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'Jeopardy!' star Christine Whelchel doesn't want fans to 'underestimate her' before Tournament of Champions

The four-day 'Jeopardy!' champion was asked to return for the show’s biggest competition, the all-winners tournament, hosted by Ken Jennings

'Jeopardy!' champion and breast cancer survivor, Christine Whelchel, who made headlines for removing her wig during her $73.6K winning streak last season, warned fans not to underestimate her before the latest season of Tournament of Champions.

The four-day 'Jeopardy! Champion was asked to return for the show’s biggest competition, the all-winners tournament, hosted by Ken Jennings. It is scheduled to air from October 31. Whelchel revealed that this time, instead of a phone call, the organizers sent her a text to ask if she wanted to participate. "It was a text," Christine exclusively told The US Sun on Friday, August 26. "I screamed. And my kids heard me and asked 'Mom are you okay?'"

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Christine, who also honed her skills as a church organist and piano teacher, wrapped up her original season in July which is re-airing on the ABC network till September. The star champion revealed she was not expecting any call, message, or even a text as her streak was far-far behind the winner of the last season. As per the rules of the Tournament of the Champions, a player must have won at least four games within the past year and Christine had the first four-game winning streak after Amy Schenider won 40 games and $1.3M.

“I got completely bumped off the tracker and no one knew they were revamping. That was hard. I really thought I was out, after all the winners - I don't know if anyone has been passed up on the Tournament of Champions tracker so quickly. I was a little down on myself," she added.

“Being a four-game winner - I’m on the bubble, and then streak after streak happened and I was like, 'never mind.' [My fifth game] was so close, it came down to the final clue of Double Jeopardy! It was a pretty easy $2000 clue that I knew but I was one slow thumb twitch from having a locked position in the tournament. But [when the list grew this year from 15 to 21 players] I was able to quit kicking myself.”

Talking about her preparation for the upcoming season which is set to begin airing on October 31 in place of regular episodes, Christine said fans should not underestimate her and she is all set to win even bigger than her last performance. She further compared the tournament of champions with NFL sports, saying “Jeopardy is very much like NFL football, an 'any given Sunday' kind of thing - anyone who has gotten this far, its a case when anything can happen. I have two wheelhouse categories and those hardly came up at all in my five games so I didn't get to flex on that - I'm crossing my fingers on that." Wondering what those are? It would be "classical music or religion" she said, sweetly.