It's official -- Ken Jennings is the greatest "Jeopardy!" player of all time. The 45-year-old Seattle author managed to defeat fellow contestants James Holzhauer and Brad Rutter for the crown in the game show's "Greatest of All Time" (GOAT) tournament on Tuesday.
The final game was a showdown between Jennings and Holzhauer, a professional gambler, who helped the show draw huge ratings last year and changed the nature of Jeopardy! with his unique betting strategy.
Jennings beat Holzhauer in a multiday tournament, winning by getting the final question correct, while Holzhauer missed. Jennings earned the grand prize of $1 million and brought his total earnings of 15 years up to $4,370,700, according to New York Post.
Handing Jennings the trophy, game show host Alex Trebek asked one pertinent question: "Is he as good as he appeared to be in his great run on 'Jeopardy!'?" The answer is evident in Jennings winning the show.
The concept behind "GOAT" was to pit record-setting contestants against one another. Jennings' claim to fame came in 2004, when he won the most regular-season games in a row (74 in total), New York post noted.
Rutter managed to win the most money while Holzhauer won the most money in a single game in 2019.
To determine the GOAT winner, players earned their points in two back-to-back half-hour games. One point was allocated to the highest scoring contestant after the full hour.
Tuesday was a close call.
Jennings went in with two points- one over Holzhauer- but in a nail biting finale, Jennings was the first contestant to clinch three points, ultimately setting him up as the winner.
It was a bitter-sweet ending to an exciting tournament. The focus has been on the contestants as well as Trebek, who was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer last year.
There have been talks of his retirement but the "Jeopardy!" host has dismissed the rumors.
"When you've been in the same job for that long period of time and you're in advanced years, it behooves you at some point to think about retiring," he said last week.
Trebek added that as long as his skills "have not diminished too much," and he continued to enjoy spending time with contestants like Jennings, Holzhauer and Rutter, he will "continue doing it."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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