Brad Rutter

Brad Rutter

Bradford Gates "Brad" Rutter (born January 31, 1978) is the biggest all-time money winner on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy! and the second biggest all-time money winner on a game show.

Rutter became an undefeated champion on Jeopardy! in 2000 and subsequently won an unprecedented three Jeopardy! tournament titles: the 2001 Tournament of Champions, the Million Dollar Masters Tournament, and the Ultimate Tournament of Champions. Following his third tournament win, in which he defeated Ken Jennings and Jerome Vered in the finals, Rutter surpassed Jennings as the highest money-winner ever on American game shows. Jennings subsequently regained his record by appearing on various other game shows, culminating in an appearance on Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? (first aired on October 10, 2008). Rutter retains the record for Jeopardy! winnings with $3,470,102, and a pair of Chevrolet Camaros ($55,102 in five-day winnings, $100,000 and $1,000,000 and $2,115,000; see below), and $200,000 in his three tournaments and one exhibition respectively).

In 20 regular season and tournament games, Rutter has never lost a Jeopardy! match (though he twice trailed at the end of the first game of a two-day match before coming back to win in the second game—against Rick Knutsen in the finals of the 2001 Tournament of Champions, and against John Cuthbertson in the semifinals of the Ultimate Tournament of Champions). In 2011, however, both Rutter and Ken Jennings were routed in a two-day exhibition match against an IBM computer program developed specifically to compete on Jeopardy!: Watson. Rutter finished third in the match: both his first defeat overall and the first time he finished behind a human opponent. Because of the nature of the man versus machine match being declared an exhibition match, none of the records from this match count towards official show records.