Las Vegas’ James Holzhauer surpasses $1M on ‘Jeopardy!’
The million dollar question is whether James Holzhauer will pass Ken Jennings as the all-time “Jeopardy!” regular-season earnings leader.
The Las Vegas-based professional sports bettor continued to climb the charts on Tuesday’s episode when he joined Jennings as the only two $1 million men in regular play in the 35-year history of the game show.
Holzhauer, 34, won his 14th consecutive game to increase his total winnings to $1,061,554.
“Despite what ‘The Social Network’ says, $1 million felt really cool,” Holzhauer said.
Holzhauer won $118,816 — the second-highest one-day total in “Jeopardy!” history behind the $131,127 he won in the April 17 episode — and now owns the seven highest daily totals on the show.
Jennings, who won 74 consecutive games and $2,520,700 in 2004, needed 30 games to reach $1 million, according to thejeopardyfan.com.
The site’s prediction model gives Holzhauer a 51.676 percent chance of surpassing Jennings’ total. It gives Holzhauer a 96.7 percent chance Wednesday to win his 15th straight game.
In addition to topping the $1 million mark in Tuesday’s episode, Holzhauer ascended to fourth place on the all-time “Jeopardy!” consecutive wins list, trailing Jennings (74), Julia Collins (20) and David Madden (19).
Holzhauer has correctly answered 497 of 515 attempts, is 32 of 35 on Daily Doubles (for net earnings of $319,366) and is 13 of 14 on Final Jeopardy. He’s also been first on the buzzer 56.89 percent of the time (450 of 791).
Before Holzhauer’s record-setting run, Roger Craig’s $77,000 had stood as the daily record since Sept. 19, 2010.
“Jeopardy!” airs weekdays at 7 p.m. on KLAS-TV, Channel 8.
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.