Suvechha Sarkar
The battle of the brains is back on ABC as ‘Jeopardy! Masters’ returns with season 3. Episode 1, titled ‘Knockouts 1 & 2,’ kicks off with nine trivia legends, including finalists from the 2025 ‘Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions’ – Neilesh Vinjamuri, Adriana Harmeyer, and Isaac Hirsch. Joining them are Brad Rutter, who is the winner of the all-time highest ‘Jeopardy’ money award, the last season’s champion, Victoria Groce, and the runner-up, Yogesh Raut. Additionally, the cast comprises ‘Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament’ winner Matt Amodio, and its finalists, Roger Craig and Juveria Zaheer. All of them will battle each other through a series of knockouts, quarter-finals, and semi-finals, until only three top players reach the finals in the hopes of walking away with the $500,000 grand prize.
The First Match Sets the Stage For a Fierce Showdown
The episode begins by introducing the first group of contestants: Brad Rutter, Yogesh Raut, and Victoria Groce.. While Brad is an actor and a producer, Yogesh has a multifaceted career as a writer, podcast host, and educational blogger. Victoria is an exceptional writer from Pennsylvania. Longtime host Ken Jennings returns to helm this high-stakes game, and with his arrival, he announces that each of this season’s episodes will have two games. After the end of each, the winner will receive 3 points, the runner-up will be rewarded 1 point, and the third-place player will earn 0 points. Each of the nine contestants will play the two games, and only the top 6 will move forward for their next battle.
The game commences as Ken announces the six categories for the first Jeopardy round: American History, Featuring, A Little Alliteration, World Capitals, Meet “Me” in the Middle, and U.S. Business Headquarters. Victoria kickstarts the game by choosing the World Capitals as the category. The torch soon passes to Yogesh as he gets the answer right, who then goes on a roll and even receives the first Daily Double of the night. He decides to bet the entire 5,800 points he has scored on the category of A Little Alliteration and ends up winning with the correct answer. Thus, his points go to 11,600. Although Brad takes his time to get into the game, he gets answers wrong and surpasses the timer twice. As the round reaches its end, Yogesh is the contestant with the most points – 15,400.
Before the Double Jeopardy round begins, Ken reintroduces Brad Rutter, an actor and producer in Los Angeles, California, and playfully reminds the contestant that he had last graced the tournament back in 2020. Ken expresses his gladness for Brad’s presence, as he had lost the last time around. This leads Brad to reveal that he has been practicing and even jokes about wanting to make fun of the host. As everyone laughs it off, Ken turns his attention to Yogesh, the last season’s runner-up. The host notes that he is an “underdog,” and the player states that he has been delighted with the previous outcome. He then quips that he disliked Victoria winning twice as much money as he did, but then seriously remarks that she works much harder. Meanwhile, Victoria opens up that there is a lot of pressure on her as a returning champion, and she feels a target on her back.
A Strategic Wager Soon Puts One Player in the Lead
The Double Jeopardy round commences as the host lists the categories: Was That on Your Flashcards?, Poetry-pourri, The Religious Life, A Bone of Contention, Long Words With a Single Vowel, and the Peabody Awards. Brad chooses the first category of the Peabody Awards for the round, and the intense battle ensues. As multiple questions go unanswered by the competitors, it’s evident that they are under a great deal of pressure. While Yogesh continues to take the lead, an answer results in Victoria to luckily get the Daily Double. This prompts Ken to assert that it is her chance to create pressure on the leading player. The contestant chooses to go all in, which is a risk, but she doesn’t back down.
Victoria successfully earns 5,000 points to the 5,000 she already had, bringing the total to 10,000. Soon after, though, Yogesh also receives a Daily Double, the last of the game, and chooses to bet 5,000 of his points on the category of Bone of Contention. As he provides the correct answer, his points reach a total of 27,600. As the round continues, Yogesh maintains his streak and emerges as a dominant player. In fact, it ends with Yogesh having 30,800 points, Victoria sitting on 14,000, and Brad having 6,200. This marks the announcement for the beginning of the first Final Jeopardy round, for which the category is Europe.
