Jeopardy Masters 2024 Finals Recap
A New Champion Is Crowned And A New Era In Jeopardy Begins
I will confess I loved Jeopardy super-tournaments over my years of watching them but I have to confess that as much as you might have enjoyed watching them over the twenty years of their existence, from the Million Dollar Masters in 2002 to the All-Star Games in 2019, you couldn’t avoid the pattern.
From 2005 to 2019, it was inevitable that Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings were going to face off in some form no matter how long the tournament or how different the format. And it was almost always the case that Brad ended up winning. There was clearly a variation in the Greatest of All Time Tournament in 2020 but that still ended with Ken Jennings winning.
Much as I loved the Jeopardy Masters last year from the first game to the last and as much as I was thrilled at the conclusion, the fact that James Holzhauer ended up the victor — albeit in a come from behind match — was slightly problematic for me. Holzhauer was a hold-over from the Trebek era after all and as much as he deserved to win, I wondered if the Masters was to become an annual event whether it would have the same thrill if Holzhauer won year after year. I admit going into this tournament, even with the new blood, I still thought that it was likely one of the three finalists from last year — James, Mattea Roach or Matt Amodio — would end up winning the whole thing.
That of course got shot to sunshine when Matt and Mattea were the first two players eliminated in the quarterfinals. James Holzhauer returned to form in the last two games he played but the two players he was challenging Yogesh Raut and Victoria Groce had finished ahead of him in the quarter-final leaderboard and each had thrashed him once. We knew going into the finals anything could happen.
The final was a two game total point affair. In Game 1, James got to the Daily Double in the Jeopardy round early in UTOPIAN LITERATURE when he was tied with Victoria at 1400 points apiece. As is his wont, he bet everything. As had been the pattern throughout this tournament (and much of the finals of last years) it didn’t go well:
“What Utopia means, it completes the title of William Morris’ book about a place without politics or poverty, News From…” James paused then guessed: “What is a perfect place?” It was actually nowhere.
The rest of the round was fought practically dead even the rest of the way when it ended: Victoria had 4600 points, Yogesh 4400, James 3800.
Early in Double Jeopardy Victoria struck when she found the first Daily Double in HEALTH & MEDICINE. Already in the lead with 10,200 points, she chose to bet everything:
“Bring Gilbert and Jennings LLP your claim of this cancer from asbestos exposure, named for a layer of tissue over internal organs.” Victoria paused before saying: “What is mesothelioma?” to go to 20,800 points and a big lead.
For a while Victoria seemed unchallenged. But then James went on a run of his own and found the other Daily Double in ALLITERATION ALL AROUND. With 10,400 points to Victoria’s 22,800, he did what he had to do:
“Greenland forms this body of water’s eastern shore.” James knew it was Baffin Bay and jumped to 20,800 points. He tied Victoria on the 2000 point clue in that category and went ahead three clues later. The two of them went back and forth for the lead but near the end of the round James pulled ahead for good. James finished with 27,200 points to Victoria’s 25,200, Yogesh trailed with 9600 points.
The Final Jeopardy category for Game 1 was POLITICIANS. “He was the first person to be elected governor of one state and then In senator from another; 173 years later, Mitt Romney became the second.”
Yogesh’s response was revealed first: “Who is Houston?” That was correct. Sam Houston was governor of Tennessee and a Senator of Texas. Yogesh did what he had to do and bet everything. Victoria had been having trouble with Final Jeopardy and this was the case today. She wrote down: “Who is Johnson? (I assume she was thinking of Andrew Johnson, though there are many others who are capable.) She wagered only 3800 points. James knew it was Houston but he’d only wagered 1109 points. (“I meant to put a zero after that,” he joked.
After Game 1, it was very close: James led with 28,309, Victoria was next with 21,400, Yogesh very much in it with 19,200. Things could change on a dime.
In the Jeopardy round of Game 2, Yogesh found the first Daily Double a little too early with 1800 points on the fourth clue of the round in ‘I’ TUNES. He wagered 1799 points:
“In the 1980s Windex Competitor Glass Plus seized on the obvious & used a version of this 1972 song in its ads.” Yogesh paused before guessing: “What is ‘I Can See Clearly Now?” It was and he went up to 3599 points. He would maintain his lead for the rest of the Jeopardy round though Victoria would close the gap to 5600 points and James would be at 2800.
