After 10 attempts over 24 years, Harvey Silikovitz finally fulfilled a longtime dream last year when he made it on “Jeopardy!”
Silikovitz, who describes himself as an “attorney and worldwide karaoke singer,” walked away from the Alex Trebek Stage with a dominant win, but fans had even more praise for his resilience.
Not only did his victory come after more than two decades of trying to get on the show; it also came a few years after he received a life-altering diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.
“It’s been a longtime dream of mine to get here. But I continued chasing the dream, and now here I am,” he told host Ken Jennings during his “Jeopardy!” debut last March. “After living with Parkinson’s for five and a half years, it’s no longer about just wanting to do well for myself. I would like to give hope and inspiration to the people who are living with chronic illnesses.”
Silikovitz ended up losing his second game, but now, the fan-favorite player is back on the quiz show, competing in the 2026 Champions Wildcard tournament.
Here’s a look at how he fared in his quarterfinal game, which aired Wednesday.
Harvey Silikovitz returns to ‘Jeopardy!’ for Champions Wildcard tourney
At the start of Wednesday’s episode, Silikovitz shared with Jennings that the Michael J. Fox Foundation reached out to him after his first appearance on the show and that he’d been working on projects with the organization. He even got the opportunity to meet Fox.
“You got to meet him! That’s great!” Jennings responded. “He is a big ‘Jeopardy!’ fan, and I’m sure he’s delighted to see you doing so well on ‘Jeopardy!’”
In his “Jeopardy!” return, Silikovitz was up against fellow champions Jason Singer and Cameron Berry.
He was in second place and down by $5,200 at the end of the first round.
During the Double Jeopardy round, the contestant from New Jersey took a slight hit after missing the following Daily Double clue in the category “Memoirs”: “Presumably rejecting ‘Olaf Me,’ actor Josh’s memoir has this title, punning on our national motto.”
Silikovitz couldn’t come up with the answer — “In Gad We Trust” — and lost $2,000.
At that point, he was in third place with $1,800. Berry, in first, had $9,200.
But then Silikovitz proceeded to have an impressive streak of correct responses that ultimately placed him with a slight $200 lead over Berry, a data analyst and college administrator from Brighton, Massachusetts.
It all came down to the Final Jeopardy clue in the category “Literature”: “In a 21st-century Pulitzer Prize winner, this character introduced in an 1876 work is biracial.”
None of the contestants came up with the correct response: Huckleberry Finn.
But a conservative $2 wager kept Silikovitz in first place — securing him a spot in the semifinals of the Champions Wildcard tournament.
So Silikovitz now has a shot at getting a third win on the show.
“I’m also hopeful that my appearance in this postseason tourney, while continuing to live with Parkinson’s (PD), will provide further inspiration to viewers who are themselves coping with PD or other chronic illnesses or conditions,” he shared in a recent Instagram post.
How Harvey Silikovitz ended up on ‘Jeopardy!’
Silikovitz’s quest to land on “Jeopardy!” dates back to 2001, as the Deseret News previously reported.
In 2019, he actually missed a call from a “Jeopardy!” producer. It took him five weeks to notice the voicemail because it was mixed in with messages from various doctors, as Clair McNear reported for The Ringer.
When he finally called back, Season 35 had wrapped. By the time Season 36 would begin filming, his window of eligibility to compete on “Jeopardy!” would be up. So he started all over again.
A few months after missing that “Jeopardy!” call, Silikovitz received a Parkinson’s disease diagnosis. But he was determined to keep trying out for the show.
“I worked hard to manage my Parkinson’s symptoms — even while relentlessly seeking to improve my knowledge base as well as my proficiency at the skills, such as timing on the buzzer, that are crucial to success on J!” he wrote in an Instagram post about his “Jeopardy!” debut.
He finally made it on “Jeopardy!” for Season 42, defeating a player on an eight-game winning streak in his debut.