Brad Rutter Congratulates ‘Frenemy’ Ken Jennings on ‘Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time’ Win

Brad Rutter is taking his Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time loss in stride. The quiz show record-holder took to Twitter to congratulate Ken Jennings on taking home the million-dollar prize Tuesday night, calling him his “frenemy.”

“Huge congrats to my old frenemy [Ken Jennings] on his most impressive [Jeopardy! GOAT] victory,” Rutter tweeted alongside a goofy photo of himself and Jennings, tagging Jennings’ Twitter handle. “That was the best playing I’ve ever seen and I’ve been watching [Jeopardy] for 35 years. Pictured: me trying to absorb some buzzer mojo in case there’s a next time.”

He also shared a side-by-side photo of him and Jennings next to Simon& Garfunkel’s Sounds of Silence album cover.

Rutter, 41, also shared a note to fellow contestant James Holzhauer, making a crack about his lighthearted trash talking. “Congrats [Holzhauer] as well. Have the New Orleans Saints been in touch about a job? Because with their tendency to talk a bunch of trash after losing in the playoffs, you’ll fit right in,” he wrote.

Holzhauer’s troll game was at its peak during the Jeopardy! GOAT tournament, especially during Tuesday night’s Final Jeopardy. Host Alex Trebek asked producers to zero out all three contestants’ scores before revealing their answers and final scores. Jennings held the lead with 65,000 points, Holzhauer was in second place with 34,181 points and Rutter brought up the rear with zero points.

“The end of the match is not a foregone conclusion, in spite of the scores you see here,” Trebek told the audience. “We’ll get rid of those scores right now, we will of course add them-“

“-Hey, Brad’s score is still on there,” Holzhauer interrupted, savagely pointing out Rutter’s zero points.

“Wow,” Jennings said as both he and Rutter smiled and held up their hands in a “What can we do about this guy?” gesture.

After the game, Rutter also retweeted part of Jennings’ victory message that he tweeted after the episode aired: “And may Alex Trebek host for a thousand years. Good night!”

Jennings went on to win that Final Jeopardy, in turn winning his third game of the tournament and taking the crown. While Jennings earned $1 million — and bragging rights for life — Holzhauer and Rutter both won $250,000. In total, Jennings won two games and Holzhauer won one; Rutter was largely unimpactful on the tournament, which led to quite a bit of trash talk from Holzhauer, who continually trolled him on Twitter for his performance.

After the tournament was over, Holzhauer switched gears and sincerely congratulated Jennings on his victory and Rutter on his gameplay.

“Thanks to [Jennings] and [Rutter] for a hell of a match,” he tweeted, tagging both of their Twitter handles. “Ken and Brad are great [Jeopardy] players but even better people, and have been incredibly good sports about my kayfabe feuding and trash talk.”