He's baaaack. Jeopardy! just finished up its 2019 Teachers Tournament, and that means James Holzhauer is returning tonight -- Monday, May 20 -- to try to win more money. How much has he won so far?
The last day James Holzhauer was on Jeopardy! before the Teachers Tournament was Friday, May 3. As of that date, Holzhauer has these stats:
Total Money Earned: $1,691,008
Games Won: 22
Top Single Game Total (April 17): $131,127
Average Money Won Per Game: $76,864
Response Accuracy: 97%
Correct Final Jeopardy! Rate: 95%
Total Correct Daily Doubles: 49 / 53
That accuracy rate = amazing. The Jeopardy! website will be updated if James Holzhauer wins tonight and keeps on winning, so if you see this after May 20, the numbers may be higher. It's a lot of money, but interesting if you compare it to, say, the Survivor and The Amazing Race winners getting $1 million.
The Jeopardy! website also shows how James Holzhauer compares to others in the Jeopardy! Hall of Fame. For example, Ken Jennings still has the record for Consecutive Games Won, with 74 in 2004. Holzhauer is still pretty far behind at 22. Jennings also has the Highest Winnings title, for regular seasons, with $2,520,700, and you can see that Holzhauer still needs almost a million more to pass him.
It's hard to imagine anyone beating Brad Rutter's $4,688,436 total for All-Time Winnings, including tournaments. Ken Jennings is behind him in that category with $3,370,700, with Holzhauer's $1,691,008 behind him.
James Holzhauer does already have the title for Single Game Winnings with that April 17 take of $131,127. If you're wondering where the ladies are in the charts, Julia Collins is right behind James Holzhauer on the Consecutive Games list with 20. He just passed her earlier this month.
James Holzhauer's winning streak has given Jeopardy! a huge ratings boost -- topping even some recent episodes of The Big Bang Theory and Game of Thrones -- although nothing on the level of Ken Jennings yet, because Jennings' streak went for 74 games. If Holzhauer keeps going and threatens to usurp Jennings, you can bet the ratings will keep climbing as more fans watch to see it play out.
Ken Jennings, for one, would be fine with James Holzhauer taking over his record, saying this to Newsweek:
I’ve always been on the record as believing that my streak was replicable. It’s just mystified me that nobody has made much of a run at it in 15 years. The reason I’m so confident in that is that I was the one who did it! I was there. I know it can be done. So I’m very excited. As a fan of the show, I’m actually rooting for James or anybody who can take a swing at that record.
Everything with James Holzhauer is exciting, but it's playing out as host Alex Trebek battles his diagnosis of stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He's being the ultimate champion about that, and Ken Jennings posted a great tribute to the iconic host.
We're up to Season 35 of the daily syndicated series, with Episode 181 airing tonight, Monday, May 20. However, Alex Trebek already revealed that Season 35 had finished taping in mid-April. So the truth of James Holzhauer's streak is out there somewhere, and it's amazing that more spoilers don't spill out.
