Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time

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Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time
Promotional poster
GenreGame show
Based onJeopardy!
by Merv Griffin
Directed byClay Jacobsen
Presented byAlex Trebek
Starring
Narrated byJohnny Gilbert
Theme music composerJohn Hoke (Bleeding Fingers Music)
Original Theme composed by Merv Griffin
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes4 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producerHarry Friedman
Production locationsSony Pictures Studios
Culver City, California
Production companySony Pictures Television
Original release
NetworkABC
ReleaseJanuary 7 (2020-01-07) –
January 14, 2020 (2020-01-14)

Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time is a special tournament limited-run series of the game show Jeopardy! that took place in January 2020. The tournament was produced for ABC and aired on the network in prime time. This was the second time a Jeopardy! competition aired on network television (regular shows air in syndication); the first occurred in 1990 when the special tournament series Super Jeopardy! was carried by ABC.

The tournament featured former champions Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter, and James Holzhauer competing for a $1 million top prize and the recognition of being the show’s greatest champion of all time.[1][2][3][4]

Jennings won the tournament on January 14, 2020, with Holzhauer finishing second and Rutter third.[5] With the $1 million prize added to his previous winnings across several game show appearances, Jennings surpassed Rutter as the highest-earning American game show contestant of all time, a record he had previously held twice.

Format

The tournament began on January 7, 2020, and each match consisted of two games. Each game was played as normal with the Jeopardy! and Double Jeopardy! rounds followed by Final Jeopardy!. Just like in Super Jeopardy!, the first two seasons of Rock & Roll Jeopardy!, Sports Jeopardy!, and the future Jeopardy! Masters, dollar amounts are replaced with point amounts. The contestant with the highest combined score from the two games would win the match, and the first one to three match wins won the tournament.[4]

Contestants

  • Ken Jennings:
    Jennings first appeared on the program in 2004 and set two Jeopardy! records that he still holds. He won 74 consecutive matches, and his total of $2,522,700 is a record for non-tournament winnings.[6] Entering the tournament, his total Jeopardy! winnings totaled $3,372,700, which was second-highest behind fellow competitor Rutter.[7][8] Jennings said he took part in the competition reluctantly, fearing that because of his age and repeated tournament losses to Rutter (Rutter having won every head-to-head matchup between the two except the IBM Challenge), he was past his peak as a Jeopardy! contestant. He agreed to compete largely out of respect for Alex Trebek and because it would "almost certainly [be Jennings'] last time" as a contestant.[9][10]
  • Brad Rutter:
    Rutter was the highest-earning American game show contestant of all time entering the tournament. He first appeared on Jeopardy! in October 2000, during the era of the program where contestants were retired after winning five consecutive matches and before the show doubled its question values. After winning $55,102 in his initial run, Rutter qualified for and won the 2001 Tournament of Champions, which at the time was played for $100,000. He was invited back in 2002 for the special Million Dollar Masters Tournament with several past champions, and emerged victorious again to become the first Jeopardy! contestant to win over $1 million. Shortly after Jennings’s run as champion ended, Rutter was one of the many former champions invited back for the 2005 Ultimate Tournament of Champions, where two of the former champions in the field would face Jennings in the final match for $2 million. Rutter defeated Jennings and Jerome Vered in the final to win the tournament, and the prize money made him the new all-time American game show winnings leader. He later defeated Jennings and Roger Craig in the 2014 Battle of the Decades tournament, winning an additional $1,000,000 and reclaiming his spot at the top of the all-time winnings list from Jennings, who had retaken it in 2009. Rutter still holds the record as the highest-earning contestant (primarily from special tournament events) on Jeopardy! with a total of $4,688,436 entering the tournament. Rutter entered the tournament having never lost a match against a human, only coming up short in an exhibition match featuring him and Jennings taking on Watson in Jeopardy!: The IBM Challenge in 2011.[11][7][8][12][4]
  • James Holzhauer:
    Holzhauer entered the tournament the third-highest-earning Jeopardy! contestant of all time, behind Rutter and Jennings. He had won $2,714,216 entering the tournament, with $2,464,216 of that won in 33 matches in 2019. He also won the 2019 Tournament of Champions several weeks before this tournament was announced, taking home an additional $250,000.[7][8][6] Holzhauer is second behind Jennings in total winnings during regular play and, at the time, he was the only contestant besides Jennings to win more than 30 consecutive games. (Both Matt Amodio and Amy Schneider have since surpassed Holzhauer's record of 32 games.) Holzhauer's aggressive wagering on clues allowed him to set several new single-day winning records. He is the only contestant to win $100,000 in a single game, doing so six times, and also held the top 16 single-game scores in program history at the time.[13][7][6] Jennings and Rutter said they had to mimic Holzhauer's aggressive style of play to stand a chance.[10]

