Jeopardy! Second Chance: Pete Johnston credits his wife and family for his love of trivia

Pete Johnston won the finals of Jeopardy! Second chance in an exciting competition. 

Johnston is a filmmaker and an educator from Elma, Michigan. 

He defeated trivia host Dave Widmayer and Eugene Huang, who works as a teacher. 

The two-part final episode was telecast on December 18, 2025 and December 19, 2025. 

In the December 19, 2025, episode, host Jen Kennings took a moment to ask the contestants who they want to thank. 

Pete Johnston talked about his family, especially his wife and parents, and said:

“I want to thank my wife, Katie, for her relentless quizzing. My mom Mickey here in the audience with us. My dad, John, watching from the home. They fostered a Jeopardy household that’s instilled a love of trivia my whole life. So, thank you.” 

Host Ken Jennings agreed and stated:

“And it’s just not here right? It enriches your whole life.” 

Pete agreed and said:

“Absolutely.” 

Jeopardy! Second chance: More about Pete Johnston and his journey on the show 

Pete Johnston lost Jeopardy! against Scott Ricardi in the July 18, 2025 episode of the show. 

But he got a chance to redeem himself by competing again on the show. 

He participated in Jeopardy! Second chance where the contestants who have previously lost can compete once again. 

Pete is a faculty member in the Film Studies program at Michigan State University. 

He started competing with his siblings and called his family a “Jeopardy household,” as reported by The State News in August 2025. 

Johnston started applying to the show annually after 2019.

He described his experience of being on the show as surreal. 

Pete stated, as reported by Michigan State University in July 2025:

“It was so surreal to be on set. It was like all of sudden you’re inside the TV show that you spend your life watching. Meeting the other contestants is like summer camp for nerdy trivia folks and everybody is just as into ‘Jeopardy!’ as you are.”

He also talked about how being from a liberal arts background helped him during the show.

Pete says (Via Michigan State University):

“With a liberal arts background, it was great to get such a broad knowledge base. And being in the College of Arts & Letters, we have colleagues in English, arts, theatre, religious studies, all of those things are great subjects to study for if you’re going to be on ‘Jeopardy!’ At the same time, it’s intimidating. I needed to study literature so that I didn’t let my English colleagues down.”

Johnston also remarked that show motivated him to “be curious” and said the same for his students. 

He stated (via The State News):

“It's also an important time to understand who we are and to be able to explore who we are and how we fit into this world and our curiosity about that world. You're surrounded by expertise in literally every aspect of human knowledge, especially at a place like MSU. You have world leaders in not just your field, but every field imaginable.”

He appeared on Jeopardy! Second chance against Chris Turner Neal and Allison Willard on December 17, 2025.

Pete was about to lose the game to Chris. 

But in the Final Jeopardy! round, Chris bet $6,500.

 But after giving a wrong answer, his final winnings came down to $12,700, which was $100 less than Johnston. 

In this way Pete won the semifinals and advanced to the finals. 

In the finals part one, he was lagging behind Eugene. 

But in the second part of finals, he again won the game after Dave made a silly mistake in the Final Jeopardy round. 

He will now compete in the 2026 Champions Wildcard Tournament. 

Stay tuned for more such updates.