Has James Holzhauer Broken Jeopardy

In one sense, it can be argued given everything that has happened this year already, that James Holznauer, professional gambler is the best thing that has happened to Jeopardy! in more than a decade. He has won 31 games, the second longest streak in Jeopardy history. Furthermore, he has already won $2.3 million dollars, which means if his luck holds, sometime in June, he will break Ken Jennings regular season record of $2.5 million dollars that he set in 2004. (Because of tournament wins that occurred later, Jennings’ career total of more than 3.3 million still lies ahead, and it will take quite some time for even Holznauer to reach Jennings consecutive game streak of 74 games and Brad Rutter’s all time money record of 4.6 million dollars.)

It has meant good things for Jeopardy as the series ratings have jumped 20 percent since he began his remarkable run. But with success must come the inevitable backlash, and in the last few weeks, national news outlets and the Internet have begun to wonder whether or not this is actually a good thing for the longest running game show on television. Not having seen some of these stories, I will speak from personal experience.

What I know for certain was that during Ken Jennings’ remarkable streak, which spanned the better part of two seasons, I actually stopped watching Jeopardy for much of that time. My general reaction was the fact that Jennings, with his encyclopedic level of knowledge and quick speed on the signaling button, actually made the game less fun to watch. It’s fun to see a rout on Jeopardy – the first time. Maybe for a week. But when a contestant plays so consistently well, and leaves so many of his opponents gasping for air, there’s something that’s really kind of dull about it. Imagine seeing the 1927 Yankees play the 1962 Mets – for an entire season. Even if you’re a Yankee fan, you wouldn’t come to every game, and some point you’d only start tuning in to see if Goliath actually lost.

And I’ll be honest – Holznauer’s games remind me much of Jennings’. If anything, they’re worse. Jennings would wager modestly on Daily Doubles – or at least, so that his final total was always a round number. Holznauer will start at the bottom of the board, and he is so fast and successful – TV Guide said he has a 97 percent success rate so far – that when he hits the Daily Double, he doesn’t need Alex’s incentive to wager big – he almost invariably does.  And it at least half of his games, his fellow competitors are hopelessly behind by the time Double Jeopardy begins.

Then there’s the sole enormity of his wins. Until Holznauer came around, the biggest 1-day total was just over $77,000. He shattered it in his fourth day, winning $110,000. Roger Craig’s record had stood for nearly a decade. James shattered a week later. No one had even come close to winning $100,000 in a single game on Jeopardy before. Holznauer’s done it five times so far.  Now, if you like seeing your contestant win large sums of money – and most people do – that’s fine. But at a certain point, it becomes exhausting, particularly when you remember that’s the amount of the money that used to give a way in their Tournament of Champions. What can they possibly offer as an incentive for Holznauer to come back?

It’s actually become more of a problem to play along at home. For the last decade, I’ve been playing and have been averaging 30 to 40 thousand a game, which will generally win 95 percent of the time. Now when I have no real chance to win by the time Final Jeopardy comes along, I feel as frustrated as his opponents must feel. And I have to confess, it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. This may be the biggest consequence to Holznauer’s streak. Much of Jeopardy’s success has come to the fact that just about anybody could win. How long is it going to be before people stop trying out to play Jeopardy because they don’t want to have to play Holznauer. It’s like Wepner having to fight Ali every day.

Right now, the sun is shining for Jeopardy! And maybe it will for the rest of the season. But eventually it is going to hurt. I have a feeling there are a certain portion of the audience who is watching the show for the sole purpose of wanting to see Holznauer lose. If that doesn’t happen, Jeopardy may end up facing a lot of problems. And that’s an an answer to a question never wanted to face. What might kill Jeopardy off?