"We've watched it growing up as a household, my seven brothers and sisters and I, and my parents, we would all tune in and try to get the answers," Pete Johnston said.

His love for the game show eventually led him to apply to be a contestant.

"...I think in 2018, 2019, was maybe the first time I took it, and I just started taking it every year, just, you know, trying to figure out if I was getting better or worse," Pete Johnston said.

Eventually, after passing three rounds of the audition earlier this year, he received an invitation to appear on the show.

Being on the set of Jeopardy!, Pete Johnston said, was "incredible."

"I had an amazing time. It was, you know, surreal to be in a show that I've watched since I was a kid, and all of a sudden I was on set, and I was behind the podium, and the cameras were in front of me, instead of being the other way around, so it was just an amazing experience," Pete Johnston said. "And, you know, playing against one of, who turned out to be, you know, one of the all-time greats was awesome. It was great because it was really tough. But I tried, you know, I just wanted to do my best, and I feel like I did that, and I was proud of how it all went."

Anthropology sophomore at Wayne State University and Pete Johnston’s nephew Callum Johnston said that discovering that his uncle would appear on the show for the first time "didn’t feel real at first."

"It was kind of surreal, because, like, everybody knows Jeopardy! I mean, it's like, you know, often parodied and (in) pop culture and it's just this thing that's been around for so long and has become so like, commonplace in our lives, but it feels so big because it's been around for so long," Callum Johnston said.

Johnston’s first appearance on Jeopardy! aired on July 15, but after falling just short of 16-time champion Scott Riccardi, Pete Johnston was recently given another opportunity to compete through the Second Chance Tournament.

"The Second Chance tournament is kind of a new thing in (the) Jeopardy! world. I think it's maybe the fourth year that they've done it, where, in the past, you know, if you lost, that was it, that was your chance," Pete Johnston said. "Then, they started bringing back people that they thought came close or, you know, (they thought) they had potential, and they didn't quite win."

However, Pete Johnston wasn’t necessarily expecting the call inviting him back on set.

"It was in the back of my mind that it was possible," Johnston said. "Then I saw an L.A. area code (and an) unknown number pop up, and I was like, 'Oh, man, this is it.' So, yeah, I said, 'Hello,' and it was like, 'Hey, Pete, this is John from Jeopardy! Do you know why I might be calling?' And I was like, 'I have a good feeling.' It was awesome. I was floored."

For Assistant Director of Support Services at Alma College and Pete Johnston’s brother-in-law Andrew Bare, the statistics he observed seemed to work out in Pete Johnston’s favor.

"...I was in deep into the stats on Second Chance and all that after he played the first time. I was aware of the Second Chance Tournament, and he had done so well against a 16-game champion, Scott Riccardi, so I knew he had a pretty good chance," Bare said. "So then, I started, kind of, deep diving into the stats on my own, and found that he actually had the best, what they call (a) Coryat score against Scott Riccardi."

A Coryat score, Bare said, is a scoring system that Jeopardy! fans use to keep track of how well a player performed. According to Bare’s calculations, Pete Johnston had the best Coryat score against Riccardi "across that entire 16-game run."

" mean, he (Pete Johnston) knew there was no guarantees, but he knew it was possible. So, it was all very exciting," Bare said.

Bare, a Jeopardy! fan himself, said Pete Johnston’s experience with the show is exciting to watch.

"...It's thrilling to know somebody who's going to be on there and to follow them, but even more so thrilling that it was Pete, because Pete is just such a good guy, that it's really hard to not root for Pete and anything he's doing, and so it was really fun to just be there to support him," Bare said. 

Receiving an invitation to come back on the show, Pete Johnston said, was "a continuation of how incredible this whole process has been."

"The first time I had, like, an amazing experience. Everybody who works on the show is, like, just beyond incredible. The researchers, I love the writing of the show, I just, I really appreciated the host, Ken Jennings, he's amazing. All of the contestant producers, and even, like, the hair and makeup and the sound guy, you know, like getting a few minutes to talk to him while he puts a mic on you," Johnston said. "I'm just really grateful (for) that, and I can't believe that I get to do it again and spend, you know, I had my one shot, and now I get to kind of go back and do it again. So yeah, it's just like, total gratitude."

To prepare for the tournament, Pete Johnston said he quizzed himself on broader areas that he finds challenging. 

Additionally, during the tournament, Pete Johnston said his strategy consisted of two main factors.

"Well, my the biggest thing is trying to find the Daily Doubles, which can allow you to, like, increase your score very quickly," Johnston said. "...But other than that, I think just also don't buzz in if you don't know the answer. That's the other thing. So sometimes people buzz in, and they just want to try to guess, but then you lose money, lose points, you know?"

Although the Second Chance Tournament has already been filmed, Pete Johnston said knowing what to expect made a large difference.

"That's the biggest part, is like, I know how it all goes, so I feel a lot more comfortable… it's like, 'I've already done this once, so I know exactly how it's going to go, and all I have to do is try,'" Johnston said.

To see what Pete Johnston has achieved, Callum Johnston said, "really makes me proud."

"...I see these things that my family does, and, you know, I don't know if I mentioned this earlier, but I have a big family…so seeing these great things that they all do, and like, especially this, it just, it really makes me proud," Callum Johnston said. "It really makes me proud that I, you know, share a last name with this guy, you know?"

Similarly, Bare said he hopes that the tournament went well for Pete Johnston.

"I was just hoping that it was a positive experience for him, you know, that he came out of it feeling good about what he went out and did," Bare said. "And of course, you know, winning is great if you can win. But for the most part, I just wanted him to feel good about it."

Pete Johnston hopes he was able to convey his true self on the show.

"I like to just try to let my personality through a little bit and have fun," Pete Johnston said. "I mean, I'm not super competitive. I feel like I'm kind of, I'm realistic about my knowledge, and I know that, like in terms of my knowledge, I'm not at the top of Jeopardy! contestants, but I think the first time around, I understood that it's not always just your pure knowledge, but it's specifically the game itself, and a lot of it is like buzzing in on time, and so that's what I feel it's like. I'm just gonna try my best, play my game and let my personality, you know, show through."

The 2025 Jeopardy! Second Chance Tournament will begin to air on Monday, Dec. 15, with Pete Johnston appearing as one of the contestants on Wednesday, Dec. 17.