Jeopardy! Masters is an American game show hosted by Ken Jennings on ABC. Its first season featured six recent notable Jeopardy! champions competing against each other in a "Champions League-style" format.[1] It premiered on May 8, 2023.[2] In February 2024, it was announced that the show would be renewed for a second season which premiered on May 1, 2024.[3][4]
Contestants
Season 1 (2023)
The following six contestants, listed in order of finish, competed in the first Jeopardy! Masters competition:
James Holzhauer: Won 32 straight games between April and June 2019. Won 2019 Tournament of Champions. Runner-up in The Greatest of All Time tournament. Holder of the fourth-longest winning streak and second-largest cash winnings in regular play. Holder of all top ten all-time single-game scores and fastest milestones.[5] Total winnings of $2,964,216.[6]
Mattea Roach: Won 23 straight games between April and May 2022. Total winnings of $572,983.[6]
Matt Amodio: Won 38 straight games between July and October 2021. Holder of the third-longest winning streak and third highest cash winnings in regular play. Total winnings of $1,529,601.[6]
Andrew He: Won 5 straight games before losing to Amy Schneider. 2022 Tournament of Champions runner-up. Total winnings of $259,365.
Amy Schneider: Won 40 straight games between November 2021 and January 2022. Won 2022 Tournament of Champions. Holder of the second-longest winning streak and fourth-largest cash winnings in regular play. Total winnings of $1,634,800.[6]
Sam Buttrey: Won 2021 Professors Tournament. 2022 Tournament of Champions 3rd place finalist. Total winnings of $150,000.
As the three finalists, Holzhauer, Roach, and Amodio all received invitations to the next Masters competition.
Season 2 (2024)
The following six contestants, listed in order of finish, competed in the second Jeopardy! Masters competition:
Victoria Groce: Won one game in September 2005, defeating 19-game champion David Madden. Qualified as Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament winner, having been invited in part on the strength of quizzing activities following her Jeopardy! appearance, including as a chaser on The Chase. Total winnings of $623,801.[7][8]
James Holzhauer: Qualified as 2023 Masters champion. Total winnings of $3,614,216.
Amy Schneider: Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament runner-up. Qualified as a wildcard contestant, chosen by producers. Total winnings of $1,782,800.[10]
Mattea Roach: Qualified as 2023 Masters runner-up. Total winnings of $885,983.
Matt Amodio: Qualified as 2023 Masters 3rd place finalist. Total winnings of $1,718,601.
As the three finalists, Groce, Raut, and Holzhauer all received invitations to the next Masters competition.
Tournament format
The tournament features six former Jeopardy! champions competing round-robin style, with the first season consisting of 10 hour-long episodes featuring two games each, for a total of 20 games.[11][12][13] Initially, the producers intended to structure the tournament as a pure round-robin system with every possible combination of three players (), without eliminations.[11] This was adjusted to a three-round structure prior to production. In the second season, the number of episodes was reduced to nine (eighteen games total), with the same overall structure.[4]
The producers have also used Jeopardy! Masters to experiment with variations to the Jeopardy! format. In the first season, each round began with the revelation to the television audience of the location of that round's Daily Double(s); this did not continue in the second season.[14]
Quarterfinals
The quarterfinals consist of several round-robin matches of two games each; in each episode, three of the contestants play each other in the first game, and the remaining three play in the second game. The winner of each game receives three match points, the first runner-up receives one match point, and the second runner-up receives no match points. The second game of each episode except for the first pairs up the winners from the previous episode against another randomly-selected contestant who has not already played against both winners.
After all quarterfinal episodes, the match points are totaled; the top four contestants advance to the semifinals, while the other two are eliminated from the competition.
There were seven quarterfinal episodes in the first season, and six episodes in the second season.
Semifinals
The four remaining contestants play each other round-robin over four games, with each player sitting out one game. Each player's match points total is reset to zero, and, as in the quarterfinals, the winner of each game receives three match points, second place receives one, and last place receives none. The three highest-ranked players move on to the finals, while the lowest-ranked player is eliminated.
Finals
The three remaining players play each other in a two-game match, as is standard in the final round of most Jeopardy! tournaments. The player with the highest combined score over the two games is declared champion. Furthermore, the three players will be automatically qualified in the next edition of the tournament.
Tiebreakers
Should either the quarterfinals or semifinals end in a tie for match points, the following tie-breaking criteria are used, in order:
Number of wins
Number of total correct responses in that stage (including Final Jeopardy!)
Cumulative scores, excluding Daily Double and Final Jeopardy! wagers
Cumulative scores, excluding only Final Jeopardy! wagers
Prizes
First place: $500,000, Trebek Trophy, $100,000 donation for a charity of their choosing, and invitation to the next Masters competition[15]
Second place: $250,000 and invitation to the next Masters competition
Third place: $150,000 and invitation to the next Masters competition
