‘Jeopardy!’ Bosses Detail Why James Holzhauer Is Absent From ‘Masters’

Jeopardy! fans were shocked when James Holzhauer wasn’t a part of the lineup for the 2025 Jeopardy! Masters. The champion came in third during the last Masters, so he was an automatic invite.

The executive producers of the game show — Sarah Whitcomb-Foss and Michael Davies — went over the new Masters season during the latest episode of the Inside Jeopardy! Podcast, which was filmed in Washington D.C. on the live tour. During that update, they explained why Holzhauer is not a part of Season 3.

Masters Season 3 begins on Wednesday, April 30, at 9/8c on ABC. Regular Jeopardy! still airs before the tournament, with Celebrity Wheel of Fortune airing in the middle of them. Even with nine players this time, instead of six, Holzhauer still wasn’t in the lineup.

“As always, our top three Masters are guaranteed an invitation to the next Masters,” Whitcomb-Foss said. Victoria Groce and Yogesh Raut, the 2024 Masters winner and runner-up, are returning for Masters 2025. However, James Holzhauer was the next runner-up, but Brad Rutter, the biggest money winner of all time, is taking his place instead.

“But, that might leave you wondering, there is another Master — our third-place finisher James Holzhauer,” Whitcomb-Foss said. “As we mentioned, it is an invitational tournament. We absolutely did extend the invitation to James, and he decided for this year, he was not going to compete.”

“Absolutely his right,” Davies said. “It’s an invitational. We invite the people we want to invite. We extended it to nine people this year to build more equity. We completely respect James’ decision.”

Holzhauer is best known for his 32-game winning streak from April to June 2019. He set multiple single-game records for winning during that time. Holzhauer also won the Tournament of Champions that November. He won $2,464,216 in his 33 appearances, making him the second-highest winner in Jeopardy! regular play, behind Ken Jennings, according to the game show’s website.

The Masters episodes will be one hour long and consist of two games per episode, with nine episodes in total. Alongside Groce, Raut, and Rutter, 2025 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Neilesh Vinjamuri, TOC finalists Adriana Harmeyer and Isaac Hirsch, 2025 Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament champion Matt Amodio, and JIT finalists Roger Craig and Juveria Zaheer, are all competing.