Many Jeopardy! Masters followers agree that the match lacked one factor this yr — James Holzhauer. The season’s scores took a nostril dive in comparison with the final two when Holzhauer appeared on each.
The 2025 match feaured 2024 Masters champion Victoria Groce, returning finalist Yogesh Raut, 2025 Jeopardy! Event of Champions winner Neilesh Vinjamuri, TOC finalists Adriana Harmeyer and Isaac Hirsch, 2025 Jeopardy! Invitational Event champion Matt Amodio, JIT finalists Roger Craig and Juveria Zaheer, and one of many largest Jeopardy! winners of all-time Brad Rutter, who hadn’t been on the Alex Trebek stage since 2020.
Holzhauer received Season 1, so he was invited again for Season 2. He was additionally within the high three on Season 2, so he was requested again for Season 3 however declined. Through the April Dwell Jeopardy! Tour, the sport present‘s bosses Michael Davies and Sarah Whitcomb-Foss shared that he was invited again, however stated he was going to take a seat this one out.
“As all the time, our high three Masters are assured an invite to the subsequent Masters,” Whitcomb-Foss stated. “However, which may depart you questioning, there’s one other Grasp — our third-place finisher James Holzhauer. As we talked about, it’s an invitational match. We completely did lengthen the invitation to James, and he determined for this yr, he was not going to compete.”
“Completely his proper,” Davies stated. “It’s an invitational. We invite the individuals we wish to invite. We prolonged it to 9 individuals this yr to construct extra fairness. We fully respect James’ resolution.”
Holzhauer’s absence may need been an element within the drastic scores decline. As of June 5, 2025, Jeopardy! Masters had 3.394 million viewers tune in to the ultimate episode, which was a 3.58 % lower from the semi-final recreation on the identical night time, based on Neilsen. The semi-finals had a 74.17 % improve in viewers with 3.52 million individuals watching in comparison with the week earlier than, which had 2.021 million viewers.
Nonetheless, these scores are startling when taking a look at 2024’s viewership. With one much less episode, Season 2 introduced in 4.564 million viewers throughout its finale, which was the highest-watched episode that season. And the viewership step by step elevated after the fifth episode.
Many followers stated that the time change from 8pm to 9pm might have been an element in addition to the present being too lengthy (half-hour for the syndicated model vs. one hour for the match).
However, some Reddit customers stated that Holzhauer’s presence would have made the sport extra thrilling. “In the event that they do that once more, I’d think about they’ll pay additional for James to look past the traditional award. Which I’d assume is what he was (and 100% ought to’ve been) holding out for this yr. He’s a TV star with an agent, no actual motive for him to not do just like the celebs do for Movie star Jeopardy! and negotiate a wage, with the likelihood he’d earn much more if he received,” one fan stated.
“I do suppose James coming again would assist it quite a bit, however that’s completely his name and he could also be defaulted to JIT,” wrote one other.
“James and Victoria are simply so significantly better than the opposite gamers that the inevitability of their victories simply appears boring,” a 3rd stated.
“I actually hope James comes again subsequent yr, however Masters is my favourite ‘post-season’ occasion by far and I can’t watch for subsequent yr!” a fan on one other thread commented.
“This season would have been higher if James was part of it. He’s all the time deliver the enjoyable,” one fan added.
“James kicked everybody’s butts in Season 1,” one other wrote.
“Carry again James Holzhauer!” one final fan stated.
Jeopardy! Masters, Season 3, now streaming on Hulu