Brad Rutter | |
|---|---|
| Born | Bradford Gates Rutter January 31, 1978 Lancaster, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Occupations | |
| Known for | Being the highest-earning Jeopardy! contestant and 2nd-highest-earning American game show contestant |
Bradford Gates Rutter (born January 31, 1978) is an American game show contestant, TV host, producer, and actor. With over $5.1 million in winnings, he is the second-highest-earning American game show contestant of all time, behind Ken Jennings, and still the highest-earning contestant (primarily from special tournament events) on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy! (with over $5 million).
Until the Greatest of All Time Tournament in 2020, Rutter had never lost a Jeopardy! match against a human opponent (though he twice trailed at the end of the first game of a two-day tournament match before coming back to win). This streak consisted of his original five-day run in 2000 (after which he retired undefeated) as well as 17 matches in five tournaments (including one as part of a team)—all of which he won. Rutter finished third in the match—both his first defeat overall and the first time he finished behind a human opponent.
Rutter is a 1995 graduate of Manheim Township High School in Neffsville, Pennsylvania, where he was on the quiz bowl team. The team won second place at the 1994 Texaco Star National Academic Championship. [1] Rutter is one of the 19 people to have been named to the National Academic Championship Hall of Fame in its 25-year history. [2] At the 2005 Manheim Township High School graduation ceremony, he announced the start of a scholarship fund in memory of his late high-school quiz bowl coach, Anne Clouser.
Rutter described himself as a slacker in school and a Johns Hopkins dropout (while there, he studied English). [3] Before his success on Jeopardy!, Rutter worked at the Lancaster Coconuts record store.
Rutter first appeared on Jeopardy! on October 30, 2000, when the rules stipulated that a contestant who won five consecutive days retired undefeated [4] and was guaranteed a spot in the Tournament of Champions. Rutter retired as an undefeated five-day champion, with $55,102 in winnings. He was also awarded a choice of Chevrolet cars; he picked two Chevrolet Camaros. At the time, Jeopardy! awarded new cars to five-day undefeated champions. The rules were changed in 2003, before Ken Jennings' run of 74 consecutive days in 2004, which made Jennings the largest overall Jeopardy! money winner.
As a five-day champion, Rutter was invited to the 2001 Tournament of Champions, where he defeated other five-day champions and won the $100,000 main prize. [5] Rutter was invited back for the 2002 Million Dollar Masters Tournament, where he won the $1,000,000 main prize and became the largest overall money winner in Jeopardy! history.
Rutter returned for the 2005 Ultimate Tournament of Champions, winning the tournament and $2,115,000. After his 2005 tournament win, in which he defeated Jennings and Jerome Vered in the finals, Rutter surpassed Jennings as the highest money-winner ever on American game shows. Jennings later regained his record by 2008 after appearing on various other game shows. There is a minor discrepancy between sources as to Rutter's total Jeopardy! winnings stemming from the prize structure of the Ultimate Tournament of Champions. Players who won in the first round earned $15,000, but Rutter was among nine top winners who received a first round bye. While some analysts suggest that Rutter's money totals should include $15,000 for a first round 'win' in this tournament, the official jeopardy.com website does not count it (when stating that Rutter's winnings were $3,255,102 after the completion of this tournament). [6]
From February 14–16, 2011, the Jeopardy! IBM Challenge featured IBM's Watson facing off against Rutter and Jennings in a two-game, cumulative-total match aired over three days. [7] It was the first ever man-versus-machine competition in Jeopardy!'s history. The computer program, equipped with a precisely timed mechanical "thumb", won handily, finishing with a $77,147 score, while Jennings took second place with a score of $24,000 over Rutter's $21,600 score. IBM donated its $1 million purse to two charities. Jennings and Rutter did likewise with half of their respective winnings of $300,000 and $200,000. Rutter donated $100,000 to the Lancaster County Community Foundation. [8] Since this man-versus-machine matchup was an exhibition, Rutter's winnings and loss did not count towards official records.
Rutter participated in the Jeopardy! 2014 Battle of the Decades, pitting top champions from throughout the previous 30 years of Jeopardy!. He appeared in the 1990s week of the tournament. Rutter won the March 7, 2014, game against Mike Dupee and Jill Bunzendahl Chimka. He then appeared in the quarterfinals of the tournament on May 7, 2014, against Dan Pawson and Mark M. Lowenthal and won the game in a lock. On May 13, 2014, Rutter defeated Leszek Pawlowicz and Tom Cubbage in the semifinals. On May 16, 2014, he won the tournament and $1,000,000, defeating Ken Jennings and Roger Craig in the finale after the former missed the Final Jeopardy! clue. With this win, Rutter regained the record as the highest money-winner on American game shows, which Jennings had held since 2008.
In 2019, Rutter teamed with fellow Jeopardy! champions Larissa Kelly and Dave Madden to win the Jeopardy! All-Star Games. Rutter was team captain and they split the top prize of $1,000,000.