Production

On November 18, 2019, ABC announced that the three highest-earning Jeopardy! contestants of all time—Jennings, Rutter, and Holzhauer—would compete in a best-of-seven prime-time tournament, Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time. The first contestant to win three matches receives the title and a grand prize of $1 million. The others receive $250,000 each.[14] The series was produced by Sony Pictures Television, with Harry Friedman executive producing and Alex Trebek hosting.[15] This marked the first time Jeopardy! had aired on network television instead of in syndication since Super Jeopardy!, a prime-time tournament that aired in 1990 and was also hosted by Trebek.[4] ABC Owned Television Stations group has been the lead broadcaster of the syndicated version for most of its run.[3] In addition to ABC, the tournament was broadcast in Canada on Yes TV and two of its partner stations, CHEK and NTV, all of which also carry the syndicated version.[16][17][18] The series began taping on December 10, 2019.[19]

Series summary

No.TitleOriginal airdate [20]WinnerWinner's scoreU.S. viewers
(millions)		Series
1"Match 1"January 7, 2020 (2020-01-07)Jennings63,40014.42[21]Holzhauer 0, Jennings 1, Rutter 0[22]
2"Match 2"January 8, 2020 (2020-01-08)Holzhauer82,41414.87[23]Holzhauer 1, Jennings 1, Rutter 0[24]
3"Match 3"January 9, 2020 (2020-01-09)Jennings67,60015.55[25]Holzhauer 1, Jennings 2, Rutter 0[26]
4"Match 4"January 14, 2020 (2020-01-14)Jennings88,60013.55[27]Holzhauer 1, Jennings 3, Rutter 0[5]

Match summaries

Match 1

Game No. Contestants' scores
Holzhauer Jennings Rutter
1 33,200 45,000 10,400
2 30,000 18,400 0
Total 63,200 63,400 10,400

Jennings leads series, 1–0–0[22]

Match 2

Game No. Contestants' scores
Holzhauer Jennings Rutter
1 44,314 40,000 14,400
2 38,100 17,400 0
Total 82,414 57,400 14,400

Holzhauer and Jennings tied, 1–1–0[24]

Match 3

Game No. Contestants' scores
Holzhauer Jennings Rutter
1 27,200 51,200 17,600
2 6,492 16,400 5,867
Total 33,692 67,600 23,467

Jennings leads series, 2–1–0[26]

Match 4

Game No. Contestants' scores
Holzhauer Jennings Rutter
1 34,181 65,600 0
2 0 23,000 1,400
Total 34,181 88,600 1,400

