Jeopardy!: The Greatest of All Time

Host
Alex Trebek
Contestants
Ken Jennings Brad Rutter James Holzhauer
Announcer
Johnny Gilbert
Broadcast
ABC Primetime: January 7~14, 2020
Packager
Sony Pictures Television

Jeopardy!: The Greatest of All Time or Jeopardy! GOAT is a special epic best-of-seven showdown tournament where Jeopardy!’s three biggest winners, Brad Rutter ($4,703,436), Ken Jennings ($3,372,700), and "Jeopardy" James Holzhauer ($2,714,216), competed for $1,000,000.

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^[1].

The series was produced by Sony Pictures Television, with Harry Friedman executive producing and Alex Trebek hosting. 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.

ABC Owned Television Stations group has been the lead broadcaster of the syndicated version for most of its run. 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. The series began taping on December 10, 2019.

Gameplay[]

The basic gameplay remains intact, meaning that the games involved in this tournament will be played like any other game. Plus, unlike the regular tournaments, this a best-of-seven tournament. Each match is a two-game total-point affair; the man with the highest combined point total wins the match, and the first man to win three matches wins $1,000,000; The other two receive $250,000.

Ken Jennings won the tournament & the title "Greatest of All Time". This victory marks his first tournament win and breaks a long losing streak he's faced against Brad Rutter, who didn't win any matches.

Results[]

Game	Air Date	Name	Score	Name	Score	Name	Score	Detail
R1	January 7, 2020	James Holzhauer	33,200	Ken Jennings	45,000	Brad Rutter	10,400	#
	January 7, 2020		30,000		18,400		0	#
	Total		63,200		63,400		10,400
R2	January 8, 2020		44,314		44,000		14,400	#
	January 8, 2020		38,100		17,400		0 (-3,600)	#
	Total		82,414		57,400		14,400
R3	January 9, 2020		27,200		51,200		17,600	#
	January 9, 2020		6,492		16,400		5,867	#
	Total		33,692		67,600		23,467
R4	January 14, 2020		34,186		65,600		0	#
	January 14, 2020		0		23,000		1,400	#
	Total		34,181		88,600		1,400
★			1		3		0

Rating by player[]

Additional Page[]

Evaluation

Trivia[]

Contest Related[]

Except for one of the 24 DD during this tournament were either True DD or, if the contestant that uncovered it had less than the maximum value of a clue, 1,000 (or 2,000 in Double Jeopardy). The only one that was not was Daily Double #23, which saw Ken wager just 5,000 of his 8,800 points.
James’ 20,200 wager on the final Daily Double of the tournament was the highest ever True Daily Double wager^[2].
James also set the record for highest loss in Final Jeopardy, when he wagered his entire bank of 44,000 points in the second game of the fourth match. He needed to do so to have any hope of catching Ken’s lead from the first game, which saw Ken finish with 65,600 points to James’ 34,181 and Brad’s 0^[3].
Ken is believed to have set the record for highest successful True Final Jeopardy bet, at 25,600 points in Match 3, Game 1. He would break his own record the next match, with a 32,800 wager in Game 1 of the fourth match.
Ken found 8 of the Daily Doubles during the tournament and was correct on 7 of them, giving him a net gain of 51,600 points for the tournament, while James found 6 and was correct on 5 en route to a net gain of 39,600 points. Brad, despite finding the most Daily Doubles of the three contestants - he found 10 throughout - was only correct on four of them, leading to a net gain of -14,800 points. As a result, the DD results determined their success or failure.
They combined for an average of 56 correct responses per game.

Other[]

This is the first special feature to be held at prime time in 30 years since Super Jeopardy!, and it is the second time in history.
This was the second special to have the game board played for points instead of dollars, the first was Super Jeopardy! in 1990.
Before this, a special called What is Jeopardy!?: Alex Trebek and America's Most Popular Quiz Show aired on the same network on January 2, 2020.
This was Trebek's last prime time special before his death on November 8, 2020.
This had a four episode only run.
With this win, Ken Jennings reclaimed the top rank for American game show winnings records. However, Brad rutter still holds the all-time record for most prizes at Jeopardy.
Those who competed in this competition were later reunited on a program called The Chase (ABC version with Sara Haines) where they appeared as chasers from 2021^[4].
In this match, Brad suffered his first defeat in a human-to-human battle for the first time in 20 years.
Again, a Shakespeare-related question determined the fate of James and Ken, who scored the most prize money at the time by correcting this question in his 38th game, and winning by correcting the last one. On the other hand, this question broke the record for the most prize money in regular games, and James lost the title as he could not answer the last question. Still, given that no one has ever won against Brad Rutter for James, it can be comforting to note that he has won once.

Other Versions[]

Link[]

Official Website

References[]

↑ It's been 3 days since James won the 2019 ToC.
↑ This record was later broken by himself when he scored 25,600 in the final round of the Masters Qualifier.
↑ When it comes to regular games, Matt Amodio's $37K is the most, and he won nonetheless.
↑ In 2022, Ken Jennings stepped down from the show when he became full-time host, and his position was filled by Buzzy Cohen and Victoria Groce.

[1] It's been 3 days since James won the 2019 ToC.

[2] This record was later broken by himself when he scored 25,600 in the final round of the Masters Qualifier.

[3] When it comes to regular games, Matt Amodio's $37K is the most, and he won nonetheless.

[4] In 2022, Ken Jennings stepped down from the show when he became full-time host, and his position was filled by Buzzy Cohen and Victoria Groce.

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