Tag: Jeopardy

Here are the results from Day 2 of the ‘Jeopardy!’ Greatest of All Time

Here’s what went down Wednesday night.

WARNING: JEOPARDY! SPOILERS AHEAD! DO NOT SCROLL DOWN UNLESS YOU’VE WATCHED THE JAN. 8 EPISODE OR WANT IT SPOILED!

Are we all ready?

Okay.

On Tuesday, we saw the first round of Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time, pitting legendary champions James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter against each other in a multi-night battle to declare who’s the GOAT of the quiz show hosted by Alex Trebek. After all the joking trash talk and possible leaks, we finally got to the actual games.

Jennings took the first game, going up 1-0-0 on his opponents, two wins away from an overall victory.

Here are the results from Wednesday night — we’ll break it down to the two games the trio played, along with who won the entire second match (and again: SPOILER ALERT! Everything is below this awesome photo of Holzhauer and Alex Trebek):

(Photo by Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI via Getty Images)

Game 1

Holzhauer nailed an early Daily Double (he finally found one!) and took off from there, leading in the first round. Then, he went all in (!!!) on a second-round Daily Double with 13,600 points and got the answer. Jennings followed with an all-in Daily Double of his own and attempted to keep pace. Rutter, once again, was a distant third. By Final Jeopardy, Holzhauer led with 32,400, Jennings had 22,000 and Rutter had 7,200.

The Final Jeopardy category was Influential Writing, and here was the clue:

Its second line is “all the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope & Czar, Metternich & Guizot … “

All three got it: “What is the Communist Manifesto?”

After the first game the scores were:

Holzhauer: 44,314

Jennings: 40,000

Rutter: 14,400

Game 2

Rutter got an early Daily Double right (finally!), but he had the lead for barely any time as his two opponents were ahead after the first round. Rutter lead off Double Jeopardy and got another one right away … and missed it. Holzhauer then found the other and got a true Daily Double to take the lead. By the time the round ended, Holzhauer had 22,800, Jennings had 21,200, and Rutter had -3,600 (nope, not a typo, he had a rough game and was therefore disqualified from participating in Final Jeopardy).

The Final Jeopardy category was 19th Century Leaders, and here was the clue:

Tall, lanky Joel Barlow was an ambassador carrying messages between these 2 world leaders, both mocked for being short.

Only Holzhauer nailed it: Who are Napoleon and Madison?

Their second-game scores were:

Holzhauer: 38,100

Jennings: 17,400

Rutter: 0

Overall Match winner

Remember, the winner of the night is the total points scored in both games together. So here are the final totals:

Holzhauer: 82,414

Jennings: 57,400

Rutter: 14,400

Both Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer have won one match each.

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Jeopardy! GOAT: Ken Jennings used one of James Holzhauer’s moves and nailed it

All the chips!

The Jeopardy Greatest of All Time tournament continues to be some really fun television as Ken Jennings, James Holzhauer, and Brad Rutter faced off in the second episode on Wednesday night.

Jennings won the first night and the first one to three total wins is the champ, so things were a little more intense on night two.

But Jennings did find a moment to have some fun of his own, thanks to some prompting by Alex Trebek.

Jennings landed on a Daily Double in the night’s first game and needed to keep pace with Holzhauer so he went all in. But then he had to do Holzhauer’s classic all in gesture:

Here’s a reminder of Holzhauer being Holzauher during his epic run last spring:

Jennings got the answer right, by the way, as the two continued to battle in the second episode.

Yeah, this is fun.

How the Jeopardy! GOAT contestants are supporting Alex Trebek’s fight against cancer

The three contestants are supporting Trebek with what they’re wearing.

It may have been subtle to some viewers who tuned into watch the first night of Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time.

But there was a tribute to Alex Trebek on the screen thanks to the three legendary contestants — Ken Jennings, James Holzhauer and Brad Rutter — as the host (who, let’s face it, is the real answer to, “Who is the Jeopardy! GOAT?”) battles with pancreatic cancer.

