What’s the Most a Contestant Has Ever Won on ‘Jeopardy’?

Custom Image by Zanda Rice

Winning Jeopardy! doesn’t only earn you a lot of respect, you can also win a lot of money! The top scorer in each game (usually) is paid out the amount of money won. Third place gets $1,000 and second place gets $2,000, despite how many questions they get right or wrong to compensate them for their appearance. The winner is decided after a Final Jeopardy round that allows the contestants to place wagers based on their winnings. The wagers can get risky as players can lose almost all of their winnings, and end up with less money than the runner-ups. There are people whose lives are changed by the money they won from the trivia show. Ken Jennings became the new host of the show because he was one of them! But what is the most a contestant has won on the game show?

Ken Jennings Won the Most ‘Jeopardy!’ Money and Consecutive Games

Image via ABC Image via ABC Image via ABC Credits: Eric McCandless/Disney

Jennings is currently at the top of the leaderboard for the highest wins in a regular season with $2,520,700 and $4.3 million if you include tournaments. He appeared on The Howard Stern Show in 2012 and revealed one of the biggest factors to winning is getting the timing perfect to buzz in and answer. There is a white light, a red light, and more to signal to contestants when they can buzz in to answer. Contestants can be punished for buzzing too early.

“You’re not getting in and, even worse, you’re going to get locked out for a fraction of a second,” Jennings explained. “Coming in too early is like as bad as coming too late, and that’s what people do. They buzz too early.” He won over $2.5 million, beating previous record holder James Holzhauer. Holzhauer continues to be on the leaderboard for the most single-game winnings, at $131,127. Jennings said his strategy to beat Holzhauer was going after Daily Doubles. Holzhauer is second to Jennings for the highest winnings in a regular season with $2,462,216. He also placed fourth in the most consecutive game wins category with 32 games in 2019.

Jennings had already made a name for himself with his 74 consecutive wins in 2004. The host told Stern that he lost the 75th game because someone else was better at the buzzer. The clue was “Most of this firm’s 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year.” Nancy Zerg correctly answered H&R Block. She was at $10,000 and wagered $4,401, beating the frontrunner by one dollar; Jennings incorrectly answered FedEx. Zerg sadly lost the next game and didn’t have a similar winning streak.

Related

Has ‘Jeopardy!’ Really Lost Its Magic?

Fans are turning away in droves, but it’s not too late to pull them back.

Winning ‘Jeopardy!’ Changed Ken Jennings’ Life

Credits: Eric McCandless/Disney

Jennings’s strategy against other great players, good timing with the buzzer, and knowing his trivia led to his unprecedented record. After taxes, the winner took home less than $3 million but has made the money last. He told Stern that he invested some of it and saved money for his two children to go to college. H&R Block publicly offered to help Jennings with his taxes, a service equivalent to close to $1 million. Yes, that is the same company that led to his downfall in the 75th game. The winner told Stern in 2012 he didn’t have “screw you money” despite his life changing. But the show changed his life once again when he was chosen as the new permanent host after Alex Trebek. Jennings’s journey on the show is the most extreme example of the benefits of winning the show. The winner was able to quit his software engineer job to write books. Now he has the potential to earn more millions by hosting the show himself because of his experience. Only time will tell if he’ll see a new contestant break his record as host.

Jeopardy! airs every weeknight on ABC in the U.S. Episodes are also available to stream on ABC.com.