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Spoiler: Fate of James Holzhauer's Pursuit of Jeopardy Earnings Record Revealed
June 3, 2019
If you do not want to know whether James Holzhauer bested Ken Jennings' all-time Jeopardy record, please exit this article now.
Seriously.
A spoiler is coming.
Final warning.
In what can only be deemed as one of the more shocking upsets in Jeopardy history, Holzhauer lost in the episode that will air Monday. Emma Boettcher finished with $46,801, besting Holzhauer's total of $24,799 following Final Jeopardy. Boettcher entered the final round with $26,600 compared to Holzhauer's $23,400.
After accounting for his $2,000 prize for second place, Holzhauer finished with $2,464,216, leaving him $56,485 short of passing Ken Jennings' all-time record.
"Nobody likes to lose," Holzhauer told Julia Jacobs of the New York Times. "But I'm very proud of how I did, and I really exceeded my own expectations for the show. So I don't feel bad about it."
Most expected Holzhauer to break Jennings' record, which was set during a 74-game winning streak from 2003-04. Not even Holzhauer came close to matching Jennings' winning streak, but his pure dominance in the competition left viewers speechless.
A professional sports gambler, Holzhauer was brazen with his Daily Double and Final Jeopardy bets, averaging nearly $77,000 in winnings per game.
"I lost to a really top-level competitor," Holzhauer said of Boettcher. "She played a perfect game. And that was what it took to beat me."