As you can see from the photo below, all three are wearing purple ribbons, which are in support of pancreatic cancer research. It’s not the first time Trebek has received a tribute from contestants — you might recall Dhruv Gaur writing “We love you Alex” as his Final Jeopardy answer on a show that aired in November.

Here’s a look at the ribbons:

(Eric McCandless/ABC via AP)

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James Holzhauer hilariously owned Pat McAfee over Jeopardy! GOAT debate

Good point, Jeopardy James.

The Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time tournament is officially underway as game show greats James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter compete in a special series to determine who is truly the best of the best.

Jennings — who holds the record for consecutive games won with 74 — won the first match in the opening hour-long episode of the GOAT tournament Tuesday. A match is the combined score of two regular games, and the first player to win three matches will be crowned the Jeopardy! GOAT.

He won the first game, and Holzhauer won the second. But with their combined points totals for the first match, Jennings is on top after beating out Holzhauer by a ridiculously slim margin with 63,400 points versus 63,200. (Rutter gambled big on Daily Doubles and lost, finishing the first match with 10,400 points.)

Holzhauer has been trash talking his competitors on Twitter and even made a joke at Rutter’s expense during the first match. He’s clearly having fun with the tournament, which taped in December, and poking fun at his experiences.

And his sass game was strong Wednesday when he hilariously owned ESPN analyst and former NFL punter Pat McAfee, who was offering his support to the professional sports gambler.

Good point.

While all three contestants certainly have loyal fans, Holzhauer has an advantage when it comes to recency bias with Jennings and Rutter first appearing on the show in 2004 and 2000, respectively. He dominated the game like no one ever has, and whether or not you think he’s the GOAT, he undeniably changed Jeopardy! forever with his strategy.

His 2019 Jeopardy! run reignited the GOAT debate and led to this special tournament — which could be as short as three matches or as long as seven — which was specifically designed to crown the best of the best.

So regardless of whether casual fans, diehard viewers or McAffee think Holzhauer is the GOAT, if he doesn’t win this tournament, he’s officially not.

Here’s a same of Jeopardy James’ tweets reacting to the first match:

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5 important things we learned from the opening night of ‘Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time’

So far, it has lived up to the hype.

It’s rare that something lives up to the hype in an era when everything gets hyped up.

But Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time — the multi-night special primetime tournament that pits James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter against each other in the legendary game show — absolutely lives up to the hype.

To watch these three duke it out in an hour’s worth of Jeopardy goodness is like watching the trivia version of Cavaliers-Warriors — you marvel at what this trio digs out from their fact-filled brains over and over, and it’s just downright fun.

We also learned some important things from the first night. Here’s a breakdown:

1. We shouldn’t have underestimated Jennings

Just read what my colleague Andy Nesbitt had to say about that. Holzhauer has absolutely met his match.

2. Rutter has some work to do

Let’s all remember that Rutter is a legend in his own right, having won a bunch of the big-money tournaments Jeopardy has held over the years. But on Tuesday, he struggled on occasion after buzzing in, and after hunting down some Daily Doubles, he missed them after going all in to keep up with his opponents. That said, there’s plenty of time to catch up.

3. Everyone has adapted to use Holzhauer’s strategy

The Holzhauer is basically hunting for Daily Doubles in pricier clues and betting a lot on them. We saw Rutter and Jennings grab them on Day 1, playing keep-away from Holzhauer. If they have any shot at beating him, that’s the way to do it.

4. The clues were harder

There were triple rhymes! Before, during and after! Czars! A lot of scientist names! Also, I don’t know about these guys, but I would be super distracted by all the celebrity guest stars who appeared.

5. Even GOATs miss clues

If we’re stretching the comparison I made above, sometimes Steph Curry has a bad shooting night. And these dudes, who are legends, missed a few here and there. It happens!

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Ken Jennings is the baddest man on the Jeopardy! planet

Don’t mess with Ken Jennings.

This is the online version of our morning newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning.

Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings had to sit there in his Seattle home all of last spring and watch as the confident and personable James Holzhauer went on his dominant run and won over large parts of America.

