Throwback Thursday: Brad Rutter Defeats Ken Jennings in the Ultimate Tournament of Champions (2005)
18 years ago today, Brad Rutter defeated Ken Jennings in the Ultimate TOC to reclaim the #1 spot in all-time Jeopardy! winnings.
Establishing the Top Two Jeopardy! Players
For those newer to Jeopardy! and the culture surrounding it, you’re all probably familiar with Ken Jennings as being the host of the show, as well as the greatest player of all time, as of 2020. Let’s rewind back to late November of 2004, where you’ve got this Mormon software engineer from Salt Lake City, UT just absolutely tearing apart his competition. At this point in the show’s history, Ken was the biggest game show winner of all time, as he had surpassed Kevin Olmstead roughly ten games earlier, who had won $2,180,000 on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? back in 2001, and also $25,901 on Jeopardy! seven years prior.
With $2,520,700 in his pocket and 74 consecutive wins, Ken Jennings seemed unstoppable and many were speculating that the lift of the 5-day limit just a year earlier may have been a mistake. Suddenly on November 30th, Ken found himself in a tough battle with 3 out of 4 of the wagering clues that he had been forced to face, missing two Daily Doubles in the second round and then the final clue, which ended up being the nail in the coffin to his original streak as Nancy Zerg walked away with $14,401 in her pocket, while Ken took home an extra $2,000 for second place. Ken’s run was over, but as was the case with every previous Tournament of Champions alum, we would eventually see him again in some capacity.
So who was our reigning king before Ken Jennings? Was Ken the first player to surpass $1,000,000? Well, he was certainly the first to surpass $2,000,000, but there was only one million dollar winner on the show before him. Rewinding even further back to 2002, a man under the name of Brad Rutter was a finalist during the special Jeopardy! Million Dollar Masters tournament, alongside legendary players Eric Newhouse and Bob Verini.
Brad was undefeated at the time, winning his 5 games back in 2000 and also winning the 2001 Tournament of Champions for an additional $100,000. In the MDM, the final clue of the tournament was on Vice Presidents, the correct answer being Thomas Jefferson. All three players responded correctly, but Brad had the overall advantage and wagered enough to win by $1 for the million dollar top prize. As a result of this victory, he dwarfed Bruce Seymour ($305,989) as the top Jeopardy! winner, having a combined total of $1,155,102 across all games.
The Ultimate Tournament of Champions
You know how I said we would eventually see Ken again in some capacity? Well as it turns out, it wasn’t just going to be any regular Tournament of Champions. Rather, it was a 15-week long tournament in which most players would have to go through four rounds of play in order to eventually face Ken Jennings in the fifth and final round, beginning in February.
The top prize was $2,000,000, but contestants also got to keep the winnings that they won from previous rounds, with minimum prizes being offered along the way. Second place would receive $500,000 in the finals, while third place would receive $250,000. In 2003, just a couple of years prior, the grand prize for winning the Tournament of Champions was upgraded from $100,000 to $250,000, and as a result Ken Jennings ended up forfeiting a spot in the 2006 Tournament of Champions for a bye into the final round of the Ultimate Tournament of Champions.
Speaking of byes, Ken Jennings wasn’t the only player given a bit of an advantage in the tournament. For the second round of the tournament, there was an elite group of players referred to as the Nifty Nine who were given automatic bids into the second round, as well as an extra $15,000. Brad Rutter was included in this lineup, alongside Robin Carroll, Chuck Forrest, Eric Newhouse, Sean Ryan, Frank Spangenberg, Bob Verini, Tom Walsh, and Brian Weikle. Despite the sterling status of these nine players, only Frank Spangenberg and Brad Rutter ended up winning their second round games, the latter pocketing the $20,000 minimum for a total of $35,000 overall.
In the third round, Brad had a much tougher time against Michael Rooney and Steve Chernicoff, as he had missed two Daily Doubles and also negged on some high-valued clues. He went into Final Jeopardy! with $5,600 as a result, compared to $9,200 for Michael and $12,400 for Steve. Regardless, Brad was the only one to respond correctly, adding $800 to miraculously win over Steve by $1, adding another $30,000 to his winnings.
In the fourth round, Brad had to get past John Cuthbertson and Chris Miller in a two-game total point affair in order to face Ken Jennings and other Round 4 winner Jerome Vered in the finals. Other than struggling with some wagering clues in the first game and going into the second game tied for last place with Chris at $10,000, Brad was in complete command of both games, and won the match with a combined $36,600 compared to $13,700 for John and $11,699 for Chris, resulting in an additional $50,000 and a spot in the finals. Up to this point, Brad had won $115,000 overall for the tournament and was now eyeing the top prize.
