Tag: Jeopardy

Ken Jennings is the baddest man on the Jeopardy! planet

Don’t mess with Ken Jennings.

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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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The winner of the ‘Jeopardy’ GOAT tournament may have already leaked, according to a sportsbook

Uh-oh.

We’re just one night away from Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time, the special tournament in which James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter will all play in a head-to-head-to-head competition to determine who the GOAT is among some of the show’s best winners.

But because it was taped ahead of time, it’s possible that some folks other than the participants and those who work on the show know exactly who won.

And that could be verrrry hairy when it comes to betting on the outcome.

According to ESPN, taping happened in December and that bettors found out the winner, who reporter David Purdum didn’t reveal. Then, here’s what happened:

On Dec. 19, prominent offshore sportsbook Pinnacle took two $500-limit bets on Contestant X from the same account. The next day, three more max bets on Contestant X were placed from the same account, and Pinnacle took the odds off the board.

“I’m pretty sure at this stage that [the bettor] knew what was happening,” Marco Blume, trading director for Pinnacle, told ESPN.

On Dec. 23, a representative from Panama-based BetOnline.com tweeted that the sportsbook was closing the market on the GOAT tournament. “Some irregular betting patterns coming in. Stay tuned,” BetOnline chief Dave Mason posted on Twitter.

Mason later told ESPN that a sudden surge of bets came in on Contestant X, “one after another.”

Hoo boy. Of course, there’s a possibility that the rumor is just that, and some bettors are throwing their money away based on rumblings and not fact. But bookmakers have to be really careful when they see irregular betting patterns on something pre-taped — remember that a certain Game of Thrones character (SPOILER ALERT) had weirdly good odds to sit on the Iron Throne by the end of the series … and that’s who was on it by the finale?

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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.

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James Holzhauer vs. Emma Boettcher: Who won Day 2 of the ‘Jeopardy!’ Tournament of Champions Final?

The rematch is over.

WARNING: JEOPARDY! SPOILERS AHEAD! DO NOT SCROLL DOWN UNLESS YOU’VE WATCHED THE NOV. 15 EPISODE OR WANT IT SPOILED!

Are we all ready?

Okay.

It’s all over. James Holzhauer vs. Emma Boettcher II is done, with one of the players emerging from 2019 Tournament of Champions with the title after a two-day final. Francois Barcomb, the Teacher’s Tournament champ who made it through to the final, was also part of the trio who competed.

So how did they do on the last day of the two-day final?As we did this week, we’ll tweak our Holzhauer tracker and tell you what happened (and again: SPOILER ALERT! Everything is below this photo of Alex Trebek):

(Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)

Who won?

Holzhauer — who had a lead of nearly $23,000 after Day 1 — did, with Boettcher in second place and Barcomb in third.

So does that mean Holzhauer won the whole tournament?

It does! The two-day total he accrued was more than that of his other two opponents.

Cash totals

Holzhauer finished with $76,923 over two days, Boettcher ended with $65,000 and Barcomb had $5,000.

Final Jeopardy!

Ahead of the final round, Boettcher had a lead in the second day (although all that counted was the two-day total) with $21,600, Holzhauer had $17,785 and Barcomb had $1,600. The category was “International Disputes.” Here was the clue:

A dispute over Etorofu, Habomai, Kunashiri & Shikotan has kept these 2 countries from ever signing a WWII peace treaty.

The answer?

What is Russia and Japan?

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James Holzhauer vs. Emma Boettcher: Who won Day 1 of the ‘Jeopardy!’ Tournament of Champions Final?

Day 1 of the two-day final is over.

WARNING: JEOPARDY! SPOILERS AHEAD! DO NOT SCROLL DOWN UNLESS YOU’VE WATCHED THE NOV. 14 EPISODE OR WANT IT SPOILED!

Are we all ready?

Okay.

The matchup we all waited for was officially on for Thursday and Friday: James Holzhauer got to face off against Emma Boettcher in the two-day Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions final, along with Francois Barcomb, the Teacher’s Tournament champ who made it through this tourney as well.

So how did they do on the first day of the two-day final? As we did this week, we’ll tweak our Holzhauer tracker and tell you what happened (and again: SPOILER ALERT! Everything is below this photo of Alex Trebek):

(Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)

Who won?

Holzhauer did, with Boettcher in second place and Barcomb in third.

So does that mean Holzhauer won the whole tournament?

Not yet. There’s still one more day to go, and the tournament winner is determined by players’ two-day totals.

Cash totals

Holzhauer ended up with $49,326 on Day 1, while Boettcher got $26,400. Barcomb missed on Final Jeopardy and dropped to $1,800. None of them keep that real cash since first place wins $250,000 no matter how much money they end up with. Second place gets $100,000 and third is $50,000.

Final Jeopardy!

Holzhauer was in the lead going into Final Jeopardy with $37,412. Boettcher had $13,200 and Barcomb had $7,800.

The category was “Old Testament books” and here was the clue:

By Hebrew word count, the longest book bears this name that led to a word for a long complaint or rant.

The correct response?

What is Jeremiah?

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‘Wide Right’ becomes a ‘Jeopardy!’ clue

“Wide right” from Super Bowl XXV between the New York Giants and Buffalo Bills has become a new Jeopardy! clue, kind of.

There’s no question which Super Bowl was the most exciting — and deflating — in the history of the NFL.

It was Super Bowl XXV between the New York Giants and the Buffalo Bills. The game was played amid the backdrop of the impending first Gulf War. There was a lot of uncertainty and unity in the air that was galvanized by a great football game.

The night began with a soaring version of the national anthem by Whitney Houston and a sea of waving American flags. It ended with a missed 47-yard field goal by the Bills’ Scott Norwood that gave the Giants their second Super Bowl title. Buffalo fans have always held fast that the loss to the Giants is the one that hurt the most even though the Bills returned to the big game in each of the next three seasons — only to lose all three.

The game has been memorialized in American culture over the years, and this week Norwood’s miss was a clue on the popular game show “Jeopardy!”

https://youtu.be/RPFZCGgjDSg

The Bills would go on to lose the next three Super Bowls (twice to the Dallas Cowboys and once to the Washington Redskins), but none of those three games was as close as this one. The Bills have not been back to the Super Bowl since, and have qualified for the postseason only once since 1999.

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