Rutter competed in the Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time event in January 2020 against Jennings and James Holzhauer and ended up winning $250,000 with a third-place finish. [9]
Rutter appeared on the U.S. game show 1 vs. 100 (as a member of "the Mob") on December 1, 2006, and again on December 8, 2006. He answered every question correctly and was one of only seven mob members to survive to the next show, as was Annie Duke. Rutter would be eliminated on the December 15 episode on a question about Jewish reggae musician Matisyahu. Rutter appeared again on February 9, 2007, and was eliminated late in a winner-takes-$250,000 "last man standing" competition, but before Ken Jennings was. Rutter was the top seed in Grand Slam but lost in the second round to Ogi Ogas, a former Who Wants to Be a Millionaire contestant.
Rutter competed in the 2010 World Quizzing Championship, where he finished 140th. Rutter was also a contestant on the sixth episode of Million Dollar Mind Game (aired on November 27, 2011), where his team won $600,000. In May 2012, Rutter did a pilot episode as a "Chaser" for an American version of the British game show The Chase . Fox network ordered two pilots for consideration in its lineup. The Chaser in the other pilot was Mark Labbett, one of the five Chasers on both the British and Australian versions of the show. Despite the show not being picked up by Fox, it was later aired by GSN, with Labbett (the Beast) as the only Chaser. Rutter was one of three chasers hired in 2020 for the ABC revival of The Chase, along with Jennings and Holzhauer. [10]
In May 2020, Rutter appeared on a revival of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire as an in-person lifeline for celebrity contestant Catherine O'Hara. On the show, celebrities playing for charity were allowed to have an expert assist them in answering the first 10 questions—Rutter served as O'Hara's expert and helped her answer each of the 10 questions correctly. [11] After this point, O'Hara made the decision to trade her 50:50 lifeline for the opportunity to consult Rutter once more on any of the remaining questions. She took this opportunity on the $125,000 question, which he once again helped her answer correctly. O'Hara's final total on the show was $250,000, as she chose to walk away from the $500,000 question. [12] Rutter was one of two Jeopardy! contestants to appear on the show as a lifeline, the other being Buzzy Cohen, who was a lifeline for Hannibal Burress. [13]
Until 2009, Rutter lived in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he hosted InQuizitive, a local broadcast quiz show for high school students. [14] Rutter has also been a reader and judge for the high school National Academic Championship. He now lives in Los Angeles, where he is pursuing acting. [15]
Rutter is a lifelong fan of the Philadelphia Eagles. He gave them a shout-out during the Final Jeopardy! round of the third Jeopardy! Greatest of All Time Tournament game in 2020, where he wagered 4,133 points (a reference to the final score of Super Bowl LII, where the Eagles won their first Super Bowl in franchise history by defeating the New England Patriots 41–33) on a question about 21st century Oscar winners. [16]
The 1950s quiz show scandals were a series of scandals involving the producers and contestants of several popular American television quiz shows. These shows' producers secretly gave assistance to certain contestants in order to prearrange the shows' outcomes while still attempting to deceive the public into believing that these shows were objective and fair competitions. Producers fixed the shows sometimes with the free consent of contestants and out of various motives: improving ratings, greed, and the lack of regulations prohibiting such conspiracy in game show productions.
Kenneth Wayne Jennings III is an American game show host, former contestant, and author. He is best known for his work on the syndicated quiz show Jeopardy! as a contestant and later its host. Jennings was born in Seattle, Washington but grew up in South Korea and Singapore. He worked as a computer programmer before he tried out for Jeopardy! in 2004. During his initial run, Jennings secured a consecutive 74 wins, setting records and bringing significant media attention and viewership.
Thom McKee is a retired officer in the United States Navy and 1977 graduate from the United States Naval Academy. He is best known for being a contestant on the game show Tic Tac Dough, becoming the show's longest reigning champion and the highest money winner in American game show history.
Eddie Timanus is a USA Today sportswriter and game show contestant who grew up in Reston, Virginia, then graduated from Wake Forest University. Timanus has been blind since he was a toddler due to retinoblastoma. He is best known for his five-game winning streak on the game show Jeopardy! and for being the first blind contestant to appear on the show.
Jerome Vered is a Studio City, California writer, publicly known for his record-setting success as a contestant on the U.S. television game show Jeopardy!
Manheim Township High School is a comprehensive four-year public high school located in Manheim Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is the only high school in the Manheim Township School District.
A game show is a type of radio, television, or internet program in which contestants, television personalities or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, play a game which involves answering trivia questions or solving puzzles, usually for prizes. Game shows are usually distinguishable from reality television competition shows, in which the competition consumes an entire season of episodes; in a game show, prizes can typically be won in a single match. Beginning with the first five-figure and six-figure game show jackpots in the mid-1950s, a succession of contestants on various quiz shows of the era each set records. Teddy Nadler of The $64,000 Challenge, the highest-scoring contestant of the 1950s era, was not surpassed until 1980, when Thom McKee won $312,700 on Tic-Tac-Dough. Between 1999 and 2001, during a brief boom in high-stakes game shows, the record was broken six times. Both the 1955–1958 and 1999–2001 eras of rapidly set and broken records were driven primarily by one-upmanship between the networks each trying to secure bragging rights and ratings by inflating their prize offerings, rather than the merits of the contestants themselves. American daytime television has historically had smaller prize budgets for game shows that air in that daypart.
