The biggest one-day totals in Jeopardy! history
After Michael Bilow took home a whopping $57,198 on Tuesday, there was some confusion as to where his total stood among the highest single-game scores of all time.
Here’s an attempt to rectify that, with a nod to the players who racked up big paydays back when “I’ll take such-and-such for $500, Alex” made sense.
Clue values were doubled on November 26, 2001. As such, I’ve doubled the totals of winners who played before then. They’re denoted with an asterisk *.
And, yes, I’ll update this on an as-needed basis.
Edited: After I published this, Stefan Goodreau pointed out this archived Sony Pictures site, which listed six early high scores not present in the J! Archive. Those scores, all from the $100-$1,000 era, are denoted with a carat ^. Thanks, Stefan!
Also: at the request of Robert K S, I’ve marked scores that were unadjusted records at the time with a cross ✝. Note: Bob Blake tied Kevin Frear’s $27,800 record, and Ken Jennings tied Brian Weikle’s $52,000 record three times before breaking it outright.
20 Apr 2015: updated with info about Matt Handel, as pointed out by Stefan based on intel from a trustworthy source.
22 Mar 2016: thanks to Joey Palumbo for sending me this archived page, which lists complete scores for most of the early tournaments. It included the $26,001 pre-doubled haul by Matt Morris in the 1994 Teen Finals.
| Rank | Score | Player | Type | Date |
| 1 | $77,000✝ | Roger Craig | Regular | 9/14/10 |
| 2 | $75,000✝ | Ken Jennings | Regular | 7/23/04 |
| 3 | $68,000*✝ | Jerome Vered | Regular | 5/21/92 |
| $68,000 | Andy Richter | Celebrity | 9/17/09 | |
| 5 | $66,600 | Skyler Hornback | Kids | 7/31/13 |
| 6 | $65,200* | Doug Lach | Regular | 7/7/00 |
| 7 | $62,000* | John Skelton | Regular | 7/1/98 |
| 8 | $61,200*✝ | Frank Spangenberg | Regular | 1/15/90 |
| 9 | $58,800^ | Mark Born | Regular | 6/21/91 |
| 10 | $58,200 | Arthur Chu | Regular | 2/27/14 |
| 11 | $57,198 | Michael Bilow | Regular | 3/31/15 |
| 12 | $56,400 | Elyse Mancuso | Teen F2 | 5/11/12 |
| 13 | $56,000* | Jason Parker | Regular | 6/12/00 |
| 14 | $55,600*✝ | Kevin Frear | Regular | 7/5/88 |
| $55,600^✝ | Bob Blake | Regular | 9/7/89 | |
| 16 | $55,300 | Pat Sajak | Celebrity | 1/21/10 |
| 17 | $55,099 | Ken Jennings | Regular | 11/24/04 |
| 18 | $55,000 | Mark Runsvold | Regular | 7/18/11 |
| 19 | $54,800^ | Michael Daunt | Regular | 12/4/95 |
| 20 | $53,200* | Bruce Naegeli | Regular | 7/20/88 |
| 21 | $52,200* | Karl Coryat | Regular | 6/24/96 |
| 22 | $52,002* | Matt Morris | Teen F2 | 2/18/94 |
| 23 | $52,000✝ | Brian Weikle | Regular | 4/14/03 |
| $52,000✝ | Ken Jennings | Regular | 7/9/04 | |
| $52,000✝ | Ken Jennings | Regular | 7/12/04 | |
| $52,000✝ | Ken Jennings | Regular | 7/22/04 | |
| 27 | $51,999 | Zach Blumenfeld | Teen QF | 11/3/09 |
| 28 | $51,000* | Garrett Simpson | Regular | 1/31/89 |
| $51,000 | Matt Jackson | Regular | 10/12/15 | |
| 30 | $50,800^✝ | Harvey Becker | Regular | 11/7/85 |
| $50,800 | Joon Pahk | Regular | 10/4/11 | |
| 32 | $50,000✝ | Myron Meyer | Regular | 9/5/02 |
| $50,000 | Ken Jennings | Regular | 6/10/04 | |
| $50,000 | Ken Jennings | Regular | 6/15/04 | |
| $50,000 | Ken Jennings | Regular | 7/16/04 | |
| $50,000 | Ken Jennings | Regular | 9/17/04 | |
| $50,000 | Ken Jennings | Regular | 11/4/04 | |
| $50,000 | Ken Jennings | Regular | 11/25/04 | |
| $50,000 | Roger Craig | TOC F1 | 11/14/11 | |
| $50,000 | Matthew Jackson | Regular | 10/09/15 | |
| 41 | $49,998* | Michael Arnone | Regular | 1/11/01 |
| 42 | $49,900 | Philip Tiu | Regular | 3/15/16 |
