TV Talk: Pittsburgher ‘The Chase’ star back on ‘Jeopardy!’ 20 years later; ‘PTL’ turns 20
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Victoria Groce of Point Breeze first competed on the daytime game show “Jeopardy!” in 2005, winning $23,801 over two episodes just before she moved to Pittsburgh, where her husband works at Carnegie Mellon as a software engineer. She previously worked at the University of Pittsburgh in various roles, including as a project coordinator at the medical school doing education research.
A native of Macon, Ga., Groce figured her “Jeopardy!” one-and-done would be it.
“I had absolutely no inkling that anything might be in the future,” she said. “And I was very, very OK with that. I just viewed it as his cool thing that’s part of my life story. I never felt any bitterness or that I deserved to come back.”
But the show’s producers invited Groce back for the current “Jeopardy!” Invitational Tournament after Groce starred on the third season of ABC’s prime-time game show, “The Chase,” in 2022 and 2023 (she was nicknamed “The Queen”). Groce competes in the “Jeopardy!” episode airing at 7:30 p.m. Friday on WPXI-TV.
After her first “Jeopardy!” appearance, Groce was busy raising her family and didn’t really do many trivia competitions again until about a decade ago.
“I started studying more, playing on some teams, taking down large bar trivia events for money,” she said.
In 2017, Groce started participating in international trivia competitions – she’s currently on trivia teams in the United States, Ukraine and India – so when “The Chase” went looking for additional “chasers” for its third season (trivia experts who novice contestants compete against) someone mentioned Groce to the show’s producers.
“I grew up intending to be a concert pianist, so the idea of being in performance, sitting in front of people is a very natural one for me,” she said. “It’s much less nerve-wracking than I expected it to be.”
While Groce is still waiting to hear about the fate of “The Chase” (“We haven’t been renewed, we haven’t been canceled,” she said), she got a call from “Jeopardy!” asking her to be part of this new tournament. She assumes it’s because of her recent role on “The Chase” and not her long-ago two-day stint on “Jeopardy!”
In the Invitational Tournament, Groce competes for $100,000 and one of six slots in the prime time “Jeopardy!” Masters Tournament that will air on ABC in May.
Groce was in the “Jeopardy!” studio to watch one of her trivia world friends compete in the just-concluded Tournament of Champions only a few weeks before filming the Invitational earlier this year.
“So I knew what the studio would look like. I knew what the timings would be, what happens when,” she said. “It was good to have had that experience right beforehand.”
Groce said due to her first “Jeopardy!” appearance coming in the chaos of moving to Pittsburgh and having a baby, she didn’t remember much about her first time on the show.
“It was 20 years ago so the buzzer felt like I was trying to do it for the first time,” Groce said. “As far as gameplay goes … over the years ‘Jeopardy!’ gameplay has changed quite a bit since I was originally on. People are far more aggressive. There’s a lot more optimization over wagering. But also the way people take categories has changed. Very few people take a category top to bottom and most people did at the time I was on originally.”
Groce said that change came about because it’s mathematically optimal to catch the Daily Double – for yourself or to keep it out of an opponents’ hands – and she said the Daily Double almost never appears at the top of the game board.
Groce said she only had a brief opportunity to chat about Pittsburgh with “Jeopardy!” stage manager Jimmy McGuire, who’s from Pittsburgh and was formerly part of the show’s “Clue Crew.” But she’s game to return if “Jeopardy!” will have her.
“I had a blast,” Groce said. “I think it’ll be pretty obvious watching that I was very much enjoying myself.”
‘PTL’ turns 20
KDKA-TV’s “Pittsburgh Today Live” will air a pre-recorded 20th anniversary episode at 9 a.m. May 10, 20 years to the day after the show’s 2004 premiere.
The special episode, featuring unspecified past hosts and special guests, will be taped at 7 p.m. April 26 at Point Park University’s Pittsburgh Playhouse. Tickets will be available for purchase ($50-$85 for general admission; $100-$125 for VIP packages that include a meet-and-greet with the cast) at 9 a.m. March 26 at KDKA.com with a portion of the proceeds going to support UPMC Foundation’s Free Care Fund.
Kept/canceled
Hallmark Channel renewed “The Way Home” for a third season.
CBS will bring back “NCIS: Sydney” for a second season to air during the 2024-25 TV season. CBS will also bring back “Ghosts” and “Fire Country” next season.
Paramount+ renewed Canadian import “Skymed” for a third season.
NBC renewed all three “Chicago” shows and all the “Law & Order” shows except “Organized Crime” whose future “is still in discussion.”
Nickelodeon canceled “That Girl Lay Lay” after two seasons.
Despite Peacock renewing “Bupkis,” star Pete Davidson decided he’s done with the show so it won’t be back.
After Netflix canceled the Neil Patrick Harris comedy “Uncoupled,” Showtime picked it up but has now reversed course and the show won’t return.
Channel surfing
WTAE-TV anchor/reporter Elena LaQuatra announced she’s pregnant during a morning newscast earlier this month. Congrats! … McCandless native Griffin Matthews, most recently seen in National Geographic Channel’s “Genius: MLK/X” as Bayard Rustin, joins the cast of Netflix’s “You” for its fifth and final season playing Teddy Lockwood, the “snarky yet loyal” brother-in-law of Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley). … CNN debuts a four-part docu-series, “Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight” (9-11 p.m. April 7; 9-11 p.m. April 14), about the 2003 destruction of the shuttle when it re-entered Earth’s orbit with broken heat tiles, killing all seven astronauts on board. … NBC is developing a “New Amsterdam” sequel series, “New Amsterdam: Tomorrow,” set 30 years after the original show following Dr. Max Goodwin’s daughter, Luna, who becomes medical director of New Amsterdam Hospital. No word if it will feature flying cars. … With the rise of streaming and cord-cutting, a market study predicts the number of U.S. pay TV subscribers (cable or satellite) will drop below 50% this year. … Animated film “Migration” will stream on Peacock beginning April 19. … Season two of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” spin-off “House of the Dragon” premieres June 16.