‘Jeopardy!’ Star James Holzhauer Loses After 32 Straight Wins

After 32 straight wins and over $2.4 million in winnings, Jeopardy! star James Holzhauer has lost. Holzhauer’s final bout will air in most TV markets tonight, Monday June 3rd, though as Deadspin notes, a clip of the “Final Jeopardy!” question leaked Sunday, while the episode has already aired on several television stations.

In total, Holzhauer racked up an impressive $2,462,216 and averaged, per The New York Times, $77,000 a game. He also set multiple new single-game winnings records and now owns the top spot with $131,127 — as well as the next 15 spots on the list. While Holzhauer ultimately fell $58,484 short of Ken Jennings’ all-time regular play record of $2,520,700, he reached his total in less than half the games (32) it took Jennings (74, which is still the longest Jeopardy! win streak).

While Holzhauer became known for running up scores and frequently going entire games without answering a question incorrectly, his final episode was a tighter affair that came down to “Final Jeopardy!” (spoilers ahead). The question — “The line ‘A great reckoning in a little room’ in [Shakespeare’s] As You Like It is usually taken to refer to this author’s premature death” — was easy enough that all three contestants answered it correctly (“Who is Christopher Marlowe?”). But Holzhauer wagered a conservative $1,399, bringing his total to $24,799, which allowed new champ Emma Boettcher to fly past him with a $20,201 wager that brought her total to $46,801.

As Jeopardy! tapes months in advance, Holzhauer had already had plenty of time to process the loss, and on Twitter he acknowledged the end of his remarkable run with some dry humor. Responding to a USA Today article published today that predicted he’d be around for a while, Holzhauer tweeted, “Timing is everything.” Later, he joked, “Knew I shouldn’t have invited Drake to the Jeopardy! taping,” referencing the meme that the musician jinxes any sports team or athlete he supports.

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