Jeopardy! followers had been shocked when James Holzhauer wasn’t part of the lineup for the 2025 Jeopardy! Masters. The champion got here in third over the last Masters, so he was an computerized invite.
The manager producers of the sport present — Sarah Whitcomb-Foss and Michael Davies — went over the brand new Masters season in the course of the newest episode of the Inside Jeopardy! Podcast, which was filmed in Washington D.C. on the reside tour. Throughout that replace, they defined why Holzhauer is just not part of Season 3.
Masters Season 3 begins on Wednesday, April 30, at 9/8c on ABC. Common Jeopardy! nonetheless airs earlier than the match, with Superstar Wheel of Fortune airing in the midst of them. Even with 9 gamers this time, as an alternative of six, Holzhauer nonetheless wasn’t within the lineup.
“As all the time, our prime three Masters are assured an invite to the subsequent Masters,” Whitcomb-Foss mentioned. Victoria Groce and Yogesh Raut, the 2024 Masters winner and runner-up, are returning for Masters 2025. Nevertheless, James Holzhauer was the subsequent runner-up, however Brad Rutter, the largest cash winner of all time, is taking his place as an alternative.
“However, that may go away you questioning, there may be one other Grasp — our third-place finisher James Holzhauer,” Whitcomb-Foss mentioned. “As we talked about, it’s an invitational match. We completely did prolong the invitation to James, and he determined for this 12 months, he was not going to compete.”
“Completely his proper,” Davies mentioned. “It’s an invitational. We invite the individuals we wish to invite. We prolonged it to 9 individuals this 12 months to construct extra fairness. We utterly respect James’ resolution.”
Holzhauer is finest recognized for his 32-game successful streak from April to June 2019. He set a number of single-game data for successful throughout that point. Holzhauer additionally gained the Event of Champions that November. He gained $2,464,216 in his 33 appearances, making him the second-highest winner in Jeopardy! common play, behind Ken Jennings, in response to the sport present’s web site.
The Masters episodes can be one hour lengthy and encompass two video games per episode, with 9 episodes in whole. Alongside Groce, Raut, and Rutter, 2025 Jeopardy! Event of Champions winner Neilesh Vinjamuri, TOC finalists Adriana Harmeyer and Isaac Hirsch, 2025 Jeopardy! Invitational Event champion Matt Amodio, and JIT finalists Roger Craig and Juveria Zaheer, are all competing.
Jeopardy! Masters, Wednesday, beginning April 30, ABC, subsequent day on Hulu