Vince Bacani’s Jeopardy! run is officially over, but the Montreal-area champion went out on a high note with what’s being touted as the show’s “first ever” trilingual message in English, French and Mohawk.
The risk manager was part of the long-running quiz show’s Champions Wildcard Tournament, which pits past winners against one another. Bacani qualified after he won one of two games in January 2023.
Bacani, who hails from Brossard, Que., was back on the stage for his second and final game in the tournament when he was eliminated last Friday.
He described it as a tough game where he made a “couple of errors that really cost” him, including a gutsy daily double wager that even host Ken Jennings said he admired. But Bacani correctly answered the final Jeopardy! clue about theatre.
“The right player won so I have no regrets at all. It was just a just a great time,” Bacani said in an interview with Global News on Monday.
When Bacani jotted down his last response at the end of the show, he also scribbled “thanks, merci and niá:wen” — which the host quickly picked up on.
“And I think that’s our first ever trilingual, First Nations (message). Thank you. I love that,” Jennings said.
Bacani has ties to Kahnawake, a First Nations territory located south of Montreal and located not far from his own home.
Since fall 2021, he has been a pipe organist for the community’s Mohawk Church. Bacani explained he wanted to thank all of Kahnawake in his last appearance on the quiz show.
“I feel like I’m a part of the community now. They’ve gotten to know me,” Bacani said. “They were very supportive during my first run when I won my first game and I got onto some chat rooms and suddenly the whole town was watching.
“So, it was great to get them a little bit of a shout out.”
Bacani wasn’t the only Quebecer to make it the Champions Wildcard Tournament, either. His appearance aired the same week as Diandra D’Alessio, a technical writer from Montreal.
The two didn’t get the chance to face off against one another, but both of them won their first game and made it to the semifinals. D’Alessio was eliminated Monday night.
— with files from Global’s Anne Leclair and Dan Spector