Jeopardy! drops Producer’s Pick for Masters special & bosses defend choice at live event as fans rage over decision

Posted September 19th, 2025 by Jorge Solis & filed under TV.

Plus, more details on the schedule for the upcoming Jeopardy! Masters Tournament

JEOPARDY! will round out its lineup for Masters 2024 with Amy Schneider as the highly anticipated Producer’s Pick, it was announced on Friday.

Ken Jennings hosts the six-legend competition, which airs in primetime on ABC, starting on May 1.

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Ken Jennings' Jeopardy! Masters Season 2 got its last contestant — Ken Jennings’ Jeopardy! Masters Season 2 got its last contestantCredit: Getty

Amy Schneider was announced as the Producer's Pick for Masters 2024 — Amy Schneider was announced as the Producer’s Pick for Masters 2024Credit: Getty

Show bosses unveiled Amy as their pick at a live event attended by The U.S. SunCredit: The US Sun

Jeopardy! Masters will return for its second installment starting on May 1, 2024.

The six current highest-ranked Jeopardy! contestants will play in the primetime tournament, facing off in two games per hour-long episode.

The showdown will feature Jeopardy! Masters Season 1 champion James Holzhauer, returning contestants Matt Amodio and Mattea Roach, and newcomers Yogesh Raut and Victoria Groce.

The sixth and final contestant was a mysterious Producer’s Pick, which was anyone’s guess and up to the producers’ sole discretion- until now.

BOSSES ANNOUNCE AMY AS THEIR PICK

The U.S. Sun attended the event, and the showrunners dropped the big news by displaying a question mark on the screen.

“Everyone’s been talking about it, our wildcard Producer Pick,” Foss told the audience.

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Davies joked, “I have to prepare myself for the Redditors,” before adding, “So firstly, it’s a Producer Pick, but it’s not just me. It’s all the producers,” mentioning ABC and Sony.

“We have to acknowledge there were several worthy people. But one person stood above everybody else.”

“I’ve got to believe they can go on that stage in Masters and beat everybody,” he added.

“Secondly, we’re a TV program. We depend on ratings,” he admitted, saying Amy’s “following” was a factor.

His last reason was Amy losing Masters 2023 and JIT, “I love a redemption story. I love someone who feels like ‘Wow, I just didn’t do it.’”

And with that, they unveiled Amy on the stage’s screen as their pick to mild audience applause.

“What a player. We see how well she deals with the tougher material which is very important in Masters. We see how good she is on the buzzer so we’re delighted to have Amy as the sixth pick,” Davies concluded without any applause.

‘AMY AGAIN?’

Amy was in Masters 2023, making the lineup of 4/6 returning contestants; she also decisively lost to Victoria Groce in the recent JIT, which launched Victoria to Masters and in many minds, meant Amy wouldn’t compete.

The game show made the announcement official soonafter with a video to Instagram showing each of the six Masters contestants and the roster now complete.

“Amy again?” one fan wrote.

“As much as I admire Amy, it’s rather unfortunate for fans who didn’t want this year’s Masters to be a rehash of last year,” wrote another.”

“Honestly tired of these group popping up over and over!” wrote a third.

“I love Amy but this is very weird! Should be the 3 finalists from last year and the others only return if they win JIT (which Amy could have but didn’t). A lot of other good choices were passed over here!” wrote a fourth.

“For the record, as a big Amy fan… I’m not a massive fan of this pick. it’s kind of a predictable choice and I just don’t know if her gameplay will hold up against the other five,” wrote a fifth.

“So then what was the point of the JIT,” wrote another.

“What’s the point of producer’s pick. Everyone else earned their way back,” wrote one more.