As the contestants finish deciding their wager, the clue for the final round is revealed, and they have 30 seconds to answer. Brad puts 4,022 points on the line, but because he fails to give the correct answer, the number is deducted from his total, and he comes down to 2,178. Victoria ends up taking second place with the correct answer. Since she did not bet anything, she retains her original 14,000 points. Yogesh does the same with his bet, emerging as this season’s first Jeopardy Masters winner, leading with 30,800 points. He receives 3 match points as the winner, and Victoria gets 1 point. Meanwhile, Brad gains the third place without any match points.
The Second Match is Marked With Comebacks and Missed Chances
The second round of the competition is between the three finalists from the ‘Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament.’ Juveria Zaheer is a Psychiatrist from Canada, Roger Craig is an Applied Scientist from Virginia, and Matt Amodio is a Quantitative Researcher from New York. Ken spares no time to announce the topics for the next group of contestants. The six categories for the first Jeopardy round include Body Parts Everywhere, Colleges, Museum Pieces, Memoirs and Autobiography, Beasly TV Titles, and Greek Life. The host asks Matt to choose the first category since he won his season. The player chooses to go for the category of Museum, and the game again commences. He gains 1000 points with the correct answer, and in his next choice of Body Parts Everywhere, the contestant receives the first Daily Double of the round.
Matt bets 1000 points with great hope, but a slight mistake in his answer brings his points back to zero. The battle resumes with great force, and Juveria reaches -1000 points owing to her wrong response. However, she quickly handles the situation with two consecutive correct answers. Roger then picks up the pace without missing a beat, and so does Matt. All three players have continued to showcase their talent, and by the end of the round, Matt ends up taking the lead with 5000 points. While Roger followed him soon after with 4,400, Juveria is also off to a great start with 2,800 points. Ken approaches Juveria about what her life has been like following her position as a finalist. The player excitedly reveals that she was flattered when her daughter chose her to be the topic of her International Women’s Day presentation.
Ken next focuses on Roger and notes that he was a six-game champion back in season 27, and mentions that the competitor had played against Brad and him. When the host inquires if it helps with his nervousness, he gladly agrees and jokingly remarks that he does not have “Brad PTSD.” Ken playfully refers to Matt as the “game show villain” and congratulates him because he is the only player in all three seasons of this tournament of ‘Jeopardy! Masters.’ It is finally time to get back in the game, and the host discloses the categories for the Double Jeopardy round: The Middle Ages, In Considerate, Science Vocabulary, The Studio System, Opposite Geography, and Thunderbolts. The game commences with Juveria selecting The Middle Ages as the category, but Roger ends up being faster than her.
As Pressure Rises, a Last Minute Surprise Sets the Course of the Game
Soon after, Roger provides the wrong response, which deducts 2000 points from his score. However, his luck turns around quickly enough when he receives the Daily Double. The contestant decides to go all in with 8,800 on the line if he wins and ultimately takes the lead with his success. For a while, the hard level of the questions seems to have taken a toll on the players as they struggle to provide any answers. Everything soon returns on track, and to his surprise, Roger receives another Daily Double. This time, he chooses to bet 6,000, and Ken informs everyone that his points will reach 15,600 if he responds correctly.
Roger once again emerges in the lead with the correct answer. However, the contestants start facing difficulty in answering two consecutive Thunderbolt clues. The game turns into an intense battle as Roger, Matt, and Juveria continue to showcase their trivia expertise. Gradually, they reach the second Final Jeopardy round of the night. Roger is in the lead with 15,200 points, Matt follows him with 10,600 points, and Juveria has 8,000 points. For this round, their clue is from the category of World Literature. After the 30-second countdown finally ends, it is revealed that Juveria had wagered her 8000 points. Her correct response doubles her points to 16,000. Similarly, Matt had bet 5,401 points, and his right answer fetched him the lead with 16,001.
However, Matt’s happiness remains short-lived as it turns out, Roger had wagered 6001 points. Ultimately, his success in getting the correct results enables him to win first place with 21,201 points. After receiving their designated match points, Ken and the contestants look at the leaderboard. Yogesh has taken the lead with the correct tie-breaker response, Roger is in second place with 3 points, Victoria is in third place with 1 match point, and Matt is fourth. Now, all eyes are on the next episode to see the awaited match among the three formidable contestants, Neilesh Vinjamuri, Adriana Harmeyer, and Isaac Hirsch.
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