Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time was a primetimeJeopardy! tournament featuring the three highest-earning contestants, Ken Jennings, Brad Rutter, and James Holzhauer, competing in a first-to-3-wins series with a top prize of $1 million to determine the greatest Jeopardy! contestant "of all time." The series is produced by Sony Pictures Television and executive produced by Harry Friedman, with Alex Trebek hosting. Jennings holds the record for the longest winning streak on Jeopardy! with 74 wins and is the highest-earning contestant in regular-play winnings. Before the tournament, Rutter was the highest-earning contestant on the show, with a total over $4.6 million. Holzhauer holds the top 16 single-game records for winnings. The three players have won a combined $10.7 million on the show. The tournament began on January 7, 2020, on ABC, marking the first time in 30 years that Jeopardy! has aired in prime time on network television. The tournament concluded on January 14, after four matches, with Jennings winning three matches to Holzhauer's one and Rutter's zero. Not counting Watson's exhibition match, this marked the first time Rutter lost to Jennings in a tournament. Including winnings from other game shows, Jennings' total of $5,223,414 now exceeds Rutter's total of $5,138,436, making him the highest-earning American game show contestant of all time, a record he last held in 2014.
Format
The tournament consisted of a series of one-hour episodes, with each episode a stand-alone match consisting of two back-to-back complete Jeopardy! games, using points instead of dollars. Each game included three rounds: Jeopardy!, Double Jeopardy!, and Final Jeopardy! The contestant with the most combined points from the two games won the match, and play continued until one of them had won three matches.
Contestants
Ken Jennings:
Jennings holds the record for the longest winning streak on Jeopardy! with 74 wins, earning $2,520,700, and is the highest-earning Jeopardy! contestant in regular-play winnings. When including tournaments, he is the second highest-earning Jeopardy! contestant of all time with a total of $3,370,700, behind Rutter. Jennings said he took part in the competition reluctantly, fearing that because of his age and repeated tournament losses to Rutter, he was past his peak as a Jeopardy! contestant; he agreed to compete largely out of respect for Alex Trebek and because it would be "almost certainly last time" as a contestant.
Brad Rutter:
Rutter was the highest-earning American game show contestant of all time and remains the highest-earning contestant on Jeopardy! with a total of $4,688,436. He had never lost a Jeopardy! match to a human opponent. At the time of his initial appearances on the program in 2000, returning champions were retired after five consecutive regular-play wins, denying Rutter the opportunity to achieve a winning streak like Jennings' or Holzhauer's.
James Holzhauer:
Holzhauer is the third-highest-earning Jeopardy! contestant of all time, with a total of $2,712,216, and is best known for his 32-game winning streak from April to June 2019, during which he set multiple single-game records. He holds the top 16 single-game scores in Jeopardy! history. Holzhauer won $2,462,216 in his 33 appearances, making him the second-highest winner in Jeopardy! regular-play winnings and number of games won, behind only Jennings. Jennings and Rutter said they had to mimic Holzhauer's aggressive style of play to stand a chance.
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. The series was produced by Sony Pictures Television, with Harry Friedman executive producing and Alex Trebek hosting. This is the first time Jeopardy! has aired on network television instead of in syndication since ABC carried 1990's Super Jeopardy! tournament. 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.
