The third night of Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time continued rolling along tonight, with Ken Jennings taking home the prize. The multi-night tournament, which kicked off earlier this week, will determine who is the greatest player in the notoriously difficult quiz show’s long-running history. It pits the show’s three biggest winners, Jennings, Brad Rutter and James Holzhauer against one-another for the title of Jeopardy! GOAT.
The two-game total for all three contestants ended with Jennings at 67,600, Holzhauer placing second with 33,692 and Rutter once more coming in third with 23,467.
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Though Jennings scored the most points tonight, there’s still no big winner just yet, as the rules state that the GOAT title will be reserved for whoever is the first to win three games. Jennings took home the top spot on night one, while Holzhauer came in strong to win on night two. With tonight’s results, Jenning’s in the lead with two, meaning the competition will resume next Tuesday.
Holzhauer was the most recent contestant to wow Jeopardy! viewers, coming in “like gangbusters,” according to host Alex Trebek, winning 33 straight games from April to June of last year. Jennings still celebrates the longest victory streak in the show’s history with 74 straight wins in 2004, not long after the show lifted its limit on five wins.
That rule was still in place when Rutter competed in October of 2000. However, it was his repeated invites back to high-dollar Jeopardy! tournaments that earned him the designation of the highest-winning contestant of all time. And had never lost the game against a human opponent prior to him and Jennings taking on IBM’s quiz-optimized AI, Watson in 2011.
Though Rutter trailed in third place the first two nights, which didn’t go unnoticed by viewers, tonight Trebek told viewers not to count him out of the tournament. The long-running host pointed out that players who win with a big lead in the first game (in this case, Jennings), don’t always do well on the second. Considering the fact that he’s hosted the show since 1984, it’s probably worth listening to his advice.
In addition to the high-stakes series of matchups, The Greatest of All Time has led to some of the show’s most endearing viral moments. This includes some good-natured rapport both on the stage as well as off, and even a moment where host Alex Trebek had to use a little bit of profanity in order to read a clue from the board.
Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time will resume Tuesday, Jan. 14 at 8/7 central on ABC.
