A Battle Decades in the Making

Battle of the Decades Finals—Game 1

May 15, 2014

Contestants
Brad Rutter
Ken Jennings
Roger Craig

by the third time they faced off on Jeopardy!, there wasn’t much that Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter didn’t know about each other.

Each occupied a special niche in Jeopardy! lore. Jennings had his unbroken record. Rutter, who never lost a game in regular or tournament play—to a human competitor—was the biggest Jeopardy! money winner in history.

For nearly two decades, they traded records in Jeopardy! play.

It started when Rutter became a Jeopardy! champion in October 2000. At the time, the rules limited champions to five victories. He racked up $55,102 in winnings and two Chevy Camaros.

The following year, he returned to play in the Tournament of Champions and claimed the $100,000 prize. In 2002, Rutter won the Million-Dollar Masters Tournament. That made him the biggest winner in Jeopardy! history.

Then along came Jennings. When his streak ended, his total winnings of $2,522,700 vaulted him past Rutter.

In 2005, Jennings and Rutter competed against each other for the first time, along with Jerome Vered, in the finals of the Ultimate Tournament of Champions. Jennings was awarded a bye until the final round; Rutter and Vered reached the finals with victories in their first two games.

Rutter could not be stopped. By winning the million-dollar prize, he landed in first place among all Jeopardy! players with a total of $3,255,102.

The two did not play again until they were chosen to play in the Watson computer challenge. In that exhibition, Watson finished first, but Jennings claimed the second-place prize of $300,000. Rutter finished in third and won $200,000. Jennings’s new total winnings returned him to first place.

Three more years passed before Jennings and Rutter returned to Jeopardy! In 2014, they played each other for the third time in the Battle of the Decades, a celebration of the show’s thirty years on the air.

“Rocky [Schmidt] came up with that,” said Harry Friedman. “I think there is an ongoing curiosity about how Jeopardy! champions are doing and what they’re doing. For a lot of people, the Decades tournament satisfied the what-if scenario.

“We had been talking about how a current champion would fare against one of the classic champions. Some of the newer players are pretty sharp, pretty aggressive. At the same time, it would be hard to have a meaningful tournament of decades without Ken and Brad. So this was a way to find out.”

The stage is set for the Battle of the Decades.

This time, the third player in the finals was Roger Craig. In addition to being a six-game champion, Craig held the record for the highest single-day win, a $77,000 prize captured on September 14, 2010. During his run, Craig earned $231,200.

Before the game, Jennings and Rutter joked with Craig, Maggie Speak recalled. “They told him they’re looking for a third. ‘We tried Jerome Vered. We tried Watson. Are you going to be our Curly Howard?’”

Craig started slow. He didn’t buzz in until the sixth clue. Then he began making up for lost time. At the end of the opening round, he had the lead with $5,000 to Jennings’s $3,200 and Rutter’s $2,000. Rutter had found the Daily Double and wagered everything. He came up empty. Still, it was early in the game and anyone could win.

In Double Jeopardy!, Rutter caught fire. He responded correctly to seven of the first twelve clues and then hit the Daily Double. After his correct response, he had $9,600 and the lead. Five clues later, Craig had clawed back on top. He picked the second Daily Double and wagered his entire $10,200 on it. But, he couldn’t come up with the correct response. With Craig having no money to wager in Final Jeopardy!, the game became a match between Jennings and Rutter. When it ended, Rutter had $10,000 to $7,000 for Jennings.

“It’s a two-day final, right?” Craig asked.

“Good attitude,” Trebek replied.