Spoiler alert: The following contains the outcome of Monday’s episode of “Jeopardy!”
And that’s a wrap.
“Jeopardy!” contestant James Holzhauer lost on Monday, ending his 33-day run on the game show, during which he took home a total of $2,464,216, including $2,000 for his second-place finish to new champ Emma Boettcher. He came up just $56,484 shy of besting the all-time record set by Ken Jennings for non-tournament play.
“Nobody likes to lose,” Holzhauer said in an interview with the New York Times published Monday. “But I’m very proud of how I did, and I really exceeded my own expectations for the show. So I don’t feel bad about it.”
“Jeopardy!” airs mostly in evening timeslots, but has already run in a few cities earlier Monday, including Little Rock, Arkansas; Meridian, Mississippi; and Jackson, Tennessee.
Holzhauer, 34, made a splash during his winning streak on the show by taking the board by storm, going for the highest-dollar questions first and hunting for Daily Doubles. Then, he bet big. The professional sports gambler from Las Vegas explained to the Times that his huge advantage on the trivia show was that he wasn’t afraid to risk his winnings.
“The fact that I win and lose money all the time helps desensitize me, so I can write down $60,000 as the Final Jeopardy wager and not be trembling at the thought of losing that money,” he said.
Except on Monday, when he didn’t. Holzhauer, along with his two rivals, gave the correct response (“Who is Marlowe”?) to the clue: The line “A great reckoning in a little room” in “As You Like It” is usually taken to refer to this author’s premature death. But with $23,400 going into the round, he wagered only $1,399, an unusually “modest” bet, as host Alex Trebek termed it.
Boettcher, who led going into the round, bet big and finished the victor.
During his nearly seven-week run on the show, Holzhauer crossed the $1 million mark on Day 15 and the $2 million mark on Day 27, becoming only the second person in the game show’s 35-year history (excluding an earlier NBC version) to reach the feat in regular-season play. He first appeared on April 4, and was absent only for a two-week Teachers Tournament that aired in mid-May. But his final episodes were taped in early April.
He also playfully teased early word of his exit on Twitter, with a reference to the “Drake Curse,” a reference to the singer as bad-luck omen: “Knew I shouldn’t have invited @Drake to the @Jeopardy taping.”
Knew I shouldn’t have invited @Drake to the @Jeopardy taping.
Computer programmer-turned-author Jennings made off with $2,520,700 over 74 games in 2004, one year after the show stopped limiting champions to five-day reigns and allowed them to compete until they lost.
Holzhauer’s financial haul is even more impressive given the pace of his winnings. He holds the top 15 daily money totals, including the one-day record of $131,127 set April 17. Jennings averaged $34,064 during his 74-game run.
In a recent Q&A with Wired, Jennings said he was “gobsmacked” by Holzhauer’s hot streak.
“I thought I had seen everything on ‘Jeopardy!’ And this is something I would have thought was just impossible,” Jennings said. “He’s maximizing money. He can make two or three times what any other player ever has with that same level of play, which again is top-shelf. He’s as good as anybody.”
A look at Holzhauer’s day-by-day winnings:
Game 1) April 4: $43,680
Game 2) April 5: $38,926
Game 3) April 8: $50,845
Game 4) April 9: $110,914
Game 5) April 10: $54,322
Game 6) April 11: $27,190
Game 7) April 12: $89,158
Game 8) April 15: $45,444
Game 9) April 16: $106,181
Game 10) April 17: $131,127
Game 11) April 18: $74,133
Game 12) April 19: $80,006
Game 13) April 22: $90,812
Game 14) April 23: $118,816
Game 15) April 24: $73,621
Game 16) April 25: $90,812
Game 17) April 26: $49,600
Game 18) April 29: $54,017
Game 19) April 30: $96,726
Game 20) May 1: $101,682
Game 21) May 2: $80,615
Game 22) May 3: $82,381
(Teachers tournament aired May 4-17)
Game 23) May 20: $89,229
Game 24) May 21: $86,905
Game 25) May 22: $71,885
Game 26) May 23: $52,108
Game 27) May 24: $74,400
Game 28) May 27: $130,022
Game 29) May 28: $59,381
Game 30) May 29: $69,033
Game 31) May 30: $58,612
Game 32) May 31: $79,633
Contributing: Bill Keveney
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