Time and again during that streak Jennings had to hear others, including Holzhauer, speak of how this professional gambler from Las Vegas, this Jeopardy James character, could take out anyone in this game, even the great Ken Jennings.

Imagine how Jennings felt having to listen to these claims. Jennings, as we know, is the GOAT of Jeopardy, having won a record 74 games in a row. Holzhauer only had a 32-game streak but still, in this day-and-age of what have-you-done-for-me-lately attitudes, everyone was wow’d by how much money Holzhauer was winning on each show and how easily he was beating his competition, and how his strategy was game-changing!

On Tuesday night Jennings finally got his shot at Holzhauer (and Brad Rutter), as the first episode of Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time aired. It was a very close night and a perfect way to kick off the tournament. I’m going to give a spoiler here, so if you didn’t watch, go away right now. Dump your phone in your coffee. Turn and sprint out of your office. Throw your computer off the desk.

Do whatever it takes (within reason).

Because here comes a spoiler.

Jennings, the GOAT, let everyone know he’s still the baddest man in the Jeopardy planet as he went all-in on a Daily Double in the Double Jeopardy round and then held on to win the first game of the night with 33,200 points. Holzhauer finished in second with 16,600 and then Rutter was third with 5,200 after missing an all-in Daily Double in the Double Jeopardy round.

What a message sent by Jennings, who is second only to Rutter in most money earned on Jeopardy. What. A. Stud.

Here’s a man who won 74(!) in a row and had to hear doubters weigh in with thoughts that some big personality professional gambler could take down the champ.

Shame on them!

Sure, Holzhauer won the night’s second game but Jennings won the overall night by 200 points over Jeopardy James and takes a 1-0 lead into the rest of the tournament.

This special Jeopardy tournament could go three nights if Jennings wins the next two, or it could go seven nights if it goes the distance. Either way, this seems like a nice little distraction from all that’s going on in the world right now.

And here’s to Ken Jennings, one of the greatest mental athletes of our time looking to prove once and for all that nobody takes down the king.

He’s now just two steps away from history.

I know I wouldn’t bet against him.

Tuesday’s biggest winner: J.J. Watt and Kealia Ohai.

AFP PHOTO / ANGELA WEISSANGELA WEISS/AFP/Getty Images

The Houston Texans star rightly stuck up for his fiancee, Kealia Ohai, after a local ABC station tweeted a terrible headline about Ohai, a professional soccer player, being traded from the Houston Dash to the Chicago Red Stars. Well done, J.J.

Quick hits: McGregor’s awful UFC shirt… Stephen A. Smith crushes Giants…  Kevin Love’s childish outburst… And more!

– There’s no way Conor McGregor can wear this official walkout shirt at UFC 246 next week. It’s just awful.

– Stephen A. Smith rightly destroyed the Giants over the Rooney Rule.

– Kevin Love admitted he acted like a child during an on-court outburst.

– Former Eagles RB Jay Ajayi is now a pro FIFA player for the Philadelphia Union.

– Ravens are now nervous about the Drake Curse.

(Follow me on Twitter at @anezbitt. It might change your life. Just don’t tell me about your fantasy team.)

Jeopardy! GOAT: James Holzhauer hilariously taunted Brad Rutter after getting answer right

This was pretty good from Jeopardy James.

Tuesday night was the first episode of the Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time tournament, which is a primetime showdown between three of the best to ever play the game – James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter.

The three Jeopardy legends will be competing in three, hour-long episodes (which were shot back in December) this week. Here’s a good breakdown/refresher of how the tournament will work.

Holzhauer, who became one of the greatest to play the game during his wild run last spring and then later won the 2019 Tournament of Champions, had some fun talking trash to Jennings before the airings.

And then during Tuesday night’s episode he had fun playfully taunting Rutter after nailing an answer:

Rutter is from Lancaster, Pa., so that was a fun jab at a getting a question right about Philadelphia.

Holzhauer had a perfect tweet about it, too:

Here are the results from Tuesday’s episode, by the way. I don’t want to spoil it for you.