Jennings wins series 3–1–0[5]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Contestant Zone: Jeopardy! Hall of Fame". Jeopardy.com. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. Retrieved April 12, 2019.
  2. ^ Raimonde, Olivia (November 18, 2019). "Jeopardy! to host a 'Greatest of All Time' tournament with a $1 million prize". CNBC. Archived from the original on January 4, 2020. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  3. ^ a b Littleton, Cynthia (November 5, 2018). "ABC Shells Out to Keep 'Wheel of Fortune' and 'Jeopardy' After Big Offer From Fox". Variety. Archived from the original on January 3, 2020. Retrieved January 3, 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d Levin, Gary (November 18, 2019). "Exclusive: Three top 'Jeopardy!' champs face off in ABC's Greatest of All Time tournament". USA Today. Archived from the original on December 21, 2019. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
  5. ^ a b c Curtis, Charles (January 14, 2020). "Here are the results from Day 4 of 'Jeopardy!' Greatest of All Time". USA Today. Archived from the original on January 15, 2020. Retrieved January 15, 2020.
  6. ^ a b c Yahr, Emily (June 3, 2019). "James Holzhauer was on pace to break a 'Jeopardy' record today. Then this happened". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on January 4, 2020. Retrieved June 3, 2019.
  7. ^ a b c d "Contestant Zone – Hall of Fame". Jeopardy.com. Archived from the original on January 4, 2020. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  8. ^ a b c Haring, Bruce (November 15, 2019). "'Jeopardy!' Tournament Of Champions Grand Prize Goes To James Holzhauer". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on January 4, 2020. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  9. ^ Keveney, Bill (January 15, 2020). "Jeopardy!' GOAT Ken Jennings interview: 'I ended up enjoying it more than I planned'". USA Today. Archived from the original on January 16, 2020. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  10. ^ a b Ivie, Devon (January 15, 2020). "Ken Jennings Didn't Want to Compete in Jeopardy's Big Tournament, 'Which Sure Looks Pretty Dumb Now'". Vulture.com. Archived from the original on January 16, 2020. Retrieved January 16, 2020.
  11. ^ Clarendon, Dan (November 27, 2019). "10 Biggest American Game Show Winners (Video)". TV Insider. Archived from the original on January 4, 2020. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  12. ^ Jacobs, Julia (November 18, 2018). "'Jeopardy!' Tournament to Settle Question: Who Is the Greatest of All Time?". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 5, 2019. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  13. ^ Barrett, Brian (May 28, 2019). "James Holzhauer's Jeopardy! Greatness, in Charts". Wired. Archived from the original on January 4, 2020. Retrieved January 4, 2020.
  14. ^ Pedersen, Erik (November 18, 2019). "'Jeopardy!'s All-Time Top Money Winners To Face Off In Primetime Tourney: Holzhauer, Jennings & Rutter". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on December 21, 2019. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
  15. ^ Sippell, Margeaux (November 18, 2019). "James Holzhauer Will Finally Face Ken Jennings in ABC's 'Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time'". TheWrap. Archived from the original on December 21, 2019. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
  16. ^ @yestvcanada (December 28, 2019). "Ken? Brad? or James? Who are you rooting for?! Watch January 7th at 8pm/9mst! @Jeopardy #YESTV" (Tweet). Retrieved January 6, 2020 – via Twitter.
  17. ^ "TV Schedule for CHEK Vancouver Island, BC (January 7, 2020)". TV Passport. Archived from the original on January 7, 2020. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
  18. ^ "TV Schedule for CJON (NTV) St-John (sic), NL (January 7, 2020)". TV Passport. Archived from the original on January 7, 2020. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
  19. ^ Bernabe, Angeline Jane (December 10, 2019). "Competition for the title of 'Jeopardy!' GOAT heats up as contestants talk strategy, rivalry". Good Morning America. Archived from the original on December 21, 2019. Retrieved December 21, 2019.
  20. ^ "Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time Episode Listings". The Futon Critic.
  21. ^ Welch, Alex (January 8, 2020). "'Batwoman' rerun adjusts up: Tuesday final ratings". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on January 8, 2020. Retrieved January 8, 2020.
  22. ^ a b Curtis, Charles (January 7, 2020). "Here are the results from Day 1 of the 'Jeopardy!' Greatest of All Time". USA Today. Archived from the original on January 9, 2020. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  23. ^ Welch, Alex (January 9, 2020). "'Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time' adjusts up: Wednesday final ratings". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on January 10, 2020. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
  24. ^ a b Curtis, Charles (January 8, 2020). "Here are the results from Day 2 of the 'Jeopardy!' Greatest of All Time". USA Today. Archived from the original on January 9, 2020. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  25. ^ Welch, Alex (January 10, 2020). "'Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time,' 'Young Sheldon,' all others hold: Thursday final ratings". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on January 10, 2020. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
  26. ^ a b Curtis, Charles (January 9, 2020). "Here are the results from Day 3 of 'Jeopardy!' Greatest of All Time". USA Today. Archived from the original on January 10, 2020. Retrieved January 10, 2020.
  27. ^ Welch, Alex (January 15, 2020). "'This is Us' adjusts up: Tuesday final ratings". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on January 17, 2020. Retrieved January 15, 2020.
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