many have played but only a select few
can truly be called legends welcome to
watchmojo.com for this list we're
looking at the most talented successful
and accomplished people to ever answer
in the form of a question for our
ranking we're taking into account not
only the total earnings of a given
Jeopardy player but also records they
may have broken and their performance in
tournaments please note we have tried to
be as accurate as possible with the
total number of winnings but some
sources may report slightly different
earnings if you like what you're hearing
be sure to check out the full song at
the link below my money my name is
number 10 Austin Rogers just managing to
crack the top 10 is this New York City
bartender who earned four hundred and
eleven thousand dollars during regular
season play and four hundred and sixty
one thousand dollars when taking into
account tournaments Rodgers is something
of a fan favorite because he doesn't fit
the archetype of Jeopardy contestants
did you bet big yeah his mannerisms of
drawn comparisons to Cosmo Kramer from
Seinfeld and given his propensity for
striking a pose and various other
eccentricities you definitely see the
similarities
[Applause]
$6,500 not only is Rogers tenth in terms
of total earnings but his performance
ranks among the top 10 longest
consecutive winning streaks he also
scored two of the 10 highest single day
winnings in the show's history at the
time of competing number nine Jerome
verad upon retiring undefeated from the
regular season in 1992 Jerome Barrett
had already earned himself a place in
the Jeopardy record books his winnings
as a five-day champion ninety six
thousand eight hundred and one dollars
placed him second only to Frank
Spangenberg and his one hundred two
thousand five hundred and ninety seven
dollar run by taking home $34,000 in
just one episode however he set a new
record for single day winnings in
tournaments including a third-place
finish in the 2005 ultimate Tournament
of Champions
his total winnings have soared to 499
thousand one hundred and two dollars and
jeopardy isn't the only trivia based
game show on which Barrett has excelled
he appeared on win Ben Stein's money
where he became the first person to win
all of it the show subsequently hired
him as a researcher
what is Tonga Tonga right number eight
Roger Craig with five hundred and thirty
thousand two hundred dollars in winnings
to his name this computer scientist is
not only eighth on our list but the
contestant with the eighth highest
winnings in jeopardy history I'll bet it
all in 2010 however he further
distinguished himself by earning more
money in a single day than any
contestant before him a whopping is
seventy seven thousand dollars no record
seventy seven thousand this is a record
he would hold for nearly a decade until
it was finally surpassed in 2019 though
his name might not be as instantly
recognizable as some of those that we'll
be discussing later it's worth
mentioning that in the 2014 Battle of
the decades he finished third behind
only gameshow legends Ken Jennings and
Brad Rutter it's I think it's gonna be a
great game and you know I'm playing to
win number seven
Jackson don't let his relatively young
age for you Matt Jackson has got a head
full of knowledge well beyond his years
born in 1992 Jackson honed his trivia
skills at Yale as part of the quiz bowl
team taking home the top prize and a
number of national level competitions
you come up with a correct response and
you want to keep going I understand that
but we have to pause it's on Jeopardy
however that he really made a name for
himself as one of the top trivia
contestants in the country the champion
had a 13 game winning streak and went on
to earn a total of four hundred and
eleven thousand six hundred and twelve
dollars in the regular season alone and
he is over four hundred thousand now he
had four hundred eleven thousand six
hundred in play the 2015 tournament of
champions saw him finish second helping
him to reach a total winnings of six
hundred and eleven thousand six hundred
and twelve dollars boom you've got them
number six
Julia Collins this supply-chain
professional is a bona fide Jeopardy
legend I tried to just like keep slow
and steady and it worked out really well
with a bachelor's degree double majoring
in art history and history plus a
master's degree in logistics and
engineering from MIT Collins comes armed
with a very well-rounded knowledge base
and she put it to good use a 20-day
champion she holds the third longest
winning streak in the history of the
show
over the course of her epic 2014 run she
brought in a whopping 420 $8,100 which
is the fifth highest regular season
winnings on record at the time that
figure put her in third place behind
only David Madden and Ken Jennings that
same year she also came in third place
in the Tournament of Champions started
her to know what will come next but
there's always more interesting ground
to cover number five
Larissa Kelly before Julia Collins came
along this academic and science fiction
author held the title for the highest
winnings by a female contestant in the
regular season are you trying to set
yourself up as a rival down the road
you're gonna take away our audience I'm
coming for you Alex
other records that she's held include
the longest streak of correct answers
longest winning streak by female player
and most impressively the highest five
game total in the show's history while
these have all been surpassed in the
years since because of her performance
