# Top Winnings on Jeapordy

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-winnings-on-jeapordy/255521>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 17, 2004, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-winnings-on-jeapordy/255521 "2004-07-17T01:08:32Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-winnings-on-jeapordy/255521/1 "2004-07-17T01:08:32Z")

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As of tonight 07/16/04 Ken Jennings of Salt Lake City had accumulated winnings totalling $1,100,460.

Who was the other winner of more than $1,000,000, how much, and when.

Who was the third highest winner, how much, and when.

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**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-winnings-on-jeapordy/255521/2 "2004-07-17T01:18:54Z")

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From the official website:

> [@](#):
>
> Q: Who is the all-time winner?  
> A: The highest cumulative amount won by a single JEOPARDY! player is $1,155,102 in cash, received by Brad Rutter of Lancaster, PA in 2001-2002.

The site also lists all the top winners.

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**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-winnings-on-jeapordy/255521/3 "2004-07-17T04:20:24Z")

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There’s more to the story, though. Brad Rutter was a five-day champion who was invited back for a special tournament with a million-dollar prize. Only recently has Jeopardy started allowing winners to come back an unlimited number of times - it used to be that after five wins, you were gone (but then you’d be invited back for their Tournament of Champions).

Ken Jennings has won his million by just winning every day.

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**Author:** ![spingears](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@spingears](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spingears)\
**Post date:** [July 17, 2004, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-winnings-on-jeapordy/255521/4 "2004-07-17T13:38:17Z")

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> [@CurtC](#):
>
> Brad Rutter was a five-day champion who was invited back for a special tournament with a million-dollar prize.
> 
> Ken Jennings has won his million by just winning every day.

Aha. :smack:

That is the point I was trying to make. Ken and Brad in a head to head would be a contest worth watching. I would place mybet on Ken.  
There was another contestenat that ran the day after day winnings to something like $150,000. Couldn’t find the stats on the site.