This Tuesday, August 6, is no trivial day for Jeopardy! champ James Holzhauer: It’s the day this self-described game show “Final Boss” turns 40 years old. And if Holzhauer’s first four decades are any indication of what’s to come, we’d wager good money on big success in the next four. In honor of this momentous birthday for “Jeopardy! James,” here are our picks for his biggest achievements to date.
James Holzhauer skipped second grade.
In junior kindergarten, 4-year-old Holzhauer was so adept at math that his teacher developed a special curriculum for him, as the Chicago Tribune reported in 1989. The budding brainiac also joined a fifth-grade math class at age 7 and skipped second grade, as he told The New York Timesin 2019.
He won first in physics at a Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering state competition.
Not only was Holzhauer a member of the team that won a Worldwide Youth in Science and Engineering state competition during his high school years in Naperville, Illinois, but he also placed first in physics and second in mathematics at the event.
Holzhauer set two earnings records on The Chase.
In 2014, around the time he turned 30, Holzhauer competed on the Game Show Network run of The Chase, a game show whose ABC reboot he’d later join as a chaser. During that first appearance, he set a record for the show by earning $60,000 through 12 correct responses in the Cash Builder round and set another record by offering 19 correct responses during the Final Chase round, according to TMZ.
He won 32 regular Jeopardy! games in a row.
Holzhauer’s 32-game winning streak ranks him fourth in consecutive wins on the game show, behind Ken Jennings (74), Amy Schneider (40), and Matt Amodio (38). As ESPN watched on during one taping, then-host Alex Trebek stood next to Holzhauer as producers brought on the next episode’s contestants. “Look at them,” Trebek remarked. “They’re going, ‘Oh, s**t, we have to face James next.’”
He set the top 10 single-game scores on the show.
The Jeopardy! website’s leaderboard for top 10 single-game scores shows Holzhauer’s headshot all the way down, topped by his winnings of $131,127 on April 17, 2019, when he didn’t miss a single response out of 40 responses offered. Holzhauer has also claimed the records for the largest Daily Double wager ($25,000) and the largest Final Jeopardy! wager ($60,013), according to Primetimer.
Holzhauer reportedly earned more per Jeopardy! episode than Alex Trebek did.
At the time of Holzhauer’s winning streak, Trebek was reportedly earning $10 million per year for hosting Jeopardy!, or $34,000 per episode, according to The Guardian. Holzhauer’s average daily winnings stands at $76,944, his Jeopardy! profile reports, which is more than twice Trebek’s reported per-episode pay.
He has the second-highest tally of regular-play Jeopardy! winnings.
Holzhauer ranks second in total winnings for regular-season play at $2,462,216, within spitting distance of Jennings’ $2,520,700 but far ahead Amodio, in third place with $1,518,601.
He won the 2019 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions and Jeopardy! Masters Season 1.
Holzhauer returned to the Jeopardy! stage for 2019’s Tournament of Champions, where he added $250,000 to his winnings by beating Emma Boettcher and Francois Barcomb in the finals.
And in the first season of Jeopardy! Masters, Holzhauer triumphed over Amodio and fellow champ Mattea Roach in the finals to win the $500,000 prize. (He came in third in the Season 2 finals, trailing victor Victoria Groce andrunner-up Yogesh Raut.)
He’s the third highest-earning American game show contestant of all time.
According to a fan tally on Wikipedia, Holzhauer’s $3,672,549.33 game show haul ranks him third in lifetime winnings among American game show contestants, behind Jennings ($5,296,214.29) and fellow Jeopardy! legend Brad Rutter ($5,138,436).
Holzhauer’s tally includes his $2,714,216 total from Jeopardy! regular play and Tournament of Champions, his $650,000 total from two seasons of Jeopardy! Masters, his $250,000 winnings for finishing in second in the Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time tournament, and his $58,333.33 prize from The Chase.
He started a family with Millionaire alum Melissa Sassin, with whom he shares the inaugural Alex Trebek Person of the Year Award.
In what he probably views as his greatest achievement, Holzhauer is a husband and father. He married teacher and tutor Melissa Sassin in 2012, and they have welcomed a daughter together. Melissa is a game show veteran herself, having won $28,200 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in 2014, according to Newsweek.
At the first-ever Jeopardy! Honors awards show in 2022, Trebek’s widow Jean presented the Holzhauers with the inaugural Alex Trebek Person of the Year Award, recognizing players for their contributions off the Jeopardy! stage. Jean praised the Holzhauers’ philanthropic efforts, especially their work with Project 150, an organization supporting homeless, displaced, and disadvantaged high school students in Las Vegas.
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