Get Out! It's Leap Day! Or Stay In & Watch the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions

 by Peggy Robin

If you're a leapling (yes, that's the word for people born on February 29th) today's the day to go out to a bar or restaurant that's giving out freebies to your kind. Our local Axios newsfeed has a good round-up of your options: https://www.axios.com/local/washington-dc/2024/02/28/leap-day-deals-food-beer, 

If you're like the rest of us born on the other 365 days of the year, you might want to stay home and watch TV. Why? Because the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions (TOC) is on, and tonight, two of the three competitors are from the DC metro area. And they're both lively and entertaining players. (WJLA at 7:30pm)

They are: 

Kevin Belle from Silver Spring, MD. Kevin is a transportation planner by day and a drag queen performer by night under the stage name, "Whiskey Ginger"

Luigi de Guzman from Arlington, VA. Luigi is an attorney, originally from the Philippines.

...and the third contestant is Juveria Zaheer from Whitby, Ontario, Canada. Juveria is a psychiatrist and professor of medicine at the University of Toronto.

If you're betting on the outcome, you'll want to know how these three match up:

PLAYER:  Kevin Belle

GAMES WON: 3

AVERAGE WINNINGS PER GAME: $10,950

AVERAGE CORRECT RESPONSE %: 94.8%

FINAL JEOPARDY! CORRECT RESPONSE: 1 out of 4

RANKING AMONG TOC PLAYERS: 27

PLAYER: Luigi de Guzman

GAMES WON: 5

AVERAGE WINNINGS PER GAME: $26,709

AVERAGE CORRECT RESPONSE %: 88.4% 

FINAL JEOPARDY! CORRECT RESPONSE: 5 out of 6

RANKING AMONG TOC PLAYERS: 11

PLAYER: Juveria Zaheer

GAMES WON: 5

AVERAGE WINNINGS PER GAME: $25,625

AVERAGE CORRECT RESPONSE %: 87.4%

FINAL JEOPARDY! CORRECT RESPONSE: 4 out of 8

RANKING AMONG TOC PLAYERS: 12

Want to know which of our two hometown champions I'm rooting for? Neither one! I'm hoping to see the Canadian psychiatrist, Juveria Zaheer, take this round and go on to win the whole enchilada. Why? Because there are so few women who have taken Jeopardy's top prize. In the 40 seasons of Jeopardy since the 1984 reboot (that is, the beginning of the Alex Trebek hosting era), only four women have won the TOC. They are: Rachel Schwartz in 1994; Robin Carroll in 2000; Celeste DiNucci in 2007; Amy Schneider in 2022. 

Of the 27 contestants in this year's TOC there are only 5 women (Hannah Wilson, Melissa Clapper, Deb Bilodeau, Emily Sand, and today's hopeful, Juveria Zaheer. Go girls!

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The "Get Out!" event of the week is posted on the Cleveland Park Listserv and on All Life Is Local on Thursdays.