'Jeopardy! Masters' sees 6 champs go head-to-head for the Alex Trebek trophy
Host Ken Jennings tell us who is the player to watch in this high-stakes tournament
LOS ANGELES -- Three weeks. Ten episodes. Six contestants. One champion. That's what's at stake in "Jeopardy! Masters."
"We've brought back six of our favorite, most successful champions from recent times," host, Ken Jennings told On The Red Carpet. "Hopefully this will be a tradition that'll let us bring back a lot of great players and fan favorite past champs."
Here's how it works. The six contestants will play each other in varying pairings. After seven episodes, the top four players will go to the semi-finals where one player will be eliminated. And the final three go on to play for the whole enchilada, $500,000, the Alex Trebek trophy and the title of Jeopardy! Masters Champion.
The contestants, for their parts, are doing everything they can to prep for what's going to be a wild three weeks.
"I just try to stay calm and take breaths. I know people get psyched up. I don't want to get too jittery or fidgety," Sam Buttrey said.
Matt Amodio takes a slightly different approach. "I take a Red Bull before pretty much every game because we need fast trigger fingers there."
"I don't really try to worry too much about who I'm playing and just play my best game," Amy Schneider said. "I do have to keep in mind how aggressive they all are with their wagering, though, and factor that in."
And while all the contestants know a lot about a lot, they do have preferences when it comes to categories that show up on the board.
Mattea Roach, who hails from Canada says U.S. History and politics are not their strongest categories. "I famously did not go to school in America," Roach said. "I've never lived in this country. So a lot of things that are aspects of history that people would learn in school, I don't necessarily know that or my confidence in that material is a little lower."
Andrew He says his preference is a long shot. "This would never happen, but if they pulled out a category like old "Calvin and Hobbes" comics, that would be my dream category."
"I really hope I'm in a game with Andrew about "Calvin and Hobbes" comics because I think I could school him on those," James Holzhauer said with a sly smile.
Holzhauer, the self-proclaimed game show villain, is who Ken Jennings believes is the one to watch through this competition.
"I played James Holzhauer in the G.O.A.T. tournament. And because I know firsthand how tough that was, how deep his knowledge base is and how intense a player he is, I have to assume that the road to winning 'Jeopardy! Masters' goes through James Holzhauer."
See who comes out victorious when "Jeopardy! Masters" premieres May 8 and runs through May 24 on ABC.
