Here's how “Survivor” alum Drew Basile did on “Jeopardy'”s Tournament of Champions

Drew Basile just got his proverbial torch snuffed on Jeopardy's Tournament of Champions.

While the Survivor 45 contestant crushed his Jeopardy debut with a seven-game winning streak in June 2024, earning a total of $129,601, his return in the all-star tournament didn't go so well.

Due to his earlier success, Basile got to skip the first round of the ongoing tournament along with Adriana Harmeyer and Isaac Hirsch, with all three players advancing straight into the semifinals. But Basile lost his semifinals matchup on Thursday against quarterfinals winners Drew Goins and Neilesh Vinjamuri. Basile finished in second place with $8,802, bested by Vinjamuri's $13,601 earnings (Goins finished in third with $4,000).

Related: Survivor alum Drew Basile returns in Jeopardy's Tournament of Champions semifinals: 'I know you've missed me'

The game started rough for Basile, who missed a Daily Double and was in last place for the first two rounds. He made some progress, however, and was in second place going into the Final Jeopardy question — "Wadi al-Malekat in Arabic, this site near a similar & better known location was the burial place of Nefertari & others," which he answered correctly ("What is the Valley of the Queens?"). Vinjamuri also got it right, however, successfully wagering $4,801 of his $8,800 to win the episode. Vinjamuri will advance to compete against Harmeyer and Hirsch in the finals.

Basile ultimately didn't win the Tournament of Champions (or his season of Survivor, after getting blindsided before the final five), but he still holds the title of being the first alum from that show to compete on Jeopardy. His goal was to prove his onscreen declaration that he's "one of the smartest people to ever play" Survivor, and he more than accomplished that after winning more than five Jeopardy games in a row, making him eligible to return to compete in the Tournament of Champions.

"I had always thought that maybe I could do well at Jeopardy, because I'm good at history, I'm good at literature, in general, I've been a great student," Basile previously told Entertainment Weekly. "I figured I had a decent chance. Trivia competing is something I love, and I really didn't have much expectation beyond that."

Related: Drew Basile reveals why he's not holding his breath for Survivor 50 invitation

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

While he was eliminated in his eighth game and didn't advance to the Tournament of Champions finals, Basile "certainly" thinks his seven-game run proves that he is, indeed, one of the smartest people to have ever played Survivor despite getting blindsided before the final five.

"I mean, seven wins is nothing to sneeze at," he said. "I think that makes me the second-best performing contestant on this season, so that's really something. It was a great joy to read on Reddit and Twitter and social media people being like, 'Perhaps we were a little hasty on our dismissal of this wild claim.' So that was nice. I think that I was pretty good on Survivor. I think I was underestimated, but certainly Jeopardy was a match to the talents that I exemplified on Survivor."

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly