Consolidated Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions data

"Length" is the number of regular-play games during which champions qualified into that particular ToC. "Winnings" is the aggregate total of what that ToC's fifteen competitiors won in their regular games and the tournaments they won. These sums exclude cash prizes for runners-up since May 2002, as well as money won in Super Jeopardy! for the Season 2-7 ToCs. They are also "uncorrected" - that is, they are not adjusted for differences in clue values and payouts to tournament winners. Below each total in italics, however, is that total inflation-adjusted to September 2022 dollars.

ToC	Season	Start/end dates		Winner		Length	Winnings		1st	2nd	3rd	SF	QF		6+	5	4	3	Auto		Men	Women	Non-binary
1st	2	1985-11-11 1985-11-22		Jerry Frankel		195	$618,791 ($1,684,974)		$100,000	2-day total	2-day total	$5,000	$1,000			15	0	0	0		12	3
2nd	3	1986-11-10 1986-11-21		Chuck Forrest		185	$562,108 ($1,511,215)		$100,000	$5,000	$5,000	$5,000	$1,000			5	10	0	0		14	1
3rd	4	1987-11-09 1987-11-20		Bob Verini		200	$628,964 ($1,617,691)		$100,000	$10,000	$7,500	$5,000	$1,000			9	4	0	2		15	0
4th	5	1988-11-07 1988-11-18		Mark Lowenthal		200	$738,702 ($1,822,549)		$100,000	$10,000	$7,500	$5,000	$1,000			9	4	0	2		10	5
5th	6	1989-11-06 1989-11-17		Tom Cubbage		190	$623,627 ($1,470,194)		$100,000	$10,000	$7,500	$5,000	$1,000			5	7	0	3		11	4
6th	7	1990-11-05 1990-11-16		Bob Blake		190	$768,405 ($1,704,550)		$100,000	$10,000	$7,500	$5,000	$1,000			11	1	0	3		13	2
7th	8	1991-11-04 1991-11-15		Jim Scott		190	$819,651 ($1,765,450)		$100,000	$10,000	$7,500	$5,000	$1,000			8	4	0	3		11	4
8th	9	1992-11-09 1992-11-20		Leszek Pawlowicz		190	$902,609 ($1,886,631)		$100,000	$10,000	$7,500	$5,000	$1,000			11	1	0	3		13	2
9th	10	1993-11-15 1993-11-26		Tom Nosek		185	$748,729 ($1,524,203)		$100,000	$10,000	$7,500	$5,000	$1,000			7	4	1	3		8	7
10th	11	1994-11-14 1994-11-25		Rachael Schwartz		225	$813,390 ($1,612,697)		$100,000	$10,000	$7,500	$5,000	$1,000			9	3	0	3		12	3
11th	12	1995-11-13 1995-11-24		Ryan "Fritz" Holznagel		185	$737,109 ($1,424,348)		$100,000	$10,000	$7,500	$5,000	$1,000			5	7	0	3		14	1
12th	13	1996-11-18 1996-11-29		Michael Dupée		186	$770,893 ($1,442,668)		$100,000	$10,000	$7,500	$5,000	$1,000			8	4	0	3		11	4
13th	14	1998-02-02 1998-02-13		Dan Melia		229	$743,614 ($1,363,253)		$100,000	$15,000	$10,000	$5,000	$2,500			6	5	1	3		11	4
14th	15	1999-02-08 1999-02-19		Dave Abbott		191	$695,076 ($1,254,128)		$100,000	$15,000	$10,000	$5,000	$2,500			9	4	1	1		11	4
15th	16	2000-05-08 2000-05-19		Robin Carroll		226	$678,297 ($1,173,901)		$100,000	$15,000	$10,000	$5,000	$2,500			11	0	0	4		9	6
16th	18	2001-10-22 2001-11-02		Brad Rutter		265	$877,104 ($1,465,006)		$100,000	$15,000	$10,000	$5,000	$2,500			14	0	0	1		13	2
17th	19	2003-05-05 2003-05-16		Mark Dawson		289	$1,134,041 ($1,834,291)		$250,000	$50,000	$25,000	$10,000	$5,000			7	7	0	1		11	4
18th	21	2004-09-20 2004-10-01		Russ Schumacher		202	$1,484,095 ($2,319,596)		$250,000	$50,000	$25,000	$10,000	$5,000		2	2	7	2	2		12	3
19th	22	2006-05-08 2006-05-19		Michael Falk		228	$1,659,207 ($2,431,930)		$250,000	$100,000	$50,000	$10,000	$5,000		3	3	2	5	2		13	2
20th	24	2007-11-05 2007-11-16		Celeste DiNucci		270	$1,482,012 ($2,092,869)		$250,000	$100,000	$50,000	$10,000	$5,000		0	8	4	2	1		11	4
21st	25	2009-03-11 2009-03-24		Dan Pawson		276	$1,679,466 ($2,343,478)		$250,000	$100,000	$50,000	$10,000	$5,000		3	5	7	0	0		10	5
22nd	26	2010-05-10 2010-05-21		Vijay Balse		209	$1,567,076 ($2,131,840)		$250,000	$100,000	$50,000	$10,000	$5,000		2	4	6	0	3		12	3
23rd	28	2011-11-02 2011-11-15		Roger Craig		269	$1,965,082 ($2,578,138)		$250,000	$100,000	$50,000	$10,000	$5,000		5	4	4	0	2		13	2
24th	29	2013-02-13 2013-02-26		Colby Burnett		235	$1,564,325 ($1,999,880)		$250,000	$100,000	$50,000	$10,000	$5,000		5	3	4	0	3		12	3
25th	31	2014-11-10 2014-11-21		Ben Ingram		273	$2,274,442 ($2,858,648)		$250,000	$100,000	$50,000	$10,000	$5,000		7	4	1	0	3		9	6
26th	32	2015-11-09 2015-11-20		Alex Jacob		240	$2,005,421 ($2,507,942)		$250,000	$100,000	$50,000	$10,000	$5,000		4	7	2	1	1		11	4
27th	34	2017-11-06 2017-11-17		Buzzy Cohen		395	$2,277,599 ($2,740,554)		$250,000	$100,000	$50,000	$10,000	$5,000		9	2	0	0	4		13	2
28th	36	2019-11-04 2019-11-15		James Holzhauer		324	$4,066,343 ($4,692,401)		$250,000	$100,000	$50,000	$10,000	$5,000		5	4	3	1	2		11	4
29th	37	2021-05-17 2021-05-28		Sam Kavanaugh		258	$2,267,489 ($2,500,079)		$250,000	$100,000	$50,000	$10,000	$5,000		4	3	5	1	2		10	5
30th	39	2022-10-31 2022-11-21		Amy Schneider		368	$5,750,089		$250,000	$100,000	$50,000	$10,000	$5,000		10	2	5	0	4		11	9	1

Finish		Regular	College	Teachers	Professors	Second Chance	Teen	Senior		Men	Women	Non-binary
Winner		28	1	1	0	0	0	0		26	4
Second		29	1	0	0	0	0	0		26	4
Third		25	1	1	1	0	0	2		23	7
Semifinalist		156	12	1	0	0	8	3		136	44
Quarterfinalist		151	16	6	0	2	6	5		136	49	1
Weighted avg.		$34,614	$19,355	$37,778	$50,000	$5,000	($7,857)	($15,500)

Notes:

Qualification of tournament winners into the Tournament of Champions:

• College Championship: First held in Season 5 (1988-89); winners always qualify into the next ToC. Vinita Kailasanath (2001) and Joey Beachum (2008) deferred their bids to the following ToC due to other commitments. Jaskaran Singh, the winner of the 2022 National College Championship (an ABC primetime limited series), qualifies into the Season 39 ToC.
• Teachers Tournament: First held in Season 27 (2010-11); winners always qualify into the next ToC.
• Professors Tournament: First held in Season 38 (2021-22); winners always qualify into the next ToC.
• Teen Tournament: First held in Season 3 (1986-87). From Seasons 3-16 (i.e. through the 1999-2000 season), Teen Tournament winners qualified into the next ToC; from Season 17 onward, they have not been invited.
• Senior Tournament: Held each season from Season 3 (1986-87) through Season 12 (1995-96); winners always qualified into the next ToC.

The listed values for the first and second runners-up are minimum guarantees; players finishing in those two places receive their score in the two-day final if it exceeds the listed value. (In the 30th (2022) ToC, with its first-to-three-wins format, the values are fixed.) Per J! Archive:

The prize minimum for finalists was instituted after 1986 Tournament of Champions 2nd runner-up Marvin Shinkman petitioned TPTB. Both he and 1st runner-up Paul Rouffa ended with 2-day cumulative scores less than $5,000 against tournament champion Chuck Forrest. (The previous year, the two nonwinning finalists both ended with more than $5,000 scores.)

The minimum guarantees have not been exceeded since they were set at their current values in 2006; the last player to receive his two-day final score was 2003 first runner-up Brian Weikle.

