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)
Upcoming Encore Presentations
August 12: S42 E98 (January 21, 2026)
August 13: S42 E99 (January 22, 2026)
August 14: S42 E100 (January 23, 2026)
August 15-16: S41 E141 (March 24, 2025)
August 17: S42 E101 (January 26, 2026)
August 18: S42 E105 (January 30, 2026)
August 19: S42 E102 (January 27, 2026)
August 20: S42 E103 (January 28, 2026)
August 21: S42 E104 (January 29, 2026)
August 22-23: S41 E142 (March 25, 2025)
August 24: S42 E106 (February 2, 2026)
August 25: S42 E107 (February 3, 2026)
August 26: S42 E108 (February 4, 2026)
August 27: S42 E109 (February 5, 2026)
August 28: S42 E110 (February 6, 2026)
August 29-30: S41 E143 (March 26, 2025)
(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. Ben Ingram $449,201
22. Paolo Pasco $448,717
23. Adriana Harmeyer $446,600
24. Buzzy Cohen $441,603
25. Juveria Zaheer $441,000
DISCLAIMER
The Jeopardy! Fan is created by fans, for fans. The Jeopardy! game show and all elements thereof, including but not limited to copyright and trademark thereto, are the property of Jeopardy Productions, Inc. and are protected under law. This website is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or operated by Jeopardy Productions, Inc.
If you’ve been following The Jeopardy! Fan over the past few months, you’ll know that I use data dating back many years in my Coryat-based prediction model. Over the past few weeks, I’ve been expanding that spreadsheet in order to hopefully answer more and more questions about the show’s strategy!
I’ll be using this data, updated frequently, to provide more strategy-based articles that will hopefully help future contestants in their preparation!
One topic that has been alluded to in many strategic discussions, and which can be helpful in order to determine the best course of action, is being able to quantify the future value of winning a game. This is particularly important when it comes to talking about maximizing potential money won, as there are a few cases where a decision may sacrifice a couple of percentage points of winning percentage, but has a higher amount of average money won (and others where the extra money at stake is not worth the drop in winning chances, because the future value of a win doesn’t make it worth the risk).
—
The new TJ!F Plus section is active! In order to get the Daily Details of each episode coming soon, as well as the ability to comment on posts site-wide, make sure to register for your account! It should be noted that if you have not registered for an account since December 13, 2025, that registration for a new account is necessary.
Did you accidentally get logged out of your TJ!F Plus account? Log in here!
Become a Supporter now! Make a monthly contribution to the site on Patreon!
Contestant photo credit: jeopardy.com
When commenting, please note that all comments on The Jeopardy! Fan must be in compliance with the Site Comment Policy.
If you are going to quote any information from this page or this website, attribution is required.
Have you had a chance to listen to our podcast game show, Complete The List, yet? Check it out! It's also available on Apple Podcasts.
—
To those preparing: It might be helpful to make a decision as to whether to try to maximize winning percentage, or money won, if you get The Call to be on the show. There is a difference, at least in a few cases.
The worth of a win on Jeopardy! is a function of a few stats:
- The average winning score;
- How often a defending champion wins;
- How often a defending champion finishes 2nd of 3rd;
- The expected value of a possible Tournament of Champions appearance.
The final point actually makes the worth of a win variable until someone reaches superchamp status!
All of the data used includes every regular-play game since October 4, 2004.
Why October 4, 2004? For the beginning of Season 21’s tapings, Jeopardy! realized that their challengers might not be getting enough rehearsal time on the buzzer; Ken Jennings’ streak made this very apparent. October 4, 2004 was the first episode of the “extra rehearsal time”. It’s made it slightly harder for a champion to win, and thus a good starting point for the start of the data.
So, the stats, from October 4, 2004, through to January 6, 2017:
- The average winning score: $20,137.
- A defending champion wins 46.26% of the time.
- If a champion does not win, they have finished second 57.14% of the time.
- The Tournament of Champions awards $490,000 in prize money to 15 players (not counting any alternates.) This gives a current expected value of a ToC guarantee of $32,667.
Using the formula 1 / (1 – r) to determine the sum of the infinite geometric series that begins 1, 0.4626, etc., we know that after a player’s first win, they are expected to win another 0.8608 games.
We also know that they are 21.40% to win 2 more games (46.26% squared), 9.90% (46.26% cubed) to win 3 more, and 4.58% to win 4 more (important because we need to add the chance that a player will qualify for the ToC to the worth of their first five wins.)
The fact that a champion finishes second 57.14% of the time means that we should apportion the $2,000 second-place prize slightly more often than the $1,000 third-place prize when adding that to a champion’s eventual winnings.
Putting this all together, we can determine the worth of a victory (not taking a ToC into account, we’ll do that later) with the formula:
(ExpectedFuture Wins * Average Win) + (% 2nd * $2,000) + (% 3rd * $1,000)
or
(0.8608 * $20,137) + (0.5714 * $2,000) + (0.4286 * $1,000) = $18,907.
The above $18,907 is actually the current expected value of a win once a player has guaranteed their spot in the Tournament of Champions.
If a player hasn’t qualified for the Tournament yet, we can use the percentages above to guess their chances of qualifying for the Tournament and add that percentage of $32,667 accordingly.
So, to a player with 0 wins, we can add 4.58% * $32,667 = $1,496 (as a 4.58% chance of winning 5 comes with winning one’s first, on average.)
Thus, we can say that:
A player’s first win is worth: 4.58% * $32,667 = $1,496 + $18,907 = $20,403.
A player’s second win is worth: 9.90% * $32,667 = $3,234 + $18,907 = $22,142.
A player’s third win is worth: 21.40% * $32,667 = $6,991 + $18,907 = $25,899.
A player’s fourth win is worth: 46.26% * $32,667 = $15,112 + $18,907 = $34,020.
A player’s fifth win is worth: 100% * $32,667 = $32,667 + $18,907 = $51,574.
A player’s sixth and subsequent win is worth $18,907 in future value. (as ToC status is generally seen as guaranteed at that point.)
I’ll refer to the above a great deal through my strategic posts, as the future value of wins #4 and #5 may make prioritizing maximizing winning percentage very important!
My next Strategy Talk article will talk about crush games, and whether it is worth it for a leader to bet more aggressively in Final Jeopardy! in those positions.
—