Drew Goins wasn’t supposed to be part of the 2025 Tournament of Champions on Jeopardy!, but when Lisa Ann Walter couldn’t make scheduling work, he came in as the alternate. (He didn’t immediately qualify for a spot after Champions Wildcard.) And his performance in the February 3 episode impressed viewers.

The journalist from Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, faced off against Lucas Partridge, a high school counselor from Las Vegas, Nevada, and Amar Kakirde, a policy analyst from Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey. He led at every break and headed into Final Jeopardy! with a runaway game.

Goins headed into Double Jeopardy! leading 5,400 with both his opponents at 3,800. He then found both Daily Doubles and got them both correct. In Anagrammed Nuclear Physics, he correctly guessed that “Process of increasing the proportion of U-235 compared to U-238: NINTH CREME” was “enrichment,” and in Subtitles of Books, he knew that “The subtitle of “Frankenstein” was “The Modern” this, no mythtake” was “Prometheus.” He had 31,200 heading into the final round, to Partridge’s 7,400 and Kakirde’s 6,600.

He and Kakirde both correctly answered the Final Jeopardy! clue in Places of Disaster (“In 1883 an old sailor didn’t know what its name meant but believed the natives “named it from the sound”) with “Krakatoa,” but Goins easily advanced to the semifinals with a total of 32,008.

After, fans praised Goins’ performance on the Reddit thread. “So happy for Drew,” one person wrote, calling it “an amazing performance — was dazzled by his responses to physics anagrams and word categories. Who else cheered when he landed back to back DDs?” (Those back-to-back DDs, when he was already in the lead, contributed to his runaway game.)

Another viewer is already thinking he could win the Tournament. “Jeez Drew is so good. My pick is either him or Isaac to win the whole thing, their stats are pretty comparable. It’s gonna be a great semifinals, anything can happen,” the person wrote.

And another pointed out that Goins wasn’t part of the initial lineup. “Shoutout to Drew Goins, who impressively stepped in for Lisa Ann Walter in the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions quarterfinals after her scheduling conflict,” the fan wrote. “It’s great to see him making the most of the opportunity!”

Another fan posted, “I bet Lisa Ann is so proud of Drew. I love tournament-level play like this!”

Walter had originally secure a spot in the Tournament of Champions after winning Celebrity Jeopardy!. After Goins was brought in as the alternate, he shared on Instagram a look at an exchange between Walter and his brother Zach Goins. Zach shared with her that Drew was called in due to her scheduling conflict and The Parent Trap was their favorite movie when they were growing up. “I love it! Please tell him good luck – now he has to win!” Walter wrote in response.

What did you think of Drew Goins’ performance in this episode? Let us know in the comments section below.