‘Jeopardy! Masters’ finals: Start time, contestants, and everything else you need to know
James Holzhauer is defending his "Jeopardy! Masters" title Wednesday night against two newcomers.
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After eight nights of intense quiz show battling, the second Jeopardy! Masters champion will be crowned Wednesday.
Three contestants — James Holzhauer and newcomers Victoria Groce and Yogesh Raut — will face off in two back-to-back games hosted by former Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings. Whoever emerges with the most points will win the second season of Jeopardy!’s masters tournament and take home the Trebek Trophy.
It’s a surprising finale for a competition that featured Jeopardy! heavyweights like Amy Schneider, Mattea Roach, and Matt Amodio. Roach and Amodio joined Holzhauer in the finale of last year’s Jeopardy! Masters, but this time around, both were eliminated in the first round. Following a fifth-place finish, Roach is planning on taking a break from quiz-showing.
“Over the past two years I’ve gotten to play 44 televised games of Jeopardy! — more games than all but four other players in the history of the game, and more than I could have ever reasonably asked for,” Roach wrote in a lengthy social media post last week, in which she thanked the show’s producers and offered support to her competitors. “I hope to return to the Jeopardy! stage someday feeling hungry to win and hopefully in a position to turn in a better performance than I did this time.”
Schneider, a 40-game winner in 2022 who has earned more than $1.6 million on Jeopardy!, made it to the semifinals, but failed to notch a single match point on three third-place finishes.
As with the tournament’s first season, the format of Jeopardy! Masters differs slightly from the regular version, using a point system to determine each night’s winner in two half-hour games. Jeopardy! Masters also reveals the location of the Daily Doubles to viewers watching a home, at fun wrinkle that has yet to make it to the main Jeopardy! competition.
Holzhauer emerged from the semifinals in first place with seven points and two wins. Raut finished second with five points and one win, while Groce was third with four points and one win.
Here’s everything you need to know to watch or stream the Jeopardy! Masters finals:
What time do the Jeopardy! Masters finals start?
The final two episodes of Jeopardy! Masters will air in Philadelphia at 8 p.m. Wednesday on 6ABC.
The three contestants will face off in back-to-back games, hosted by Jennings. The contestant with the highest combined score over both games wins.
Jeopardy! Masters will stream on the ABC app, though it will only be available to those with a cable subscription. ABC is also available on just about every subscription skinny bundle, including YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, fubo, DirecTV Stream, and Sling TV. Most offer a free trial.
If you’re looking to stream the matches for free and you live in or around Philadelphia, your best option is using a digital antenna.
Who are the final contestants in the Jeopardy! Masters tournament?
There are three contestants remaining:
James Holzhauer: A 32-game winner in 2019, Holzhauer holds the record for the most money won in a single game — $131,127. His career earnings on Jeopardy! total $3,462,216, behind only Jennings and Brad Rutter.
Victoria Groce: A writer and television personality who lives in Pittsburgh, Groce recorded just one win in her original Jeopardy! run in 2005 (though she did end the run of 19-game winner David Madden, earning the title “giant killer.”). But Groce is among the best trivia players in the world and won the show’s first invitational tournament last month, which qualified her for a spot in Jeopardy! Masters.
Yogesh Raut: Another new face, Raut was the winner of this year’s Tournament of Champions, a spot he earned by winning three games during his 2023 run. Fans have voiced complaints on social media about his “frantic” buzzer ringing.
What are the Jeopardy! Masters prizes?
The winner of Jeopardy! Masters will walk away with $500,000 and the Trebek Trophy, a nod to the show’s longtime host, Alex Trebek, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2020.
The runner-up in Jeopardy! Masters will be awarded $250,000, while the third-place contestant will walk away with $150,000.
When does the current season of Jeopardy! end?
While Wednesday will mark the end of the Jeopardy! Masters tournament, regular Jeopardy! still has a few months of new episodes in its 40th season.
The final episode of the current season will air July 26. Summer reruns begin July 29.
There’s also Pop Culture Jeopardy! on the horizon, a new spin-off featuring three-person teams which will stream on Amazon’s Prime Video. The show is currently casting (if you’re interested you can test on Jeopardy!’s website) and no premiere date has been announced.