Jeopardy!/Returning Champions/Super Champions

Refers to a champion who has won 10 or more consecutive wins in Jeopardy. Based on S39, there are a total of 16 Super Champions.

Origin

At the beginning of Season 20, the five-day limit for returning champions was lifted, and contestants remained on the program as their talents allowed them so.

In the early days with the sky's-the-limit rule in effect, Sean Ryan became the show's first-ever six time champion, and was surpassed by Tom Walsh who became the first seven-time champion. But it was Ken Jennings who rose to fame when he won 74 games (38 in Season 20 and 36 in Season 21) and became the biggest money winner on a game show at the time (Brad Rutter twice took the record until Ken won the Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time event). A year later, David Madden won 19 games, but after that there was no champion with 10 or more wins for about 9 years after David's original run ended. However, there were notable champions with fewer than 10 wins such as Larissa Kelly, Dan Pawson, Roger Craig, Ben Ingram, and others.

In 2014, Arthur Chu ended the drought with 11 wins, and super-champions began appearing on average every year. Shortly after Arthur's run ended, Julia Collins became the most successful female contestant at the time with 20 wins. Shortly after the start of Season 32 in 2015, Matt Jackson won 13 games; and a year later in 2016, Seth Wilson had 12 wins. Austin Rogers also won 12 games in 2017, and became the first player to win $60,000 in a single game on multiple occasions.

In 2019, 15 years after Ken Jennings' original run, James Holzhauer became the show's second multi-millionaire in regular play, having obliterated several show records while winning 32 games. He is the only player to win $100,000 or more in a single game, having accomplished the feat six times, including two occasions where he broke the single-game cash winnings record. James fell short of eclipsing Ken's regular play cash record, but he became the third-highest money winner in a game show behind Ken and Brad with his victory in the Tournament of Champions. Jason Zuffranieri won 19 games shortly after James' original run, and eclipsed David Madden as the third highest money winner in regular play.

There were also two Millionaires who followed James – Matt Amodio and Amy Schneider. Both eclipsed James in terms of games won (Matt with 38 wins and Amy with 40). However, neither came even close to James in terms of money won as they adopted a more conservative approach to the game (Matt won only $1.5M and Amy won $1.3M in their respective runs).

Multiple long-term champions in 2021-2022

From the second half of 2021 onward, there has been a string of long-term champions. In the first half of 2021 (after Zach Newkirk, who won six consecutive victories, until Courtney Shah's seven-game streak), there was no champion for more than five consecutive wins in 100 games. In particular, in the 37th inning, the champion did not come out with a three-game winning streak, and during the 88th, there was not even a four-game winning streak.

Then, after a 38-game winning streak and becoming the third millionaire Matt Amodio, five long-term champions followed during that time (Jonathan Fisher, Amy Schneider, Mattea Roach, and Ryan Long). In particular, Jonathan and Amy defeated champions with 5 or more wins to become long-term champions themselves; and Eric Ahasic, who defeated Ryan Long, also succeeded in winning 6 consecutive wins.

Shortly after the start of Season 39, Cris Pannullo won 21 games, accumulating more than $700,000 in cash winnings. And less than a week after Cris's run ended, Ray Lalonde became a 13-time champion.

Viewers have come up with various interpretations as to why millionaires or champions with more than 10 consecutive wins often come out recently. Some speculate that the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in more time being spent at home to study, while others believe it is due to the growing amount of information available online. Others say it's just a coincidence or it's just a coincidence.

In response to this speculation, Schneider is skeptical as to whether the leisure time given during the coronavirus pandemic has helped so much. Ultimately, cramming doesn't make you better at answering questions on a quiz show.

Schneider advised, "In order to get good grades in 'Jeopardy!', you should always have an attitude of learning something." In other words, the common sense that you have accumulated rather than the knowledge you suddenly instilled by cramming shines.

However, in the S39 ToC, Ryan Long and Jonathan Fisher were eliminated in the quarterfinals, demonstrating that even being a superchampion does not guarantee winning the ToC. Also, 38-game winner Matt Amodio and 23-game champion Mattea Roach lost to Sam Buttery and Andrew He in their respective semifinal matches. Even in the midst of that, Amy Schneider made it to the finals and eventually won, but had a close battle with Andrew and Sam. If She hadn't, She wouldn't have been able to win.

As a result, even if you have the longest winning streak like Ken, you should be aware that ToC can have a lot of upsets due to various factors.

On the other hand, as super-champions have increased after 2021, people are dreaming of a match to compete with James, Brad, and Ken. Unfortunately, however, the three have virtually left Jeopardy for various reasons. Ken, who is in charge of hosting the program, has come to an end as a participant in the program, and James and Brad, who participated together with people related to Jeopardy, are in fact forced to retire after the Greatest Of All Time event. Of course, the three of them have been friends with each other since 2021, and later took on the role of Chaser, who blocks the winning of prizes in The Chase. Among them, Ken left The Chase at the end of 2022.

In 2023, it was announced that James will participate in the upcoming Jeopardy! Masters Tournament.

Tournament Of Champions

ToC is a competition that is one of the honors that is hard to return even to a super-champion. It is the King of the Kings of the quiz program, and it is a competition in which true honor is given to the winner.

So far, 13 super-champions have appeared, but only two won the tournament: James Holzhauer and Amy Schneider. The ToC changes to the extent that it is equivalent to the World Cup; there are many cases where champions with fewer games won beat champions with longer winning streaks, and there are also some cases where champions with long winning streaks don't even make it past the quarterfinals.

74-game winner Ken Jennings didn't even appear in a regular ToC. Instead he was an automatic finalist in the Ultimate Tournament of Champions during S21, but finished second to Brad Rutter. Ken also lost to Brad in the 2014 Battle of the Decades tournament and the 2019 All-Star Games, but he emerged victorious in the Greatest of All-Time tournament in 2020.

Winning the ToC is a great honor for Jeopardy's contestants. Most contestants with the best record in regular play do not win the championship, but finish as the first or second runner up. And there are some cases where they don't even make it to the finals. So many things happen in the ToC:

• During the S22 tournament, 19-win champ David Madden and 6-win champ Kevin Marshall both lost to 4-win champ Bill MacDonald in the semifinals.
• In the S31 tournament, both Arthur Chu (11 wins) and Julia Collins (20 wins) made it to the finals but lost to 8-time champion Ben Ingram. Arthur and Julia finished in second place and third place respectively.
• 13-game winner Matt Jackson also made it to the finals in the S32 ToC but was the first runner-up to 6-game winner Alex Jacob.
• Seth Wilson and Austin Rogers, both 12-game winners, appeared in the S34 ToC. Austin made it to the finals but was the second runner-up to 9-game winner Buzzy Cohen; Seth, on the other hand, didn't even make it to the semifinals.
• In the S37 ToC, 19-game winner Jason Zuffranieri advanced to the semifinals as a wild card but lost his semifinal match to 8-game winner Jennifer Quail.
• In the recent S39 ToC, Ryan Long and Jonathan Fisher, who won 16 games and 11 games respectively, didn't make it to the semifinals. Additionally, 38-game winner Matt Amodio and 23-game winner Mattea Roach were automatic semifinalists but lost their respective semifinal matches to 2021 Professors Tournament winner Sam Buttrey and 5-game winner Andrew He.