Ray Richmond's "This Is Jeopardy" listed high single-day scorers for most of the first 19 1/2 seasons (he omits that stat for Seasons 7, 9 and 12).seaborgium wrote:It's not exactly an obscure record, but it's obscure enough that I don't have a way to find out who some of its holders are: highest single-day total of the season. I have the following:
1: Elise Beraru, $23,800
2: Harvey Becker, $25,400
3: ? (The highest archived single-day score is $16,000 by Tim Casey; I doubt it's the season's record)
4: Kevin Frear, $27,800 (beating out Bruce Naegeli's $26,600)
5: Garrett Simpson, $25,500 (Frank Spangenberg's Wikipedia article lists him as the previous season's biggest one-day winner)
6: Frank Spangenberg, $30,600
7: Mark Born, $29,400
8: Jerome Vered, $34,000
9: Mike Boyd, $21,601 (Jerome's Wikipedia article lists Mike as the following season's biggest one-day winner)
10: ? (The highest archived single-day score is $18,801 by Tom Lakeman)
11: Steve Chernicoff, $24,700 (beating out Matt Handel's $23,400 the very next game)
12: Michael Daunt, $27,400 (edging out Karl Coryat's $26,100)
13: ? (The highest archived single-day score is $19,601 by Peter Braxton, one of a few 2x champs any one of whom could have made the 1998 ToC if they'd just gotten their third FJ right)
14: John Skelton, $31,000 (in Dan Melia's fifth game, he could have safely attempted and achieved $33,200, but he shot for and got $24,000 instead. But then, John could have safely gone for $34,199)
15: Mark Whittinghill, $17,799 (only two games in the season are unarchived, and the winning totals of those games can be figured out to be smaller than this)
16: Doug Lach, $32,400
17: Michael Arnone, $24,999
18 pre-doubling: Ramsey Campbell, $20,000
18 post-doubling: Jeff Goldfarb, $39,999
19: Brian Weikle, $52,000 (edging out Myron Meyer's $50,000; Myron could have won $73,999 with the maximum safe wager, but Brian had less than half Myron's leeway)
20: Ken Jennings, $75,000
21: Ken Jennings, $55,099
22: Maria Wenglinsky, $46,600
23: Jennifer Gotcher, $40,001
24: Larissa Kelly, $45,200
25: Kevin Joyce, $49,699
26: Ryan Chaffee, $41,600 (the only one to achieve this record from a pre-FJ second place position!)
27: Roger Craig, $77,000
28: Joon Pahk, $50,800
29: Helen Juvonen, $40,801
Hey cool, I just realized I've met five people on this list. Anyway, seasons 3, 10, and 13 are the ones I can't make a definitive statement about. (Well, I can't really with the Wikipedia stuff either, but the fact that someone did makes me a little more confident about them.) I could see the $19,601 figure for season 13 holding up (particularly since the season is much closer to complete), but I'm less sure about the other two. (What were John Cuthbertson's totals? He certainly could have won $82,400 over his five games without clearing $18,801, but if someone did it, he's my prime suspect.)
For Season 3, he lists Doug Molitor, Brentwood, Calif., with $17,600.
For Season 10, Steve Ashworth, Mt. Kisco, N.Y., with $21,200.
For Season 13, he confirms it's Peter Braxton, Fairfax, Va., with $19,601.
In Season 15, Jeff Krause, stationed in Sigonella, Italy, won $18,000 in one game during Military Week (the producers doubled his payout to $36,000). Of course, this wasn't during "regular" play.
Otherwise, Richmond's numbers agree with yours.
Just saw that Mr. Barrett posted this same info when I was composing the above. A younger guy beats me to the signaling device again!