Getty Image / David Becker
It was announced a couple of weeks ago that James Holzhauer would be making his long-awaited return to ‘Jeopardy!’ but now that day has finally arrived as Jeopardy James returns to the game show on Wednesday night.
Holzhauer is appearing on the show again for the annual Tournament of Champions, which began on Monday featuring the Top 15 players of the season, but his turn to captivate the nation with his big brain comes on Wednesday night.
James is back! Will Alan and Lindsey give him a run for his money? #TournamentOfChampions pic.twitter.com/Z7nM6ZXiki
— Jeopardy! (@Jeopardy) November 6, 2019
Having the duo of Alex Trebek and Holzhauer back together again on our television screens truly is a remarkable gift.
Holzhauer went on an insane 32-game winning streak five months ago before losing to Emma Boetcher, a 27-year-old user experience librarian from Illinois. He ended up setting the all-time earnings record in a single episode of $131,127 earned and walked away with $2,462,216 after being eliminated. Holzhauer was just $58,484 short of the all-time winnings record held by Ken Jennings, who made $2,520,700 in 74 appearances and a whopping total of $3.196 million.
After taxes taken out of his earnings, Holzhauer walked away with about $1.29 million, which isn’t a bad payday for playing a questions and answers game for 33 episodes.
The winner of the Tournament of Champions will walk away with $250,000.
Holzhauer, who is a professional sports gambler, will be going up against software development manager Alan Dunn from Georgia and physician healthcare analyst Lindsey Shultz out of Pennsylvania. Jeopardy James’ archnemesis Boetcher will make her return to the show on Thursday night.
You can, and should, catch Holzhauer’s return at 7:00 PM EST on your local ABC channel. It really will be a special moment in game show history when the camera turns to Holzhauer on Wednesday night, you may even call it appointment television.