Who Is… JAMES HOLZHAUER?

As with Ken Jennings, I knew very early that James Holzhauer was something special. On his fourth show, he set a new one-day winnings record. He’d come up with a correct response and I’d think, How the hell did he know that? I found his thirty-two game winning streak so compelling that, like the rest of America, I would tune in every night at home to watch.

Of course, you can’t discuss James without first mentioning Chuck Forrest. Chuck appeared on Jeopardy! in 1985, during my second season hosting the show. In some ways, he invented the strategy of jumping around on the gameboard rather than working through each category from top to bottom. In fact, it became known as the “Forrest Bounce.” Chuck set what was, at the time, a total earnings record of $72,800. Chuck was incredibly likable, and held several Jeopardy! records for many years. But because of the five-game rule, he never became a household name the way James and Ken did.

James used the “Forrest Bounce” a bit differently than Chuck. For Chuck, it was more of a defensive tactic. He used it primarily to keep his opponents off-balance so that they could never settle into a rhythm and get comfortable. Chuck has said that he felt that bouncing from category to category allowed him to know a split second before his opponents what the next subject matter was going to be. James used it more as an offensive tactic. He went for the highest-value clues and amassed as much money as possible, not only to put the game more quickly out of reach for his opponents but also to win. Which is why he almost always went all-in on Daily Doubles and never shied away from betting the farm. James also just wanted to take home as much money as he could. That might seem obvious. “Doesn’t every contestant?” you might say. What I’ve found is that the majority of contestants care more about winning the game. The money is wonderful, but what they really want is to be able to call themselves a Jeopardy! champion. Eventually the money runs out, but the bragging rights of saying “I won on Jeopardy!” last forever. James has the utmost respect for the game and is a terrific champion, but his aim was to amass as much money as possible. Remember, he was introduced on the show as a professional gambler.

Now, I have often said that I’m not a fan of the strategy of starting at the bottom of the gameboard. It has always bothered me when contestants adopt the tactic of going to higher-priced clues before they know what the category is about. The gameboard is arranged the way it is to help the player. Some categories are too hard to decipher until you’ve seen the first couple of clues in order. By jumping deep into a category, it may be that no one will be able to respond to the clue and that money will go unclaimed. However, James had the knowledge to back up that strategy—the knowledge and the guts.

Ken has said James changed the way the game is played. That’s why Ken and Brad Rutter—Jeopardy!’s highest-earning contestant ever—had to change their strategy in the recent “Greatest of All Time” games. The strategy of slow and steady and betting $5,000 on a Daily Double wasn’t going to work. They had to adopt James’s strategy and use it against him. That was the only way they were going to beat him. And Ken did.

With Chuck Forrest in 1985.

James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings, and Brad Rutter during 2020’s “Greatest of All Time” competition.