In Double Jeopardy Yogesh held the lead until Victoria went on a run in WOMEN IN POETRY. With 13,600 points she went for broke:
“This lass was the daughter of Benedict Bellefontaine, ‘the wealthiest farmer of Grand-pre.” It took Victoria a long time before she said: “What is Evangeline?” and doubled her score to 27,200 points.
James and Yogesh went on runs but Victoria rang in at just the right time to find the other Daily Double in NEW MATERIAL ABOUT OLD MATERIAL. She had 29,200 points and yet again she did math in her head and bet just 800 points:
“Taken to England in 1296, this 26 by 26 by 11 block of pale Yellowstone has but one decoration — a yellow cross.” Again the pause: “Is it the Stone of Scone?” It was and Victoria went up to an even 30,000 points.
By the end of Double Jeopardy Victoria had run away with Game 2 with 34,000 points to Yogesh’s 15,799 and James 8800 points. I couldn’t do the math fast enough in my head to figure out if Victoria had locked up the Masters before the Final Jeopardy category was revealed — but as you will see Victoria did.
The category was AMERICAN WOMEN: “The New York Times wrote of this women who had died in 1951 ‘Though she was forgotten at the time, part of her remained alive.”
All three players knew the correct woman: “Who is Henrietta Lacks?” Her life has been immortalized due to the controversy surrounding how her cells were harvested.
James knew the writing on the wall and was good-natured in defeat. In his response he added: “Final Boss Death Music’ and made the appropriate arcade sound. Yogesh wagered more than enough to move into second place. And Victoria who knew how lucky she was adding: “good game y’all, see you next year.” She wagered nothing, she didn’t have too. Her final total of 55,400 points was enough to grant her the title of this year’s Jeopardy Masters to win the $500,000 prize. James was the first to embrace her as the three masters embraced. James finished third with $150,000 and Yogesh won another $250,000.
With Victoria’s triumph in the Jeopardy Masters I believe what I said at the start of this recap three weeks ago: that this second iteration more than justifies the new Tournaments existence. For all the justifiable arguments of tournament fatigue and the suspicion that the novelty might have worn off this year’s Masters has proven that it will not be the same thing year in and year out.
For one thing James Holzhauer will be the only constant in each iteration. Whenever the invitational takes place in 2025 and Matt Amodio, Mattea Roach and Amy Schneider are invited back, only one will be to return to the Masters. Admittedly Matt Davies could pull the same trick he did last year and have the ‘producers choice’ be one of the three who doesn’t make it but considering how controversial that decision was at the time that’s not a bell I think he would dare ring again.
And as we know from the results of the Invitational there is no guarantee any of them could win or even make it all the way back to the finals. Such was not the case for Sam Buttrey or Andrew He. I suspect they may return in a future invitational but I’m not sure it will be one in 2025. (I will write about who is likely to return as well as some personal favorites I like to see brought back.)
This brings me to the final issue. The ratings for this year’s tournament have been slightly lower than last years — the figures I’ve seen have had them down an average of 20 percent. I suspect this is due to several factors, including the tournament fatigue that plagued much of Season 40. You must also consider the fact that second seasons of any show are generally lower than the first and the X factor which is that when the first Jeopardy Masters aired last year, the WGA strike had hit Hollywood and much of the 2023 season had ended already, therefore affecting the amount of competition Masters was up against. This may not have much affect on the ratings for Fridays (always a dull night for networks) but for Mondays and Wednesdays it had to be a mitigating factor.
And it’s worth noting that support for the show is still pretty high based on the online chatter. Add the fact that the ratings are still good — it averaged between 4.5 and five million episodes per season — and that ABC does a pretty good market in prime time game shows that aren’t Jeopardy and a renewal for a third season seems almost inevitable, if not certain.
I myself had all of the fun that the Jeopardy fan has with this year’s Masters that I did last years. While I experienced tournament fatigue like so many Jeopardy fans did for much of this season, this doesn’t strike me as the kind of ‘tournament’ I or any long time Jeopardy fan could ever get sick of. Yes all of these players are ‘celebrities’ of a sort, but those who try to compare it to reality TV are barking up the wrong tree. The comparison is closer to a professional competitor, albeit one who plays chess or crossword puzzles as a competitive level rather than baseball or football. In a sense Jeopardy Masters is the World Series for trivia nerds like myself and given the ridiculously hard level of the questions, the brilliant display of intellect by the competitors and the personalities involved, I’m glad to know that I have something like this to look forward like this every year. Maybe some day the general public will get tired of this but I doubt the Jeopardy fan will and the readership for these columns seems to indicate, we are legion.