Celeste DiNucci

Celeste DiNucci (born 1961) was a contestant on the television game show Jeopardy!, who won the show's Tournament of Champions in 2007. [ [http://www.jeopardy.com/showguide_tournamentofchamps.php This is JEOPARDY! ] ] Due to this victory, and the tournament's $250,000 first prize, she is the show's all-time money winner among female contestants, with a total of $333,601 ($83,601 in her regular games). [ [http://www.jeopardy.com/showguide_50kwinners.php This is JEOPARDY! ] ]

DiNucci's brother Dennis was a contestant on the May 19, 1992 game, which he lost to Jerome Vered. Dennis told Celeste that she needed to go on the show to "redeem the family name". [ [http://www.j-archive.com/showplayer.php?player_id=4352 J! Archive - Celeste DiNucci ] ]

Initial appearances

Celeste first appeared on Jeopardy! on July 20, 2006, winning $10,600. She went on to win five games and $83,601 before finishing third in her quest to become the first female six-time champion, losing to Army specialist Eugene Manning on the second-to-last show of Season 22. [ [http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=1174 J! Archive - Show #5054, aired 2006-07-27 ] ]

Tournament of Champions

Quarterfinals

Celeste's five wins were good enough to earn a berth in the show's Tournament of Champions that was held in November 2007. She appeared in the second quarterfinal match. Even though she did not win her quarterfinal, her score was high enough for one of the four wild card spots reserved for the high scorers among the non-winners. [ [http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=2162 J! Archive - Show #5327, aired 2007-11-06 ] ]

emifinals

Celeste played in the second semifinal match. In her semifinal, she and four-time champion Christian Haines finished the match with identical final scores of $15,401 (their opponent Jeff Spoeri lost on an incorrect response in Final Jeopardy!), resulting in a tiebreaker round. The category was "Child's Play" and the answer was "A Longfellow poem & a Lillian Hellman play about a girls' boarding school share this timely title." Celeste gave the correct response of "What is 'The Children's Hour?'" and advanced to the finals. [ [http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=2172 J! Archive - Show #5332, aired 2007-11-13 ] ] [ [http://www.j-archive.com/help.php#tiebreakerround J! Archive - Help ] ]

Finals

After day one of the finals, Celeste held a $7600 lead over Canadian three-time champion Doug Hicton. [ [http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=2174 J! Archive - Show #5334, aired 2007-11-15 ] ] She ended up winning the tournament with a two-game total of $22,000 to Hicton's $21,599. College Champion Cliff Galiher finished third with $6000. [ [http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=2175 J! Archive - Show #5335, aired 2007-11-16 ] ]

References