Champions who were still reigning when their respective first shows aired

[Robert K S]

Molly Redfield (Seasons 7-8), first game aired July 2, 1991; losing tape date August 5, 1991
Steve Chernicoff (Seasons 10-11), first game aired July 7, 1994; losing tape date July 19, 1994
Isaac Segal (Seasons 11-12)?, first game aired July 4, 1995; losing tape date ???
Kirstin Olsen (Seasons 12-13), first game aired July 12, 1996; losing tape date August 6, 1996
Dan Melia (Seasons 13-14)?, first game aired July 18, 1997; last tape date July 22, 1997???
Ken Jennings (Seasons 20-21), first game aired June 2, 2004; losing tape date September 7, 2004
David Madden (Seasons 21-22), first game aired July 5, 2005; losing tape date July 25, 2005
Ben Taylor (Seasons 23-24), first game aired July 13, 2007; losing tape date July 17, 2007
Stefan Goodreau (Seasons 25-26), first game aired July 20, 2009; losing tape date July 28, 2009
Justin Sausville (Seasons 27-28), first game aired July 29, 2011; losing tape date August 2, 2011
Jared Hall (Seasons 29-30), first game aired July 25, 2013; losing tape date August 20, 2013
Tara Anderson (Seasons 31-32), first game aired July 31, 2015; losing tape date August 25, 2015
Zach Newkirk (Season 36-37)*, first game aired June 9, 2020; losing tape date December 9, 2020
Jason Zuffranieri (Seasons 35-36), first game aired July 19, 2019; losing tape date August 6, 2019
Matt Amodio (Seasons 37-38), first game aired July 21, 2021, losing tape date September 9, 2021
Luigi de Guzman (Seasons 38-39), first game aired July 29, 2022, losing tape date August 2, 2022.
Cris Pannullo (Season 39), first game aired September 30, 2022, presumably still the reigning champion as of October 9, 2022.

*Zach Newkirk appears by technicality: he did not defend his title on the Season 37 premiere, and was instead re-introduced to face Brian Chang on the show aired January 28, 2021. However, he would still have made the list had he played and lost in the Season 37 premiere, which taped July 28, 2020.

[Please help me complete this list!]

[Probably a lot of the early-season hiatus bookenders would make the list because tape lead times were shorter then.]

[DBear]

Technically, wouldn't anyone who won the last game of the season qualify?

[Robert K S]

Technically, wouldn't anyone who won the last game of the season qualify?

Presuming you mean "last regular play game", then not, for example, Ed Schiffer (Season 9 but not Season 10 because number of wins capped at 5); or David Bagley (Seasons 14-15), first show aired July 17, last show taped July 14; or Emily Thorsley (Seasons 24-25), first show aired July 25, last show taped July 15.

[MarkBarrett]

Sg!

[Bamaman]

Had S20 wrapped up when Ken’s first game aired?

[LucarioSnooperVixey]

Amy Schneider just missed overlapping herself. Had she made it to the following week, she still would have been champ after her first episode aired.

[teapot37]

Had S20 wrapped up when Ken’s first game aired?

S20 finished taping in April 2004 and Ken didn't start airing until June 2004.

[Cat Hammarskjold]

How about Claudia Corriere?

[OntarioQuizzer]

How about Claudia Corriere?

Her return taped before her first show aired.

[gameshowfandanny]

Some updates on this topic:
- Priscilla Ball would appear on this list in technicality because her first game aired on January 16, 2009, but because of illness, she didn't return until April 9 and lost on the 10th (both of those shows taped on February 3).
- Luigi de Guzman's first game aired on July 29, 2022 and his other five episodes taped on August 2.
- Mark Barrett explained Cris Pannullo's situation in yesterday's recap thread.

[Robert K S]

Priscilla Ball would not appear by quite the same technicality as Zach Newkirk. When Priscilla Ball's first show aired on 2009-01-16, Jeanie Welch was the reigning champion, having won the last game taped 2008-12-03 and returning to defend in the next regular play game to be taped on 2009-01-20. No champion had replaced Zach Newkirk, however, when Zach Newkirk's first game aired. I'm disinclined to include Priscilla on the list, but I'm open to debate about it.

Mark Barrett explained Cris Pannullo's situation in yesterday's recap thread.

Just to make it clearer, Cris Pannullo game 11 taped 2022-08-10, Cris Pannullo game 1 aired 2022-09-30, and Cris Pannullo game 12 (airdate TBD because of the variable-length 2022 ToC) presumably taped on 2022-10-10. Thus, Cris Pannullo was presumably still the reigning champion at the time of Cris's game 1 airdate on 2022-09-30.

[gameshowfandanny]

Priscilla Ball would not appear by quite the same technicality as Zach Newkirk. When Priscilla Ball's first show aired on 2009-01-16, Jeanie Welch was the reigning champion, having won the last game taped 2008-12-03 and returning to defend in the next regular play game to be taped on 2009-01-20. No champion had replaced Zach Newkirk, however, when Zach Newkirk's first game aired. I'm disinclined to include Priscilla on the list, but I'm open to debate about it.

Understood. Also, I didn't say much about Cris because I didn't want to spoil that he won yesterday, in case anyone hadn't seen it yet.

[jsach]

Some quick digging through my records and J-Archive turned up these to add to the list.

Alan Lefkowitz (Seasons 1-2), first game aired June 7, 1985; losing tape date July 1, 1985
Michael Goldwitz (Seasons 6-7), first game aired July 7, 1990; losing tape date July 30, 1990
Jim Weinstein (Seasons 8-9), first game aired July 3, 1992; losing tape date July 20, 1992

And also some notes:
Season 2 ended with a 5-timer retiring.
Season 4 began taping before Season 3 finished airing (6/15/87 - 7/24/87)
Season 5 began taping before Season 4 finished airing (7/18/88 - 7/22/88)
Season 6 began taping before Season 5 finished airing (6/12/89 - 7/21/89) (Even with the two week Senior tournament beginning 7/10, Kevin Glynn's run ended long before it aired)
Season 12's tape/air recordkeeping was shoddy.

[heelsrule1988]

Vinny Varadarajan, season 2 of Sports Jeopardy. I would know.

(hi btw! been a while)

[wbheath]

There are also some other champions that are put on this list
Mort Kamins (Seasons 16-17), first game aired July 21, 2000; losing tape date July 25, 2000
Sam Ott (Seasons 19-20), first game aired July 18, 2003; losing tape date July 22, 2003
Brad Jeffcoat (Seasons 22-23), first game aired July 28, 2006; losing tape date August 2, 2006