UNC student in 2-day ‘Jeopardy!’ contest has his work cut out for him in Monday’s final
A UNC-Chapel Hill student taking part in the two-day “Jeopardy!” Second Chance Tournament will be starting from behind in the final game that will air Monday night.
Rotimi Kukoyi, a 19-year-old sophomore at UNC, wagered everything in the Final Jeopardy category on Friday’s show, but got the answer wrong. So did fellow contestant Roy Camara.
That means both Kukoyi and Camara will be starting at zero in Monday’s game. The third contestant, Long Nguyen, also wagered everything but answered Final Jeopardy correctly. So he’ll head into Monday’s game with a $36,800 advantage.
The player with the highest combined scores from Friday and Monday will compete in this season’s “Champions Wildcard” contest, which could lead to an appearance in the “Tournament of Champions.”
Kukoyi had better luck earlier in the week, winning a game that aired Tuesday by $1. Thanks to a correct answer and a strategic bet during Final Jeopardy, he ended with a total of $16,001. The second place contestant ended with $16,000.
The Second Chance Tournament invites back contestants who have previously appeared on the quiz show but did not win. Kukoyi is the youngest contestant in this season’s Second Chance games.
Kukoyi, who is originally from Hoover, Alabama, originally appeared on the “Jeopardy!” Teen Tournament in 2018, at the age of 14.
“While I didn’t win, the experience of meeting the incredibly kind and funny Alex Trebek and forging lasting friendships with other contestants was unforgettable,” Kukoyi wrote on LinkedIn. “Now, 5.5 years later, I’m back for a second shot in Season 39 at 19!”
In his Final Jeopardy answer Tuesday, Kukoyi acknowledged Trebek with the words “Thank you Alex” written below his answer. On Friday’s show, he revealed that he’s the reigning UNC Bachelor in a campus contest.
Years after his first appearance on the game show, Kukoyi made national headlines as a high school senior for being accepted to 15 universities — including Harvard, Stanford and Yale — and receiving more than $2 million in scholarships.
He eventually chose to attend UNC as a Morehead-Cain Scholar, the country’s first and oldest merit-based scholarship. Kukoyi is now studying health policy and management at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and minoring in biology and chemistry, according to his LinkedIn page. He plans to become a physician, according to UNC.
“Jeopardy! quickly captivated me at a young age because its clues were the answers, and its contestants had to provide the right questions,” Kukoyi wrote on LinkedIn. “This unique format mirrors the investigative process I admire in medicine. Similar to the way empathetic physicians explore patients’ conditions, Jeopardy! taught me that asking the correct questions can be equally (if not more) important than simply arriving at the correct answer for holistic understanding.”
Kukoyi was supposed to appear in a reunion contest of past Teen Tournament contestants last year, according to UNC, but he had to drop out after he got COVID-19.
Before Tuesday’s show, Kukoyi said he was thankful for the chance to play “Jeopardy!” once more.
“I’m grateful for this rare second chance on a show that’s traditionally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Kukoyi wrote on LinkedIn. “I enjoyed every moment, fulfilled a lifelong dream twice, and will forever be a proud Jeopardy! alum.”
How to watch Kukoyi on “Jeopardy!”
- “Jeopardy!” airs in Raleigh and the Triangle on ABC11/WTVD at 7 p.m., Monday through Friday.
- To find stations that air “Jeopardy!” outside of the Triangle, visit jeopardy.com/watch and input your ZIP code.
This story was originally published January 9, 2024 at 5:00 AM with the headline "UNC student in 2-day ‘Jeopardy!’ contest has his work cut out for him in Monday’s final."