The final round, beginning on May 23rd, was different from any finals in previous tournaments, for it was actually a three-game total point affair, rather than two. Brad Rutter, notably, was still undefeated at this point but now had to face two expert players in Jerome Vered and the much-feared Ken Jennings. In the first game, the three were very evenly matched, with Brad earning $18,400 compared to $16,400 for Jerome and $16,000 for Ken. The second game on May 24th was also pretty competitive, as all three players were again within close range of each other before Final Jeopardy! However, unlike the previous game where all three responded correctly, Brad was the only player to respond correctly to this clue, thus earning $20,000 for the game as a result compared to $10,000 for Ken and $3,200 for Jerome, making the overall totals $38,400 for Brad, $26,000 for Ken, and $19,600 for Jerome. Only one game was left…
May 25th, 2005: The Final Day
…which brings us to the main point of today’s article, the final game of the tournament. After three and a half months of grueling competition between all of the greats in the show’s history, it was time to determine who would take the $2 million top prize. The tone of this game was much different from the other two games in the finals, as Brad was immediately on a roll through most of the first round, garnering 17 correct responses and constantly outbuzzing Ken and Jerome. Even Ken’s True Daily Double wager couldn’t get him within half of Brad’s score by the end of the first round, and Jerome was less than a quarter of the way to Brad’s score.
Brad found the first Daily Double of the second round, further cementing the fate of Ken and Jerome with a conservative bet. Ken’s only hope of catching up to Brad was finding the last Daily Double and going all-in, as Brad had a $12,400 lead going into the game and was running away with the boards as the game progressed. By the 24th clue of the second round, the final Daily Double was found… by Jerome. With an extra $3,300 added to Jerome’s score, the game was now a lot closer between Ken and Jerome but Brad was already inevitable. Going into Final Jeopardy! with $9,400 for Ken, $8,300 for Jerome, and $23,600 for Brad, it was all over.
The final category of the tournament was about 20th Century Americans, and the clue was about two astronauts who orbited the Earth in 1962 and 1963. Ken and Jerome both responded with Cooper & Carpenter, respectively, but both included Alan Shepard as their other name, which was incorrect. Brad had both Cooper and Carpenter written down, so he was the only one who was correct. The final three-day scores were $20,600 for Jerome, $34,599 for Ken, and $62,000 for Brad. Ken took the $500,000 prize, Jerome took the $250,000 prize + $139,801 from the first four rounds, while Brad took the grand prize of $2,000,000 + $115,000 from the other rounds.
With these results, Brad Rutter had taken his title back as the biggest winner in Jeopardy! history, bringing his all-time total up to $3,270,102, compared to $3,022,700 for Ken Jennings, and $494,102 for Jerome Vered at the time. Not only was Brad the biggest winner on Jeopardy! but he was also the biggest winner in game show history as well, with Ken taking the #2 spot. As of today, these two are still the biggest winners in Jeopardy! history and it’s been that way for exactly 18 years now. James Holzhauer staggers closely at #3 as of May 25th, 2023.
Other Jeopardy! Events That Occurred Today
2022 - Ryan Long wins his 9th game with $12,900, bringing his overall total at the time to $173,301.
2021 - Veronica Vichit-Vadakan wins her semifinal game against Ryan Bilger and Kevin Walsh in the 2021 Tournament of Champions.
2018 - Josh Hill’s 7-day streak officially comes to end after losing his 8th game to Virginia Cummings in third place, adding $1,000 to his $163,721 from previous games.
2016 - Buzzy Cohen wins his 8th game with $14,401, bringing his overall total at the time to $147,803.
2012 - Joel Pool wins his 5th game with $8,700, bringing his overall total at the time to $95,300 and earning him a bid for the 2013 Tournament of Champions.
2010 - Buddy Wright loses his 5th game to Tom LaPorta, adding a third place consolation of $1,000 to his 4-day total of $88,804.
2006 - Tricia Barreiro wagers $6,969 in Final Jeopardy!, ending the game with $31. Nice.
2004 - Anne Boyd, the final qualifier for the 2004 Tournament of Champions, wins her first game with $24,000.
1999 - Michael Rooney wins his 5th game with $10,200, retiring undefeated with a 5-day total of $50,201 ($100,402 in today’s dollar values).
1998 - Louis Cohen loses his 4th game, resulting in him barely missing the cut for the 1999 Tournament of Champions.
1990 - Richard Neale wins his 4th game with $20,000 and eventually qualifies for the 1990 Tournament of Champions.