| 43 | $49,699 | Kevin Joyce | Regular | 4/15/09 |
| 44 | $49,600* | Joe Gurski | Teen F2 | 5/17/96 |
| 45 | $49,400* | Steve Chernicoff | Regular | 9/7/94 |
| 46 | $49,000 | Kunle DeMuren | Kids | 9/18/02 |
| 47 | $48,801 | Ken Jennings | Regular | 6/25/04 |
| 48 | $48,800* | Andy Richter | Celebrity | 11/16/99 |
| 49 | $48,799 | Matt Caruso | Regular | 4/24/03 |
| 50 | $48,600 | Jack Feerick | Regular | 1/28/09 |
| 51 | $48,002^ | India Cooper | Regular | 12/17/91 |
| 52 | $48,000* | Jerome Vered | Regular | 5/18/92 |
| $48,000* | Matt Zielenski | Teen F1 | 2/16/95 | |
| $48,000* | Dan Melia | Regular | 9/4/97 | |
| $48,000 | Mark Runsvold | Regular | 7/15/11 | |
| 56 | $47,600^✝ | Elise Beraru | Regular | 10/3/84 |
| 57 | $47,000* | Eric Prosser | Regular | 3/10/98 |
| 58 | $46,800* | Matt Handel | Regular | 9/8/94 |
| $46,800 | Leah Greenwald | UTOC 1 | 3/15/05 | |
| 60 | $46,600 | Maria Wenglinsky | Regular | 11/1/05 |
| $46,599 | Tim Kutz | Regular | 02/17/16 | |
| 62 | $46,000* | Bob Beers | Regular | 4/7/88 |
| $46,000* | Matt Handel | Regular | 9/12/94 | |
| $46,000* | Jon Stewart | Celebrity | 11/17/99 | |
| 65 | $45,598* | Frank Spangenberg | Regular | 1/10/90 |
* pre-doubled totals
^ not in J! Archive as of initial publication
✝ unadjusted record at the time
Awesome! If you have the time, the one improvement I think would be neat would be to add a dagger for those who at one time held the No. 1 spot. You might do two different notations, one for those who, like Myron Meyer, held the record absolutely but not relative to doubled-dollar record holders.
The Jeopardy site’s Hall of Fame for big one-day winners comprises those with $30,000 or more, but pre-doubling (and a little post-, too) it used to be a list (albeit an incomplete one) of people who scored at least $23,800. (That total belonged to Elise Beraru, the first five-time champion.) Here’s a Wayback Machine cache with the old list, containing a few unarchived totals and some more familiar names: https://web.archive.org/web/20021001202114/http://www.sonypictures.com/tv/shows/jeopardy/cont/winners_list_day_totals.html
Elise Beraru’s high score was in 1984, not ’85. And I’ve already told you on Facebook, but I’m putting it here for the general public: a player named Matt Handel scored $23,400 on the day after Steve Chernicoff’s big fifth win, and $23,000 two games later.
Thanks for the nudge – updated.
Hi, it’s Matt Handel. Thanks for the shout-out, Stefan. Day 1 was a lock, so I bet only $5,000 on a pre-Final Jeopardy score of $18,400. Day 3 was pretty wild: I was behind going into Final Jeopardy. I had $11,500 and my opponent had $12,000. I bet everything and got the question right. He bet the appropriate amount, wrote down the correct answer, and then CROSSED IT OUT to write in the incorrect answer.
BTW, day 4 just stunk. I must have been tired–none of us cracked $10,000 during the game and all three of us got Final Jeopardy wrong. The winner that day took home $899.
I’m giving Bob Beers an honorable mention for likely being the only person who made this list despite getting Final Jeopardy wrong. (Jack Lechner could have done it too, but… http://www.j-archive.com/showgame.php?game_id=3711)
If you’re going to do a chart with all these colors in it, please explain what they mean!
They just match up with the type of game (regular, tournament, etc.)
Please forgive my ignorance but I do not understand your statement:”Also: at the request of Robert K S, I’ve marked scores that were unadjusted records at the time with a cross ✝.” What do you mean?