 6,800, and Goins had reached 4,400. In the end, Goins got the question wrong (Wadi al-Malekat in Arabic, this site near a similar and better known location was the burial place of Nefertari and others), while Basile and Vinjamuri’s answers correct (What is the Valley of the Queens?). Vinjamuri emerged the winner with 13,601, withe Basile at 8,802, and Goins at 4,000.
Goins spoke with TV Insider about his wild Jeopardy! run, what he did after his loss, and a possible return.
What was your mindset going into the semi-final?
Drew Goins: By that point, I felt like I was just playing with house money, right? I had run so far ahead of what I had ever expected was possible that it was all just for fun. Facing this gauntlet, I got up on the stage, and I was like, “I think there’s a very good chance I do not progress past this. If this is the last game of Jeopardy! I play in my life, dear God, let’s have some fun.” That’s why I was able to go all in back-to-back on Daily Doubles. I’ve got no regrets about that. I wish I had read the second clue a little more slowly to try to pick up on hints in it. But, you know, regrets are part of the game. It was just a blast of a game, and I couldn’t have lost to better competitors. I had planned that if I didn’t know final, like didn’t have a guess at all, I was just writing “Neilesh for President” because he’s such a gun. He’s incredible.
How did you feel about Neilesh beating you?
Goins: I mean, of course, you want the person who destroys you to go on and win the whole thing. I can’t spoil that, of course. But, obviously, he makes it to the finals. But in the finals, it’s really hard because you’ve become friends with all of these people, so you’re rooting for all of them. But on some level, it’ll be very affirming to me if the person who knocks me out then goes on to win the whole thing. It feels like in some way he absorbed my power, so he has to go win it. For all of us, all of the people that he beat.
What did you do after you lost?
Goins: After this one, we all just hung out at the hotel bar and got a little tipsy and just had so much fun celebrating everything that we had accomplished. There was a moment where Mehal [Shah], who was the Champions Wildcard winner, and he lost his quarterfinal. We had had two drinks, and this is the nerdiest thing you’ll ever hear. We were like, “You know what? Let’s delete our flashcard apps together.” So Mehal and I are holding our phones, and we’re like, “1, 2, 3,” and then we delete Anki, the flashcard app. We felt like such badasses. We were like, “Take that Jeopardy!.” I’m sure all people passing through the hotel lobby were like, “Who are these nerds?”
Have you started to get recognized? There are a lot of Jeopardy! grandmothers who are fans of yours.
Goins: I went to the Kennedy Center last night in Washington, D.C. to go see a dance company. I was walking through the parking garage, there was this woman in her 60s who was sitting in her passenger seat and was buckling her seat belt, and she looked up out the window, and her eyes got as big as saucers as she saw me, this gray-haired lady, and she was knocking on her window, waving, and pointing at me. She goes, “It’s you. It’s you.” It has been very strange to feel like a micro-celebrity among the ‘60s and ‘70s crowd, which is honestly the best crowd to be a micro-celebrity.
Have you spoken to Lisa Ann Walter?
Goins: We have DMed a little bit on Instagram. She has been extremely kind and encouraging and told me that she’s rooting me on. I have been extremely effusive in my gratitude for her because, truly, this wouldn’t be possible without her and Quinta [Brunson], whoever sets the production schedule. She has been so supportive online. It’s crazy. I said I just want to make Lisa Ann proud. And she said, “Oh, you already have.” It just makes my heart sing. She’s Chessy. I have loved her, of course, for Parent Trap, but also for everything else she’s done. She has such a strong character and conviction. To have someone like that say that she’s proud of you is huge.
Where are you at with training Zach for Jeopardy!?
Goins: When he was up here for the watch party, we spent a little bit of time each day running through his flashcards on his flashcard app, which he has not deleted. We were doing flags of the world, and as we were walking around D.C., you pass various consulates and embassies, and Zach was like, “Oh, that’s Botswana. That one is Bahrain.” Some of these were flags that I didn’t know. And I’m like, “He’s ready.” One single tear comes down my cheek. “He’s ready.”
If there was an opportunity for you to return to Jeopardy! in some way, would you?
Michael Davies, who runs the show, I think has just invigorated it incredibly with the new postseason structure. This whole notion of Second Chance didn’t exist for so long in Jeopardy!, and now a Second Chance winner has made it to a semi-final in the Tournament of Champions, which was the first time that’s happened, I think. So many amazing people came through Champions Wildcard, and so much of Jeopardy! is up to luck, right? Sometimes all people need is a second chance or a third chance, in my case, thanks to Lisa Ann, but some people have referred to this era as the era of forever Jeopardy!, where you never know if you’re going to be called back for something or another. I will say the flashcard app did not stay off my phone for long. It is back on my phone, and if it’s just that I’m learning for the sake of learning, excellent. If it’s learning that will perhaps one day serve me again on Jeopardy! in some capacity, even better.
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