The History of the One-Day Record

[MinnesotaMyron]

According the the "This is Jeopardy!" book (2003), Elise Beraru was both the show's first 5-Time champion and Season 1's biggest one-day winner, with $23,800. Fortunately for us, her games aired early in the season, so now, thanks to TuneIn radio and the National Archives of Game Show History (and other resources) we can chronologically track the one-day record all the way from the beginning.

1984-09-10: Greg Hopkins ($8,400)
1984-09-14: Lorrie Farrely ($13,400)
1984-09-25: Ed Osawa ($19,000)
1984-10-03: Elise Beraru ($23,800)
1985-11-07: Harvey Becker ($25,400)
1988-07-05: Kevin Frear ($27,800)
1989-09-07: Bob Blake ($27,800, tied record)
1990-01-15: Frank Spangenberg ($30,600)
1992-05-21: Jerome Vered ($34,000)

(Dollar values double, 2001-11-23.)

2001-12-27: Emily Kamm ($35,200, Kids Week game)*
2002-04-29: Ben Sternberg ($38,400)
2002-05-09: Brad Rutter ($39,200, Million Dollar Masters game)**
2002-07-02: Jeff Goldfarb ($39,999)
2002-09-05: Myron Meyer ($50,000)
2003-04-14: Brian Weikle ($52,000)
2004-07-09: Ken Jennings ($52,000, first of 3 games in which he ties the record)
2004-07-23: Ken Jennings ($75,000, record now more than double Jerome's previous record.)
2010-09-14: Roger Craig ($77,000)
2019-04-09: James Holzhauer ($110,914)
2019-04-17: James Holzhauer ($131,127)

*Emily's score was announced on-air by Alex as a new record.
**Brad's score was the highest broadcast up to that date, but was probably taped after Jeff Goldfarb's game.

Corrections appreciated.

[Robert K S]

Great research. Thank you, Myron!

Do we know for certain there was no one between Frear and Beraru?

Checking the Archive, I see this note for Frear: In his second game (#902, aired 1988-07-05), Kevin set a new single-day cash winnings record of $27,800, breaking the previous record of $25,400 set in Season 2 by Harvey Becker (#304, aired 1985-11-07).

Unfortunately, it looks like that game is not part of the Archive backlog. We only have #302, Harvey's challenging game.

[seaborgium]

Harvey Becker scored $25,400 in 1985; I don't have the date but his fifth game (which he lost) was the first after that year's ToC.

edit: curses! edit again: I also credited him with $100 more than he got; fixed

[brick]

This is great. Thank you for all the time invested.

[seaborgium]

2019-04-17: James Holzhauer ($121,127)

Typo in the ten-thousands place; he got $131,127 in that game.

[AndyTheQuizzer]

Great research. Thank you, Myron!

Do we know for certain there was no one between Frear and Beraru?

Checking the Archive, I see this note for Frear: In his second game (#902, aired 1988-07-05), Kevin set a new single-day cash winnings record of $27,800, breaking the previous record of $25,400 set in Season 2 by Harvey Becker (#304, aired 1985-11-07).

Unfortunately, it looks like that game is not part of the Archive backlog. We only have #302, Harvey's challenging game.

Harvey Becker definitely had $25,400 on 1985-11-07; the source on that one is the show itself: http://web.archive.org/web/199807041527 ... tml#oneday

[MinnesotaMyron]

Do we know for certain there was no one between Frear and Beraru?

I'm using an old "Highest One-Day Total" list from jeopardy-dot-com, courtesy the Internet Archive. Harvey was on there, I just misread the chart. It's possible that list isn't complete. "This is Jeopardy" also mentions the 1-Day record holder for every season. Harvey's there too, but it's at the bottom of the column instead of the middle. I also missed that. Putting them together, there may be other ties (Ken had a number of $52,000 games, for instance, that I didn't list), but I'm pretty confident this is as correct as it can be.

Thanks all for the additional name.

[wbheath]

1984-09-10: Greg Hopkins ($7,600)

I think that should be $8,400

[wbheath]

2002-04-39: Ben Sternberg ($38,400)

This one should be 2002-04-29

[wbheath]

2002-04-14: Brian Weikle ($52,000)

This should be 2003, not 2002

[MinnesotaMyron]

1984-09-10: Greg Hopkins ($7,600)

I think that should be $8,400

Where on earth did I get 76 from??? Thanks. That changes a lot.

$7,600 was his Coryat, that's where I got it from. For now I'm going to leave his score at $8,400 on my list, regardless of the scoring error. I'll probably change my mind later.

[wbheath]

2019-04-04: James Holzhauer ($110,914)

That one should be 2019-04-09

[Robert K S]

1984-09-10: Greg Hopkins ($7,600)

I think that should be $8,400

Where on earth did I get 76 from??? Thanks. That changes a lot.

The Archive might be different from what was on the show. There was a scoring error in clue 13. I don't know how you want to deal with that on the list.

We should possibly add a note to the top of any game that has a scoring error that affects either the game outcome or how much money was taken home.

Early-season games were lousy with scoring errors.

EDIT: now that I look more closely, the Archive addressed the scoring error by simply not crediting Greg with the money, just as happened in the show. I feel that we shouldn't do that... that we should instead credit players with the money and note the scoring difference between what is shown in the Archive and what was shown on the show. The reason is that some scoring errors are too complicated to deal with simply by clicking a response toggle in a different way. Sometimes amounts that have no correspondence to the clue values are added or deducted. It's too difficult, and in some cases impracticable, to get the Archive to match the show's score values.

Anyway, Greg's "record", such as it was, might have been $8,500, and should probably be listed that way in the Archive.

[wbheath]

1984-09-14: Lorrie Farrely ($11,200)

This should be $13,400

[wbheath]

1984-09-19: Don Marsh ($12,950)

This one should be Richard Willing

[MinnesotaMyron]

1984-09-19: Don Marsh ($12,950)

This one should be Richard Willing

Actually, per your previous correction, this one shouldn't be there at all. Another case where I wrote down the Coryat instead of the score.

[Bamaman]

Would it be possible to put together a list showing the progression of the record of total regular play earnings?

[AndyTheQuizzer]

Would it be possible to put together a list showing the progression of the record of total regular play earnings?

Looking through my data: I don't think we quite have enough information right now to specifically and definitively date each instance when the record broke in Season 1. (I'm hoping that we actually get specific information on that soon, though.)

[Robert K S]

Checking the Archive, I see this note for Frear: In his second game (#902, aired 1988-07-05), Kevin set a new single-day cash winnings record of $27,800, breaking the previous record of $25,400 set in Season 2 by Harvey Becker (#304, aired 1985-11-07).

Unfortunately, it looks like that game is not part of the Archive backlog. We only have #302, Harvey's challenging game.

Just noting that #304 was on Tunein and is archived now.