Season 41 of Jeopardy Final Summary

 

The final quarter of Season 41 of Jeopardy could be summed up simply: "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times." Except during that period it seemed that only the latter existed.

When Ben Ganger was defeated on May 6^th it set off the longest period in the post-Trebek era where no one was able to qualify for the Tournament of Champions. Indeed it a stretch between June 16^th and July 2^nd, it didn't seem like anyone would be able to qualify for it ever again. An unprecedented 13 consecutive games went by with out a single player able to even repeat as Jeopardy champion. We breathed a silent sigh of relief when Jason Singer managed to break that streak on July 2^nd. But when he lost the following day some of us must have wondered: "Not again'.

We didn't know that the dawn had come and a new super-champion was about to rise – a player who has now taken his place among the greatest in Jeopardy history.

Scott Riccardi has officially placed on the Jeopardy leaderboard of legends in both terms of money won and games. In the former he has won $455,000 exactly, ranking him eighth all time. On the latter he has won sixteen games tying him with Ryan Long for tenth place of the longest consecutive winning streak in the history of Jeopardy.

On both lists he trails seven of the all-time greatest players in history: Ken Jennings, James Holzhauer, Amy Schneider, Matt Amodio, Mattea Roach, Cris Panullo and Jason Zuffranieri. And while he has won fewer games that David Madden's 19 and Julia Collins's 20, his fifteenth win alone put him at $430,910, more money than either of them won in their entire run.

Scott is by far the most complete Jeopardy super-champion since Cris Panullo was defeated in December of 2022. And while every season since Season 35 has produced at least one player who's won at least fifteen games Scott is clearly quite a bit better than Ryan Long (it took him twelve games to win as much as Ryan did in sixteen) and won nearly $90,000 more than Mattea did by this point in her run. At this point his clearest comparison is to Jason Zuffranieri who he's essentially running dead even with after sixteen wins.

Indeed Scott was very comparable to Jason in many ways: like him the two of them needed a lot of lucky to manage to win five games and after officially qualifying for the Tournament of Champions, they both kicked their play up a notch. Jason ran away with eight of his next ten wins. Scott has run away with nine of his last ten. Jason won $137,000 in first six games and $300,000 in his next ten. Scott won $149,901 on his first six games and $305,599 in his next ten. Both men are very skilled at finding Daily Doubles and wagering moderately on all of them as well as getting the majority correct (though that's something most Jeopardy champions not named Holzhauer do) And both are very dominant in both rounds with few mistakes. Jason had more than a few games where he got 35 correct responses. Scott has already had one game where he gave 39 correct responses and two more where he gave 30 with no mistakes.

But for every super-champion there will always be a day of reckoning. And on the final day of Season 41, it came for Scott Riccardi. It didn't look that way during the Jeopardy round. As has been his want for the last two weeks he got off to a very fast start against Charlotte Cooper and Jonathan Hugendubler. The latter struggled early and was at one point at -$2600 before turning things around and finishing with $800 to Charlotte's $3000 and Scott's $10,800.

But in Double Jeopardy Jonathan was able to do something no one has done against Scott in two weeks: get to both Daily Doubles fast and take advantage of them. He got the first on the very first clue of the round in STATELY BODIES OF WATER.

This bay that had a colony named for it extends southward over 40 miles from Cape Ann. Jonathan: "What is Massachusetts Bay?" He got the $2000 he wagered.

Exactly two clues later he found the other Daily Double in THEY'RE ALL GREEK TO ME. He wagered the $4400 he had:

"In this play by Aristophanes, we hear, 'O women, if we would compel the men to bow to peace, we must refrain." Jonathan figured it out: "What is Lysistrata?" He was now at $8800 the closest anyone had been to Scott in a while.

After that, however, Scott resumed his usual dominance. It was another superb performance: 29 correct answers and not a single mistake. But because of Jonathan's magnificent turnaround for the first time in seven games Scott didn't finish Double Jeopardy with a runaway. He had $23,600 to Jonathan's $14,000 and Charlotte's $7800.

It came down to Final Jeopardy. The category was 20^th CENTURY NAMES. "According to one obituary in 1935 he owned 13 magazines, 8 radio stations, 2 movie companies  & $56 million in real estate."

Charlotte's response was revealed first. "Who is Hearst?" That was correct. (Ken: "We didn't mention his 28 newspapers but you got it anyway." She wagered everything she had. Jonathan was next. He also had Hearst. He bet $9601 to put him ahead of Scott by $1. This was a situation Scott was very familiar with as Ken pointed out.

Then it was Scott's turn. He had written down: "Who is Howard Hughes?" The gasps in the audience were audible and Jonathan was clearly stunned. Scott had lost $5000 but it was irrelevant. Jonathan had taken down Scott Riccardi and ended his run after sixteen incredible days.

We will have to wait an entire six weeks to see if Jonathan, who was introduced as a trivia host from Baltimore can manage to earn a reputation of his own, if he can become a Jonathan Fisher or a Drew Basile. But it was an absolutely thrilling way to end Season 41.

 

 

Just before we wrap things up for the year, let's review those who have qualified for the 2026 Tournament of Champions in Season 41. First the ones who have locked down their place in chronological order of their qualification:

Ashley Chan: 4 wins, $67,400

Laura Faddah: 8 wins, $92,599

Alex DeFrank: 4 wins, $102,400

Josh Weikert: 6 wins, $100,202

Bryce Wargin: 4 wins, $70,199

Andrew Hayes: 6 wins, $137,804

Liam Starnes: 6 wins, $123,584

Ben Ganger: 5 wins, $105,915

Scott Riccardi: 16 wins, $455,000

W. Kamau Bell, 2025 Celebrity Jeopardy Winner

 

 

And now, the most likely contenders for slots in the Tournament among 3 games winners, this time in terms of money won:

Matt Massie: $79,800

Brendan Liaw: $59,398

Mike Dawson: $57,000

Bill McKinney: $46,800

Geoff Barnes: $44,801

 

Matt seems like a lock considering he's won more money then two of them four game winners on this list. Both Brendan and Mike's totals were higher than Neilesh Vinjamuri accomplished in three victories and we all know how that worked out for him. Bill and Geoff are harder to say at this point but even if they don't qualify automatically both are very likely to qualify for Champions Wild Card in the postseason.

I won't bother trying to establish who might be eligible for either the Second Chance Tournament or Champions Wild Card, save to say that there were more than a few players in Scott's original run who will certainly be asked back. What is clear is that even with three months of eligibility remaining we already have a superior field for the 2026 Tournament of Champions. It's not just the presence of Scott as another super-champions, it's that we now have five players who have won six games or more a total we never even approached during the period of eligibility. We also already have six players who've won over $100,000 in their original runs. In the 2025 Tournament lineup, we had seven total.

Scott has brought Season 41 to a more than fitting end, one that is clearly a recovery after so much of Season 40 was disrupted by an endless postseason. The showrunners are learning from their mistakes, the questions have gotten tougher and a new generation of great champions are beginning to rise. I'll see all of you – and Jonathan – back in September.