Fans loved it:

Here are the results from Day 1 of the ‘Jeopardy!’ Greatest of All Time

Who won the first match?

WARNING: JEOPARDY! SPOILERS AHEAD! DO NOT SCROLL DOWN UNLESS YOU’VE WATCHED THE JAN. 7 EPISODE OR WANT IT SPOILED!

Are we all ready?

Okay.

Tuesday kicked off Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time, pitting legendary champions James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter against each other in a multi-night battle to declare who’s the GOAT of the quiz show hosted by Alex Trebek. After all the joking trash talk and possible leaks, we finally got to the actual games.

Here are the results from Tuesday night — we’ll break it down to the two games the trio played, along with who won the entire first match (and again: SPOILER ALERT! Everything is below this awesome photo of Holzhauer and Alex Trebek):

(Photo by Eliot J. Schechter/NHLI via Getty Images)

Game 1

The group was neck and neck after the first round, but Jennings went all-in on a Daily Double in the Double Jeopardy round and nailed it, while Rutter did the same on the other Daily Double and missed it. That left Holzhauer without his best weapon and by the time Final Jeopardy came, Jennings was up to 33,200, Holzhauer had 16,600 and Rutter had 5,200.

The Final Jeopardy category was Presidents & The Bible, and here was the clue:

“Silent” Calvin Coolidge was inaugurated in 1925 on a Bible open to this 6-word first line of the gospel according to John.

All three got the answer: “In the beginning was the word.”

After the first game the scores were:

Jennings: 45,000

Holzhauer: 33,200

Rutter: 10,400

Game 2

Once again, the three were pretty close after round No. 1. But Rutter got two chances at Daily Doubles in Double Jeopardy and missed them both, sending him back to zero twice. Holzhauer and Jennings dueled, with both of them missing answers and Rutter making a furious comeback. By the end of Double Jeopardy, Holzhauer led with 15,000, Jennings was in second with 12,200, and Rutter had 10,000.

The Final Jeopardy category was Astronomers, and here was the clue:

This man’s name was given to a comet that crashed into Jupiter in 1994; he’s the only human whose remains lie on the moon.

Both Holzhauer and Jennings nailed it: Who is Eugene Shoemaker?

Their second-game scores were:

Holzhauer: 30,000

Jennings: 18,400

Rutter: 0

Overall Match winner

Remember, the winner of the night is the total points scored in both games together. So here are the final totals:

Jennings: 63,400

Holzhauer: 63,200

Rutter: 10,400

Ken Jennings took a 1-0 lead over his opponents.

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Jeopardy! GOAT: Everything you need to know about the tournament

James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings or Brad Rutter: Who will win the “Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time” tournament?

Welcome to FTW Explains: A guide to catching up on and better understanding stuff going on in the world.

You may have heard about some epic Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time contest, but you don’t really know what that means or what’s happening — and you want to. That’s OK; we’re here to help.

Three of the best and winningest Jeopardy! contestants ever, James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, will face off in a special series to determine which player is the Jeopardy! GOAT. The debate over this was reignited in 2019 when Holzhauer, a professional sports gambler, went on a 32-game win streak, dominating his competition in a way fans and competitors had never seen before.

ABC reality programming chief Rob Mills told USA TODAY that after Holzhauer’s incredible run, the network “had to make this happen” and called it his “dream project”.

So this special Jeopardy! tournament is to determine, once and for all (or until someone new comes along), who the GOAT is.

What is Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time?

As we said, it’s a special tournament for three players: James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Unlike the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions where several winners from the previous season (or seasons) compete and are eliminated, this competition will feature only these three players.

While 35-year-old Holzhauer’s 32-game win streak (No. 2 all time) aired this past spring, Jennings, 41, won 74 consecutive games (No. 1 all time) in 2004. Rutter, 45, first appeared on the show in 2000 when contestants were limited to five-game win streaks, but he has earned the most prize money of all time with about $4.7 million thanks to tournaments

“When James had his run last year, a lot of people were wondering, well how would he do against Ken Jennings? How would he do against Brad Rutter? (They’re) our two most successful players in “Jeopardy!” history,” host Alex Trebek said in an interview with USA TODAY. “These three players have won close to $10 million in ‘Jeopardy!’ prize money and over 100 games among them, so it was logical.”

