Current Champion
Matthew Riggle, career statistics:
47 correct, 6 incorrect
1/1 on rebound attempts (on 4 rebound opportunities)
41.23% in first on buzzer (47/114)
3/3 on Daily Doubles (Net Earned: $7,600)
1/2 in Final Jeopardy
Average Coryat: $21,300
To win:
3 games: 68.027%
4: 46.277%
5: 31.481%
6: 21.415%
7: 14.568%
Avg. streak: 4.128 games.
(Next game: September 14)
(Click Here for Methodology)
Jeopardy! Masters Standings
(Quarterfinal Final Standings)
1) Victoria Groce, 15 points, 5 wins, 172 correct responses, $126,000 Coryat Score, $121,000 earned before Final Jeopardy
2) Yogesh Raut, 12 points, 3 wins, 106 correct responses, $69,000 Coryat Score, $69,800 earned before Final Jeopardy
3) Paolo Pasco, 8 points, 1 win, 94 correct responses, $62,400 Coryat Score, $71,400 earned before Final Jeopardy
4) Andrew He, 5 points, 1 win, 89 correct responses, $53,000 Coryat Score, $50,400 earned before Final Jeopardy
5) Long Nguyen, 5 points, 1 win, 68 correct responses, $40,200 Coryat Score, $45,200 earned before Final Jeopardy
6) Juveria Zaheer, 3 points, 1 win, 86 correct responses, $60,600 Coryat Score, $68,400 earned before Final Jeopardy
Upcoming Encore Presentations
September 3: S42 E114 (February 12, 2026)
September 4: S42 E115 (February 13, 2026)
September 5-6: S41 E144 (March 27, 2025)
September 7: S42 E116 (February 16, 2026)
September 8: S42 E117 (February 17, 2026)
September 9: S42 E118 (February 18, 2026)
September 10: S42 E119 (February 19, 2026)
September 11: S42 E120 (February 20, 2026)
September 12-13: S41 E145 (March 28, 2025)
September 19-20: S42 E173 (May 6, 2026)
(Source: Bell Fibe TV program guide)
All Time Winnings
All Time Jeopardy! Winnings, Regular Play Only:
1. Ken Jennings $2,520,700
2. James Holzhauer $2,462,216
3. Matt Amodio $1,518,601
4. Amy Schneider $1,382,800
5. Jamie Ding $882,605
6. Cris Pannullo $748,286
7. Mattea Roach $560,983
8. Jason Zuffranieri $532,496
9. Scott Riccardi $455,000
10. David Madden $430,400
11. Julia Collins $428,100
12. Matt Jackson $411,612
13. Austin Rogers $411,000
14. Ray Lalonde $386,400
15. Harrison Whitaker $373,999
16. Adriana Harmeyer $349,600
17. Caleb Groen $346,968
18. Adam Remsen $306,415
19. Ryan Long $299,400
20. Arthur Chu $297,200
All Time Jeopardy! Winnings, Including Tournaments (and Consolation Prizes):
1. Brad Rutter $4,968,436
2. Ken Jennings $4,372,700
3. James Holzhauer $3,614,216
4. Matt Amodio $1,964,601
5. Amy Schneider $1,864,800
6. Yogesh Raut $1,098,403
7. Mattea Roach $897,983
8. Jamie Ding $885,605
9. David Madden $785,733
10. Victoria Groce $773,801
11. Cris Pannullo $754,286
12. Roger Craig $706,200
13. Larissa Kelly $671,930
14. Matt Jackson $623,612
15. Jason Zuffranieri $549,496
16. Andrew He $534,365
17. Scott Riccardi $533,000
18. Jerome Vered $499,102
19. Julia Collins $495,767
20. Austin Rogers $493,000
21. Juveria Zaheer $491,000
22. Ben Ingram $449,201
23. Paolo Pasco $448,717
24. Adriana Harmeyer $446,600
25. Buzzy Cohen $441,603
I couldn’t help but notice that quiz bowl experience is a good predictor for success on Jeopardy! Two of this year’s Teen Tournament finalists, Raynell Cooper and Kailyn Laporte, are quiz bowl participants. I asked David how those of us with no such experience can get caught up now. He said, “It’s tough because there’s lots of stuff that most educated people simply have no reason to know unless you’ve gone about it systematically. I spent more than one Friday night in high school memorizing lists of Russian poets, opera composers, etc. The ‘Trebekistan’ approach is a good one, too.” (That is a reference to Bob Harris’ book Prisoner of Trebekistan: A Decade in Jeopardy! Harris would create his own cartoons or images that linked two or more bits of information together to make it easy for him to remember them.) I asked David how he (David) retained what he learned. He said, “First, I’m genuinely interested in almost everything under the sun. Next, I’d run through facts in my head to make them stick, sometimes with mnemonic devices.”
David says he also studied for the show by calling his parents every night from Germany (you may recall he was studying there when he appeared on Jeopardy!). He kept track of which clues he answered correctly just from studying for the show. By the time he appeared, he was getting an average of three clues right per episode from studying specifically for the show. He says he picked up $7000 on a Final Jeopardy clue about John Wayne that way.
David also kept track of Daily Double locations while listening in from Germany. He’s a big believer in searching for them when he plays. I asked him why, if a person can’t be certain he’ll get them right. I asked if the point was to take them away from opponents. He said, “Absolutely. And my all-time record on Daily Doubles is 47-2, including 3 against Watson in sparring matches….I bet it all on all three occasions against the machine and got all three right.”
Until David said that, I didn’t know he was one of the former champs who helped Watson prepare! I told him I didn’t remember seeing him on the episode of PBS’s “Nova” that featured Watson. David said, “They didn’t want to make Watson look bad. ;)”
David goes on to say, “I hate Watson and am incensed at its buzzer speed on the show. It was a joke. IBM masked its failures through unfair buzzer speed.” I recalled seeing a post of David’s on the Jeopardy! message boards about this. David also mentioned that he wrote an op-ed piece about it. I don’t know about you guys, but I would love to see video of David playing Watson, having read these editorials and having heard David say they didn’t want Watson to look bad! I wonder if the tape was destroyed… 😉
I asked David if he had any advice for mastering the Jeopardy! buzzer. He said, “Not really. If the buzzer were about speed I would’ve done even better. I hated having to wait for Trebek to be done with the question. Sometimes I got in the groove but I don’t think I ever really had it down that great. I think I was late ringing in in the two Watson games. Of the 120 questions, I probably knew about 100, but was only recognized on about 15. Very frustrating, but luckily the Daily Doubles and Watson’s ineptness in [the] Final saved me.”
I asked David which former champ he played against when warming up Watson. “Larissa Kelly, a friend of mine from college – I tried out with her husband Jeff Hoppes for the show.” David said that this was his first time trying out (I’m jealous!) and that he was later told that living in Berlin helped his cause to be selected. David says, “Of course I wasn’t privy to the selection process itself, but it’s a well known fact that J! strives for diversity in its contestants, and I think the fact that I was living overseas made me stand out some. Also, maybe it gave the show more of an international scope or something like that. In any case, it’s pretty rare to see someone on the show who is living overseas.”
Read more about David’s Jeopardy! audition tomorrow night!