Scott Riccardi Is Already Season 41's Biggest Winner. Is He The Next Superchampion In the Making?

 

I will be honest: as late as last Monday I didn't think I'd have any reason to write about Jeopardy until the end of Season 41. And when I did I felt that I might need to write about the dubious record that the show set this year depending on how you look at it. Even when I wrote last month there was a possibility of another great Jeopardy champion arising, it was hyperbole. I honestly didn't think it would happen.

And then like a firework arriving a day before July 4^th Scott Riccardi arrived on the scene and has forced me to rewrite the story of what this season had produced. Because in just five games he became the biggest money winner in all of Season 41 and tonight became the first player to win more than $200,000 since Isaac Hirsch almost a year ago to the day.

It may seem premature to call Scott a super-champion at this point. After all he has won 'only' eight games. This puts him into a tie with Laura Faddah who won that many earlier this year, albeit with less than half Scott's total so far. But the fact is even if Scott loses tomorrow – which he might – he would already rank among the first tier of great Jeopardy champions in the post-Ken Jennings era.

First as a reminder for those who might have gotten used to the double digit kinds of players we've had in the years since Alex Trebek passed away, eight has always been a very difficult total to get too. I remember what a big deal it was in the 2019-2020 season when three different women -  Jennifer Quail, Karen Farrell and Mackenzie Jones – all won eight games between December of 2019 and February of 2020, right before the pandemic shut everything down for the world. Both Jennifer and MacKenzie won more than $200,000 as well.

Indeed after David Madden won 19 games in 2005 very few players managed to win more than eight games until the arrival of Arthur Chu. The only two exceptions were Dan Pawson, who won 9 games in the 2007-2008 season and Jason Keller who won 9 in December 2011. Dan would win the 2009 Tournament of Champions but in his nine wins won 'only' $170,902. Scott had $201,301 after eight.

Few who managed to win eight games were not at Scott's level. Tom Kavanaugh won eight games in the 2005-2006 but just $142, 602. Tom Nissley, however, won 8 games in December of 2010 and $235,405.

In the 2012-2013 season things were started to change as two players won 8 games. Drew Horwood who won $138,100 and Ben Ingram who won $176,534. Ben would go on defeat Arthur Chu and Julia Collins in the 2014 Tournament of Champions.

We've had some impressive eight game winners in Season 39. Scott has already won more money than Stephen Webb, who stopped after eight wins and $184, 881 and Hannah Wilson who won $229,801 before being trounced by the return of Ben Chan. Scott has basically been playing at Hannah's level so far this season and she's honestly a more comparable player. To this point Scott has had very few runaway victories and has had to earn his victories much the same way Hannah did. Like Hannah, Scott's biggest payday so far was in his second victory when he won $50,400. Hannah won $45,200 on her second day.

At this point in his original run Scott has won more money than Dan Pawson, Ben Ingram and Buzzy Cohen, all of whom went on to ultimately win the Tournament of Champions over what in theory was tougher competition. That of course means nothing in an era when the last two winners of Tournaments of Champions have been three game winners but it is still impressive that he is already a better player than them. And it's worth comparing him against those players who have managed to get eleven wins, the marker for which a super-champion is more or less considered the standard. I won't bother with Holzhauer and Ken Jennings but I will do the rest because it is instructive. I'll go chronologically after 8 Games

David Madden: $198,500

Arthur Chu: $238,200

Julia Collins: $170,610

Matt Jackson: $230,610

Seth Wilson: $191,701

Austin Rogers: $306,900

Jason Zuffranieri: $192,100

Jonathan Fisher: $193,800

Matt Amodio: $291,200

Amy Schneider: $295,200

Mattea Roach: $182,801

Ryan Long: $160,401

Cris Panullo: $275,502

Ray LaLonde: $219,300

Adriana Harmeyer: $183,100

Scott Riccardi: $201,301

I think the fairest comparison him to this point is to Ray Lalonde and Jonathan Fisher who had to fight for their victories, didn't runaway with many games and when they won didn't have much margin for error. It didn't shock me that he was doing better than Mattea and Julia at this point during their runs: I was surprised he's currently going at a better pace then Jason Zuffranieri and David Madden at theirs. Of course, they did win a lot more games and they both got a lot better as they played, running away with more victories.

What matters is so far that Scott has managed to get six of his eight Final Jeopardys correct and always does so when he is in a competitive game and/or in the lead. Daily Doubles have been hit or miss for Scott and indeed he went through a streak of four incorrect Daily Doubles in a row in his fifth and sixth appearances. In the former he still managed a runaway and in the latter he was lucky that no one got Final Jeopardy right.

It's still not clear if Scott will be super-champion by the official name (usually it involves winning eleven games) but he's already at the level we normal viewers consider first tier. When he's defeated I'll go into detail on his run. If he isn't by the end of the season…well, no one will doubt his ability then.