If you need a refresher about who these guys are, our Charles Curtis broke down each player’s stats and history on Jeopardy! and what makes them qualified to be in a GOAT contest.

When is Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time?

This special tournament taped in December. The first show will air Tuesday, January 7 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC, and there will be at least two more on Wednesday and Thursday at the same time. Each show is an hour long with the tournament’s unique format, but more on that later.

Is it replacing regular daily Jeopardy! programming?

No, regularly scheduled Jeopardy! episodes will still air this week at their typical times on their usual channels. The Greatest of All Time series is separate.

Is the Jeopardy! GOAT series played in the same format as the traditional show?

(Eric McCandless/ABC via AP)

Yes and no. The game itself will be the same as always, but determining the winner of the whole tournament is totally different.

Each one-hour show consists of two complete Jeopardy! games, which normally stand alone to fill 30-minute TV slots. Those two games equal a match, and the player with the most winnings from the two combined games wins the match. The first player to win three matches will be named the Jeopardy! GOAT.

For example, if Holzhauer, Jennings and Rutter each win one of the first three matches this week, there will be at least two more matches.

Because of the format, the tournament could be as short as three days or as long as seven, and the shows will air on consecutive weeknights, except Monday, until someone wins three matches.

What does the winner get?

Aside from lifetime bragging rights — there’s been plenty of trash talk leading up to this competition — the winner of the Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time tournament will receive $1 million, while the two runners-up will get $250,000 each.

What is the Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time TV schedule?

The GOAT tournament will air:

Tuesday, January 7, 8-9 p.m. ET
Wednesday, January 8, 8-9 p.m. ET
Thursday, January 9, 8-9 p.m. ET
Friday, January 10, 8-9 p.m. ET*
Tuesday, January 14, 8-9 p.m. ET*
Wednesday, January 15, 8-9 p.m. ET*
Thursday, January 16, 8-9 p.m. ET*

*If necessary.

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The Jeopardy GOAT tale of the tape: How James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter measure up

The GOAT tournament is here!

The answer: Who is the Jeopardy GOAT?

The clue: This the question we’re all waiting for Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time to answer, starting on Tuesday night on ABC at 8 p.m. ET, in a series of one-hour back-to-back games.

The special series pits James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter — three of its biggest winners — against each other, with the victor claiming serious bragging rights and also $1 million (the runner-ups get $250,000, which is still a huge Jeopardy! payday).

If you’re not familiar with them all, this is your guide, a tale of the tape as they get set to face off in primetime.

(Carol Kaelson/Jeopardy Productions, Inc. via AP, File)

James Holzhauer

Longest winning streak: 32 games (second all-time)

Career regular-season winnings: $2,462,216 (second all-time)

All-time winnings including special tournaments: $2,712,216 (third all-time)

Other accomplishments: He owns every place in the top 10 of single-game winnings thanks to his super-aggressive betting, especially on Daily Doubles; won the 2019 Tournament of Champions, defeating Emma Boettcher — who eliminated him in the regular season to stop his win streak — in the process.

(AP Photo)

Ken Jennings

Longest winning streak: 74 games (first all-time)

Career regular-season winnings: $2,520,700 (first all-time)

All-time winnings including special tournaments: $3,370,700 (second all-time)

Other accomplishments: Finished second to Brad Rutter in the Ultimate Tournament of Champions and in Battle of the Decades, and second to IBM computer Watson.

(Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images) 

Brad Rutter

Longest winning streak: five games (note that he competed in 2000, when the rules limited contestants to winning just five before stepping away from the show)

Career regular-season winnings: $55,102

All-time winnings including special tournaments: $4,688,436 (first all-time)

Other accomplishments: He’s won the 2001 Tournament of Champions, the Million Dollar Masters, the Ultimate Tournament of Champions, Battle of the Decades, and the All-Star Games. He also placed third against Watson.

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