From 1985 through 1993, the qualifying period for the ToC was the prior season; this will be once again the case from 2023 onward. From 1994 to 2022, the qualifying period was generally the period between ToCs, subject to modifications as TPTB saw fit; the producers generally did not disclose the cutoff dates. Instances of deviations:

• 30th (2022) — July 29, 2022, the end of Season 38.
• 29th (2021) — January 5, 2021, the date of Brayden Smith's loss in regular play, as explicitly stated by the show
• 28th (2019) — June 6, 2019, the day Emma Boettcher lost. Boettcher, who defeated 32-game, $2.46 million winner James Holzhauer, was invited to the ToC, even though her winnings (3 wins, $97,002) would ordinarily have been insufficient. (Seven four-game winners above her in the standings did not make this ToC.) Additionally, a possibility posited by Andy Saunders: "…the producers have used their discretion to give the spot for the deceased Larry Martin to Emma Boettcher…" Boettcher reached the final of the 2019 ToC — but as noted above, Holzhauer prevailed.
• 25th (2014) — Catherine Hardee's appearances in regular play aired before this ToC; she nonetheless competed in the 26th ToC in 2015. I've applied Occam's razor to determine the end of qualification for the 25th; the most logical date is July 18, 2014, the last regular game of Season 30.
• 18th (2004) — Deemed to have ended on June 1, 2004 (the day before Ken Jennings's first appearance), the 19th (2006) ToC qualifying period commenced on November 30, 2004 (the day Ken lost in regular play). Since Jennings did not appear in a standard format Tournament of Champions, his seventy-four wins are not considered part of either qualifying cycle. Jennings instead was seeded into the final of the Ultimate Tournament of Champions, against two finalists emerging from a field of past Jeopardy! greats. The seeding and prize structure of the UToC guaranteed Jennings no less than a ToC winner's paycheck ($250,000 for third place; he actually earned twice that for finishing in second).
• 16th (2001) — Between the 15th (2000) and 16th (2001) Tournaments of Champions, sixteen players retired as undefeated five-time champions. The field for the latter was filled on July 3, 2001, when Kevin Keach became the 14th such player. Alan Bailey and Mark Dawson each became five-time champions between that date and the 2001 ToC, and were thus held over to the next ToC in May 2003. Notwithstanding this, the qualification period for the 2001 ToC ran all the way to October 19, 2001, the game before it commenced. This is based on Ramsey Campbell's non-invitation to the 2003 ToC. Campbell won four games and $49,201; doubling that total to give it parity with those who played after clue values were doubled would have qualified him.

Three wins had traditionally been the minimum for regular play contestants to be eligible to participate in the Tournament of Champions. (As of the 30th ToC, that minimum for eligibility increases to four.) Through the end of Season 19, when champions retired undefeated after five wins, that achievement came with automatic qualification to the next ToC; since "sky's the limit" came into effect in September 2003, it remains a de facto guarantee of entry. (As of Season 38, that is now a de jure guarantee, as Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings have both mentioned it repeatedly.) No player with at least five wins in regular play has ever failed to qualify for a standard format Tournament of Champions; as I'm using it, "failed to qualify" means "did not appear solely on account of not having won enough games and/or money." Depending on how you consider one instance, four or five players with at least five wins didn't play in a ToC for other reasons:

• Barbara Lowe (5 wins). Lowe retired undefeated during Season 2; however, she was excluded from the 1986 Tournament of Champions due to discovery of her ineligibility to appear on Jeopardy!. Because she was not eligible, the argument can be made that her results are annulled and she didn't win any games - but that argument is complicated by the fact that the show reportedly paid out her winnings. Regardless, I'm listing her here for completeness. Lowe's five original games have never since been rerun.
• Ken Jennings (74 wins). As stated above, Jeopardy! organized the Ultimate Tournament of Champions in lieu of seeding Ken into a usual ToC.
• Jerry Slowik (5 wins). Slowik was not invited to the 2014 Tournament of Champions for conduct in which he engaged after his original Jeopardy! run aired, and for which he was criminally charged.
• Cindy Stowell (6 wins). Stowell competed on Jeopardy! with Stage 4 colon cancer - a disease which claimed her life on December 5, 2016, eight days before her first game aired. The show provided her with copies of at least her first three games, so she was able to see herself win before passing away. The show recognized her 2017 ToC-qualifying performance by donating $10,000 (a semifinalist's share) to the Cancer Research Institute, over and above the $105,803 she won in her seven games.
• Brayden Smith (5 wins). On February 5, 2021 — exactly one month after the airing of his last episode — Smith unexpectedly and shockingly passed away at the age of 24. Steve Moulds, the highest-winning three-time champion of the cycle, took his place.

Additionally, the 2019 Tournament of Champions had, for the first time, an automatic bid winner who did not appear in the ToC:

• Larry Martin (Season 34 Teachers Tournament). Martin, who was dominant in his May 2018 tournament victory, passed away on January 25, 2019 - news that stunned and saddened the whole Jeopardy! community.

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