James Holzhauer is already trash talking Ken Jennings ahead of their ‘Jeopardy!’ match

IT. IS. ON.

It’s happening. After the Jeopardy! rematch we were dying to see, the match that we all hoped for is on.

James Holzhauer will face Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter in a “Greatest of All Time” tournament, a primetime event starting on Jan. 7 at 8 p.m. Eastern.

That’s right, per a USA TODAY exclusive, Jennings — the man who won 74 straight games before bowing out — will get to prove he’s the Jeopardy! GOAT. Holzhauer — winner of 32 straight but who nearly bested Jennings’ all-time non-tournament winnings AND who just won the 2019 Tournament of Champions — will try to beat him for the crown.

And let’s not forget: Rutter won $4,688,436 in all-time winnings including tournaments. So he’s a darkhorse threat to his two opponents.

Holzhauer has already begun the trash talk, WWE-style, aimed at Jennings and Rutter:

IT’S ON!!!!

Here’s how the tournament is going to work, per USA TODAY:

It consists of a series of two back-to-back games, airing weeknights (8 EST/PST) beginning Jan. 7. The player with the most combined winnings from the two games wins the “match,” and the play continues on successive nights (except Monday) until one of them has won three matches and takes home a $1 million prize. (The other finishers get $250,000 apiece). That means the tournament can last anywhere from three to seven days.

It’s brilliant both from a gamesmanship and a marketing perspective, because it prevents any talk of “small sample size.” One winner-take-all game isn’t going to truly decide the title.

So here we go. It’s on. And we’ll be watching.

[opinary poll=”is-james-holzhauer-the-jeopardy-goat_for” customer=”forthewin”]