Who won Jeopardy! Second chance finals on Friday, December 26, 2025?

Jeopardy! Second chance finals part 2 ended in an exciting match. 

The competition continued with three contestants in the deciding game. 

These three contestants were:

Guy Branum. He is a writer and comedian from West Hollywood, California. 

Michelle Tsai. Tsai is originally from Honolulu, Hawaii, and works as a tutor. 

Melanie Hirsch. Melanie is an attorney from Silver Spring, Maryland. 

Their winnings in the first part of the final will be added to their final scores. 

Guy Branum won $16,000 in the last episode, Michelle Tsai won $19,200 and Melanie Hirsch won $12,000. 

Michelle Tsai won the finals with a small margin after answering the final Jeopardy clue correctly. 

Jeopardy! Second Chance final part 2 highlights: Friday, December 26, 2025

Host Ken Jennings started the show by thanking Johnny Gilbert and stated:

“Thank you to the legend, Johnny Gilbert and welcome to the culminating game in this week’s Jeopardy second-chance competition.” 

He then explained the rules:

“As you see, all three of our finalists put up some solid scores in yesterday’s game. And we will be adding those numbers to your total today to determine our winner. But for now, we will wipe the slate clean and get into the Jeopardy round.” 

The categories for the first rounds were:

• History “P”s & “Q”s


• Soil, Breeze & Conflagration


• 4-Letter Businesses


• Why so blue? 


• All kinds of sports


• One more time

Melanie chose the first category, which was History “P”s & “Q”s. 

The first Daily Double went to Melanie. 

She bet $1,000, and the clue was:

“Surname of General Grigory, wooer of Catherine the Great; he was said to have fabricated fake villages to win her favor.” 

The correct answer was

“What is Potemkin?” 

Melanie answered correctly and got $1,800. 

The scores before the first break were:

Melanie: $5,400

Michelle: $2,800

Guy: $0

 Michelle got the first chance to choose a category after the break. 

At the end of the first round, the scores were:

Melanie: $ 6,200

Michelle: $5,400

Guy: $800

The categories for the Double Jeopardy were

• Alphabetically First


• Around the world


• A Riddle


• Rapped


• In a mystery 


• Inside an enigma 

Guy got the first chance to pick the category. He chose “Around the world.” 

The second Daily Double went to Guy. 

The clue he got was:

“Of the traditional birthstones.” 

Guy took a lot of time answering and failed. 

His score was $0 again. 

But he soon got the third Daily Double. 

He bet $2,000, and the clue was:

“In this short story by Edgar Allan Poe, C. Auguste Dupin solves the mystery of an apparently stolen item being used for blackmail hide.” 

The correct answer was:

“What is the Purloined Letter?” 

Guy answered correctly and won $2,000.

At the end of the Double Jeopardy round, the scores were:

Melanie: $10,600

Michelle: $14,600

Guy: $9,200

Ken Jennings again reminded contestants by saying:

“Let’s remind everyone what you three had in front of you at the end of yesterday’s game. These are the scores that will be added to your totals after Final Jeopardy today.” 

The final Jeopardy clue was:

“In 2015, a foreign government said this would be abolished to 'increase labor supply & ease pressures from an aging population.'” 

The correct answer was:

“What is the one child policy?” 

All three contestants answered correctly. 

Their final total was:

Melanie: $33,100

Guy: $29,001

Michelle: $34,401

Michelle narrowly won the final and will now play in the Champions Wildcard alongside Pete Johnston. 

Stay tuned for more such updates.