Legendary player Ken Jennings racked up his second victory point in the “Jeopardy! Greatest of all Time” competition on Thursday — scoring more money than rivals James Holzhauer and Brad Rutter combined.
But Holzhauer stole the night with a heartwarming tribute to show host Alex Trebek, who is battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer, during the Final Jeopardy round.
“Who is the GHOST? (Greatest Host of Syndicated TV),” Holzhauer wrote as his answer after jokingly striking out “Wheel of Fortune” host Pat Sajak’s name — and taking a score loss.
“You started to write Pat Sajak, is that right? I wish you had written more points,” Trebek quipped back.
But for the third night, Jennings showed he may be the “GOAT” by racking up an episode total of $67,600. Holzhauer finished in second place with $33,692 and Rutter in third with $23,467.
Thursday’s contest started off with stiff competition. Jennings got off to a quick start racking up $3,000 before the first Daily Double. But Holzhauer quickly caught up as the two fought in a neck-and-neck round.
“This is a close match. I like it,” Trebek said before the first commercial break.
In an episode full of political clues and jokes, the night remained mostly a two-party system — whether it was Holzhaur duking it out with Jennings for first place or Rutter for second, all three rarely missed clues.
Rutter acknowledged his faults early in the episode when Trebek asked the contestants about their game strategies.
“First for me is going over the things you can actually memorize. I should work more on the buzzer, Alex,” Rutter said.
But the tournament is still not over.
The “Greatest of All Time” format is unique to regular games. On each night, the three players compete in two traditional half-hour games back-to-back. Their dollar totals for both of the games are added together to determine the winner.
As for the “GOAT” competition overall, whoever has the most money at the end of the hour gets a point. The first contestant to win three nights wins the $1 million prize — and, of course, bragging rights. The unusual structure means the tournament, which was taped in November, could now take as little as four nights or as many as seven.
After tonight’s show, Jennings is in the lead with two points, Holzhauer with one and Rutter with none. Jennings scored the big win on the first night while Holzhauer dominated the second night of the tournament.
Though Rutter has yet to make his mark in the “GOAT” contest, he still holds the record for the most amount of money won in the show’s history, having earned a whopping $4,688,436 before tonight.
Jennings, a 45-year-old former software engineer from Seattle, has won 74 consecutive regular-season games and is the second-biggest all-time earner, with $3,370,700. Holzhauer, a 35-year-old professional sports gambler from Las Vegas, set 20 different “Jeopardy” records during his 32-game win streak in the summer of 2019. He has won $2,712,216, making him third.
Holzhauer took the most frequent risks throughout the game — making high-stakes bets that didn’t pay off. Between Rutter’s lack of taking chances at guessing and Holzhauer’s incorrect answers, Jennings was able to take a clear lead.