Smithtown's Lindsay Denninger gets a 'Second Chance' to win 'Jeopardy!'

After landing in second place on an episode of "Jeopardy!" in July, Smithtown writer Lindsay Denninger is among the 18 also-rans taking part in the quiz show’s fourth Second Chance Competition, set to air 7 p.m. weekdays from Dec. 30 to Jan. 10 on WABC/7.

"They texted me a month ago," says Denninger, 37, who has worked as a brand copywriter and editor for clients including Amazon, Ann Taylor and Uniqlo and also writes on pop culture, including an upcoming oral history of TV’s "Gossip Girl." "The producer was, like, any interest? And I answered, ‘Of course! You're asking if I'll go back? I'll go pack my bags!’"

A lifelong "Jeopardy!" viewer, her quick-draw responses to the televised clues inspired a family rule while she was growing up: "I had to let Alex [Trebek], RIP, finish reading the clue before I was allowed to answer, because I would go too quickly and then nobody else would get a chance," she remembers.

Denninger auditioned multiple times before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the syndicated show offered its online test only at certain times. Once the pandemic hit, and continuing now, she says, "You can take the test whenever, and [if chosen for the next step] you audition on Zoom. And then you are just floating in the contestant pool to see if they call you."

Once at the Alex Trebek Stage at Sony Pictures Studio in Culver City, California, to shoot the episode that ran July 23 under current host Ken Jennings, she found the stage "so much smaller than you would imagine. I think my high school auditorium could have fit it in twice," says the Smithtown High graduate, who went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from C.W. Post College, now LIU Post, and a master’s degree in British and American literature from Manhattan’s Hunter College.

"You do an hour, hour-and-a-half rehearsal before you even start taping," she says of her first episode. "I got really comfortable and felt really good, and then just jumped right in and gave the guy who won a real run for his money. I was close for a while and then it just kind of fell off at Final Jeopardy!," the last round. She came in second place behind software engineer Neilesh Vinjamuri and ahead of PhD student Tim Herd.

And by luck of the draw, she did not compete against a fellow Long Islander: Islip’s Will Weiss, who won $29,600 over three episodes shot on May 30.

"We were in the same room at the same day," Denninger marvels. "He was the first person I greeted, and he was, like, ‘Where are you from?’ I said, ‘New York.’ And then it just kept narrowing down: Oh, where? Long Island. Where on Long Island? Suffolk," and so on.

She is the daughter of retired New York City police SWAT Officer Ray Denninger, now in corporate security, and Vicki Denninger, an executive concierge at Northwell Health., Lindsay Denninger was born in Levittown, raised in Smithtown and then lived in New York City for 15 years. She and husband Henry Bennett, an NYC Ferry captain, relocated to Smithtown last year.

Denninger, who shot her "Jeopardy!" return stint last week, competes during the second week of the Second Chance Competition. She and family and friends had a viewing party for her first show in July, "and we ordered a bunch of Chipotle and stuffed our faces with burritos," she recalls. "Maybe," she adds, "we'll get pizza this time!"