james holzhauer has won the most money on jeopardy in a single game.
james holzhauer has won the most money on jeopardy in a single game.
who has won the most money on jeopardy in a single game?
james holzhauer
the holder of the all-time record for single-day winnings on "jeopardy!" is james holzhauer. holzhauer first surpassed the record of $77,000, held since 2010 by roger craig, when he earned $110,914 on the episode that aired on april 9, 2019. holzhauer pushed his own single-day record to $131,127 on the episode that aired april 17, 2019, by amassing $71,114 over the episode's first two rounds, then successfully wagering an additional $60,013 in the final jeopardy! round. holzhauer's total of 33 consecutive appearances stands alone for second all time in regular game play; when he departed the show he held the top-16 spots for highest single-day regular-game winnings and is the only player to win $100,000 or more (achieved six different times) on a single-day in regular play. on april 15, 2019, holzhauer moved into second place for regular play "jeopardy!" winnings (behind jennings) and third place for all "jeopardy!"-related winnings (behind rutter and jennings). on april 23, 2019, holzhauer joined rutter and jennings as the third "jeopardy!"-made millionaire. the next day, holzhauer moved onto the top ten list for all-time american game show winnings at #10, joining rutter (#1) and jennings (#2) on that list. holzhauer was defeated on the june 3, 2019 episode, finishing in second place. his winnings on "jeopardy!" totaled $2,464,216, $58,484 behind jennings' record. including over $58,000 from a 2014 appearance on "the chase", with holzhauer's $2.46 million from "jeopardy!", he is #4 on the list of all-time american game show winnings.
jeopardy!
one week after "super millionaire" came to an end, ken jennings of salt lake city, utah became the new champion on "jeopardy!" the episode, which was broadcast on june 2, was the first in a long winning streak for the software engineer, made possible due to a change at the beginning of that season (the show's twentieth on air in syndication), eliminating the longstanding rule limiting consecutive appearances for a champion to five. with no limit to his appearances, jennings began to break many game show records. as his streak continued deeper into the 21st season, jennings was inching closer and closer to olmstead's record. on november 3, 2004, jennings topped olmstead's "millionaire" winnings with his 65th consecutive win, finishing the day with $45,099 and a new cumulative total of $2,197,000 (). jennings won nine more games before his streak came to an end on november 30, 2004 at the hands of contestant nancy zerg. he had extended his record total to $2,520,700 at the time of his defeat, after which he was awarded an additional $2,000 for finishing in second place per "jeopardy!" rules. shortly after jennings's defeat, "jeopardy!" decided to see how he would fare in tournament play. on february 9, 2005, the show launched its ultimate tournament of champions, inviting back 144 other past champions to compete over the next three months in a five-round single-elimination tournament with a $2,000,000 grand prize. the field included the highest-winning five-time champions and winners of some previous tournaments, though not all invitees were able to participate. jennings received a bye into the finals of the tournament, where he faced semi-final winners jerome vered and brad rutter in a three-game, cumulative total match. vered had set a single-day scoring record during his appearance on the show in 1992, while rutter had won the 2001 tournament of champions and the 2002 million dollar masters tournament and was the show's highest-earning contestant of all-time before jennings. in the tournament's three-day final, rutter defeated jennings and vered to win the tournament and $2,000,000, supplanting jennings as the winningest all time american game show contestant in the process. including the $1.18 million he had won in his previous "jeopardy!" appearances (five regular season games, a tournament of champions win, the million dollar masters win, and three matches in the earlier rounds of the ultimate tournament of champions), rutter's total stood at $3,255,102, while jennings was now second with $3,022,700 having gained an additional $500,000 for his second-place finish in the tournament. jennings slowly began to chip away at rutter's record, first by winning $714.29 in 2006 as part of the mob on nbc's "1 vs. 100." a year later, jennings won the "grand slam" tournament on game show network and the $100,000 top prize by defeating ogi ogas in the final round. finally, on october 10, 2008, jennings passed rutter by winning $500,000 on "are you smarter than a 5th grader?"; he extended the record by winning $300,000 in the ibm challenge, where he and rutter took on ibm supercomputer watson in a special "jeopardy!" event in 2011. rutter won $200,000 in the challenge, in which both he and jennings pledged half of their winnings to charity. rutter then added $100,000 more when he appeared on "million dollar mind game", raising his total to $3,555,102, second only to jennings's $3,923,414.29. in 2014, jennings and rutter were both invited to play in the "jeopardy!" battle of the decades, a tournament conducted by the producers of "jeopardy!" to celebrate its thirtieth season in syndication. both men advanced to the two-day tournament final with roger craig (who had set the previous single-day winnings record of $77,000 in 2010) filling the third position. needing a win to reclaim his record, rutter took the top prize in the tournament after jennings, who needed to answer the second day's final jeopardy clue correctly to win (after making a sufficient wager), failed to do so. rutter won the top prize of $1,000,000 while jennings won the $100,000 second prize. jennings appeared on "millionaire" in november 2014. winning the top prize was the only way he could reclaim the record from rutter; however, he finished with only $100,000, leaving him in second place. he was then a contestant on the abc primetime show "500 questions" in 2016; however, as he only lasted four questions, he was unable to add to his total. both jennings and rutter competed in the "jeopardy!" all-star games in 2019. under the format of that tournament, teams of three competed in a relay to win a $1,000,000 top prize split between them. thus, either jennings or rutter would be able to add up to $333,333.33 to their total as captain of their respective team if they won. it would not have been enough for jennings to surpass rutter. but it was rutter's team who won the tournament, with jennings's team finishing second and splitting $300,000.
american game show winnings records