in the 2009 tournament of champions and
the 2019 all-star games she remains the
highest winning female contestant
including tournaments and fifth overall
with 660 thousand nine hundred and
thirty dollars in total winnings fun
fact Jeopardy is actually a family
affair for Kelly both her husband and
her sister have also competed with her
impressive winning Clarissa and her
husband bought a house and became
co-owners of na QT number four David
Madden jeopardy contestants come in a
wide variety of backgrounds and
professions but there is no denying that
art historian is a good position to be
in when stepping up to the podium and in
2005 Madden certainly put his knowledge
of art among other subjects to good use
when he won 19 consecutive games for a
total of four hundred and thirty
thousand four hundred dollars David
Madden
19 consecutive shows in 2003 this makes
them tied for not only 4th most
consecutive games 1 but also 4th in
regular season winnings but wait there's
more when you add his various tournament
winnings
David Madden is also 4th in total
winnings with seven hundred and seventy
three thousand seven hundred thirty
three dollars so all things considered
we say that this jeopardy champion has
earned his fourth place ranking he's
since gone on to found the National
History be--and Bowl number three
James holtzhauer this professional
gambler and Illinois native might be
third on our list but he earns the spot
by being first in many regards in 2019
he broke the single day winnings of the
affirmation Roger Craig by over thirty
thousand dollars thirty eight thousand
three fourteen a new one-day record
since that day he's gone on to top that
record three times most notably on April
17 2019 with a staggering haul of 131
thousand one hundred and twenty seven
dollars as of early 2020 pulte our
currently occupies every slot on
Jeopardy's ranking of the top 10 single
game winnings you know I never thought I
could win as many episodes as I did I
didn't really think I could win as much
money in a game as I did you know all
these things say they kind of exceeded
my own expectations his run lasted an
impressive 32 consecutive games which
makes him the second longest running
champion in the history of the show and
the player with the second highest
earnings in regular season play with
over 2.7 million dollars today I won 2.7
million dollars on Jeopardy
number two Brad Rutter if holtzhauer is
first and second in multiple key
categories how is it that Brad Rutter
beats him out for second place on our
list simple Brad Rutter has made more
money playing jeopardy than any other
player in the history of Jeopardy it's
really changed my life and
doing things now I never would already
able to and quite frankly with an
all-time winnings of four million six
hundred and eighty eight thousand four
hundred and thirty six dollars it's by a
pretty significant margin the funny
thing is he doesn't crack the top ten
for consecutive games regular season
winnings or single day winnings he had
an impressive five-day run in 2000 but
it only added up to fifty five thousand
one hundred and two dollars it's the
tournaments that have made Rutter a
legend and a millionaire did he wager
anything didn't have to he's going
moving on he's going to play until the
two thousand twenty greatest of all time
event he remained undefeated in jeopardy
against a human opponent
[Music]
it is my life goal to end up on this
list myself
well no but at least I'd like to go on
Jeopardy fun fact I have even taken the
test to try and get on clearly I did not
pass anyway our number one best jeopardy
player was pretty much a lock so let's
run through the rogues gallery that is
our honorable mentions and then we'll
find out who that is
hi I'm Colby Burnett I was the 2012
teacher's tournament champion as well as
the winner of the 2013 tournament
champion I thought the other two players
would get it and that was a tough tough
final and it won't about ball wound up
bouncing my way they're the only one
with money $3,200 of it yeah sorry Roger
sorry Ken can I bet $100 what I
personally would like two people to take
is that if I can do it they can do it
I'm going tickled kind of how lucky it
all turned out Arthur who is Sam
Waterston correct vice president's eight
before we continue be sure to subscribe
to our Channel and ring the bell to get
notified about our latest videos you
have the option to be notified for
occasional videos or all of them if
you're on your phone make sure you go
into your settings and switch on
notifications number one Ken Jennings
when you think of jeopardy icons the
next name that comes to mind after host
Alex Trebek is Ken Jennings now there
are those that feel that Brad Rutter
should be number one and given that
rudder has won nearly 1.3 million
dollars more than Jennings we can
understand the argument did he risk
enough yep he did he's gonna play
for a million dollars Jennings has the
highest regular season winnings of all
time and given the large cash prizes of
the tournaments this feels like a more
honest metric of success ken what is 200
200 Chris Carter CC yes plus when you
add to that the fact that his
consecutive winning streak lasted 74
games and the second-place is 32 games
now that's a pretty solid argument
lastly his 2020 jeopardy the greatest of
all time victory seals the deal
do you agree with our picks let us know
in the comments and hey if you're a fan
of the song playing right now be sure to
check out the music video for it right
here
[Music]