Jeopardy! Masters is an American game show hosted by Ken Jennings on ABC. Each season features 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, the show would be renewed for a second season, which premiered on May 1, 2024.[3][4] In March 2025, it was announced that the show was renewed for a third season, which premiered on April 30, 2025.[5]
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.[6] Total winnings of $2,964,216.[7]
Mattea Roach: Won 23 straight games between April and May 2022. They are the 1st Canadian to be on Jeopardy Masters. Total winnings of $572,983.[7]
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.[7]
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.[7]
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 season two 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.[8][9]
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.[11]
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 season three Masters competition. However, Holzhauer declined his invitation and, therefore, dropped out of the season three Masters competition.
Season 3 (2025)
The following nine contestants, listed in order of finish, competed in the third Jeopardy! Masters competition:
Yogesh Raut: Qualified as 2024 Masters runner-up. Total winnings of $1,098,403.
Juveria Zaheer: The first contestant to win both the Second Chance competition and Champions Wildcard to advance to the Tournament of Champions. 2025 Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament co-runner-up and is the 2nd Canadian after Mattea Roach to be on Jeopardy Masters. Total winnings of $441,000.
Victoria Groce: Qualified as 2024 Masters champion. Total winnings of $773,801.
Roger Craig: Held the highest one-day winnings record of $77,000 between Sep 14, 2010 to Apr 9, 2019. 2011 Tournament of Champions winner, Battle of the Decades 3rd place finalist. 2025 Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament co-runner-up. Total winnings of $656,200.
Brad Rutter: All-time highest money winner in Jeopardy! history. Won five regular games and retired undefeated in 2000. Won five Jeopardy! Tournaments—2001 Tournament of Champions, Million Dollar Masters, Ultimate Tournament of Champions, Battle of the Decades, and All-Star Games. Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time 3rd place finalist. Rutter takes the place of James Holzhauer, who qualified for this season as the 2024 Masters 3rd place finalist but opted not to compete for reasons unknown.[12] Total winnings of $4,968,436.[13]
Neilesh Vinjamuri: A 3-game champion. Qualified as 2025 Tournament of Champions winner. Total winnings of $321,099.
As the three finalists, Raut, Groce, and Zaheer all received invitations to the season four Masters competition.
Tournament format
The tournament features six former Jeopardy! champions (nine starting in season 3) competing round-robin style, with the first season consisting of 10 hour-long episodes featuring two games each, for a total of 20 games.[14][15][16] Initially, the producers intended to structure the tournament as a pure round-robin system with every possible combination of three players (), without eliminations.[14] 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] In the third season, the tournament was now a four-round structure.
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 subsequent seasons.[17]
Knockouts
Starting from season 3, the knockouts start with rematches of the previous year's Masters final & the current year's Tournament of Champions & Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament finals. The second round of games features the first round winners, first round 2nd places, & first round 3rd places. In all rounds except the finals, the winner of each game receives three match points, the first runner-up receives one match point, and the second runner-up or players who were eliminated from Final Jeopardy! receives no match points. Due to the nature of the match point scoring, anyone who wins a knockout game is guaranteed to advance to the quarterfinals.
After all knockout episodes, the match points are totaled; the top six contestants advance to the Quarterfinals, while the other three are eliminated from the competition.
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 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. Starting from season 3, match points from the Knockouts carryover to a combined match point total, and the first round of quarterfinals games features the top 3 players in knockout points in game 1 and the remaining players in game 2.
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, six episodes in the second season and three episodes in the third season.
Semifinals
The four remaining contestants play each other round-robin over four games, with each player sitting out one game, but the point structure is the same as the previous rounds. Match points from the Knockouts and Quarterfinals do not carry over and will reset to 0. 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. Players who end the Double Jeopardy! round with zero points or a negative score in either game will be eliminated from Final Jeopardy! that game and their score for that game is recorded as zero points. 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, though they have the option to decline the invitation and drop out of the tournament for any reason.
Tiebreakers
Should either the knockouts, 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[b][18]
Second place: $250,000 and invitation to the next Masters competition[b]
Third place: $150,000 and invitation to the next Masters competition[b]
^As a result of being a finalist in season 2, James Holzhauer was invited to participate in season 3, but declined. Therefore, he has dropped out from season 3.
^Statistics shown are combined totals from the Knockouts and the Quarterfinals.
^ abZaheer finished the "Double Jeopardy!" round with -1,000 and is eliminated from Final Jeopardy!.