Larissa Kelly is an American multiple-time champion on the U.S. game show Jeopardy!, currently resident in Richmond, California. She is a writer and academic.
Jeopardy! is an American television game show created by Merv Griffin. The show is a quiz competition that reverses the traditional question-and-answer format of many quiz shows. Rather than being given questions, contestants are instead given general knowledge clues in the form of answers and they must identify the person, place, thing, or idea that the clue describes, phrasing each response in the form of a question.
Roger Alan Craig Jr. is an American game show contestant, computer scientist, data scientist, and machine learning consultant. He held the record for highest single-day winnings on the quiz show Jeopardy! from September 14, 2010 to April 9, 2019. In 2011, Craig returned to win the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions. In 2014, he competed in the Battle of the Decades tournament, finishing third overall behind Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings.
The Chase is an American television quiz show adapted from the British program of the same name. It premiered on August 6, 2013, on the Game Show Network (GSN). It was hosted by Brooke Burns and featured Mark Labbett as the "chaser". A revival of the show premiered on January 7, 2021, on ABC. It is hosted by Sara Haines and initially featured as the chasers Jeopardy! champions James Holzhauer, Ken Jennings, and Brad Rutter. Labbett returned as a chaser in June 2021, before stepping down in 2022 along with Jennings. In their place are Buzzy Cohen, Brandon Blackwell, and Victoria Groce.
David "Dave" Madden is an American game show contestant, academic competition organizer, and art historian. He is a former 19-day champion on Jeopardy! and holds the eighth-longest streak in Jeopardy! history.
Austin David "Buzzy" Cohen is a recording music industry executive and trivia enthusiast from Los Angeles, California, best known for his association with the game show Jeopardy! since 2016. Cohen was the winner of the 2017 Tournament of Champions and later appeared in the All-Star Games in 2019 and as a guest host for the show's 2021 Tournament of Champions following longtime host Alex Trebek's death.
James Holzhauer is an American game show contestant and professional sports gambler. He is the third-highest-earning American game show contestant of all time. Holzhauer is best known for his 32-game winning streak as champion on the quiz show Jeopardy! from April to June 2019, during which he set multiple single-game records for winnings, and for winning the following Tournament of Champions that November.
Jeopardy! The Greatest of All Time is a special tournament limited-run series of the game show Jeopardy! that took place in January 2020. The tournament was produced for ABC and aired on the network in prime time. This was the second time a Jeopardy! competition aired on network television ; the first occurred in 1990 when the special tournament series Super Jeopardy! was carried by ABC.
Matthew Benjamin Amodio is an American mathematician and game show contestant who won 38 consecutive games on the game show Jeopardy! in 2021, the third-longest streak in the show's history, behind Ken Jennings and Amy Schneider. A PhD student in computer science at Yale University, Amodio won $1,519,601 in 39 appearances on Jeopardy!, making him the third millionaire contestant on the show in regular-season play. Across all American game shows, Amodio is the 10th-highest-earning contestant of all time. His run on the show has been called the "Amodio Rodeo".
Jeopardy! is an American quiz game show in which contestants use certain strategies and skills to increase their chances of winning each game, win the most games, and ensure large winnings.
Amy Schneider is an American writer and game show contestant. Winning 40 consecutive games on the quiz show Jeopardy! from November 2021 to January 2022 and the November 2022 Tournament of Champions, she holds the second-longest win streak in the program's history, behind only Ken Jennings, who hosted the show as she competed and the longest win streak by a woman. She is the most successful woman and most successful transgender contestant ever to compete on the show, in terms of both the length of her streak and her $1.6 million in winnings.
The 27-year-old Johns Hopkins University dropout and former record-store worker beat quiz-show legend Ken Jennings on Jeopardy! Ultimate Tournament of Champions on May 25, winning $2 million. Add that to the Jeopardy! booty he has scored since he first played the game in 2000, and his total is $3,255,102, making Rutter the biggest TV game-show winner in history, according to the show's people.
But in the culmination of a three-round battle of former champions, he finished second on Wednesday night to Brad Rutter, a former record store clerk from Lancaster, Pa. Mr. Rutter, now the host of his own local quiz show, beat Mr. Jennings in all three games, winning a total of $62,000 to Mr. Jennings's $34,599, The Associated Press reported. Mr. Rutter, who won $1 million on Jeopardy! in 2002, received an additional $2 million for his latest win, achieved on Wednesday in a test of rapid responses to questions about Belgian and Asian history, Latin, poets, rocks and sports.
