‘Jeopardy!’ EP Michael Davies Reveals Who Replaced James Holzhauer in ‘Masters’ & The Significance of It

Jeopardy! Inc.

The reason why James Holzhauer didn’t participate in this year’s Jeopardy! Masters was explained, but have fans wondered who was brought in as his replacement? Jeopardy! executive producer Michael Davies explained who was brought in instead and why it was such a significant pick.

Davies talked about the replacement on the Jeopardy! website in the J-Buzz article. Holzhauer is the 2023 Jeopardy! Masters champion, and the third-place finisher in the 2024 competition, but opted not to compete in the 2025 tournament, despite being invited back by Davies and Sarah Whitcomb-Foss.

During a live Inside Jeopardy! Podcast episode in April, the EPs explained, “As always, our top three Masters are guaranteed an invitation to the next Masters.”

“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.”

In the recent article, Davies said that after Holzhauer turned down the invitation, he picked who should replace him.

“Graciously, he recommended that we reach out to the person who has won more money playing Jeopardy! than any human (or computer) alive: Ken’s rival of 20 years, Brad Rutter,” Davies wrote.