The Jeopardy! Giant Killers
Here’s an update on the Giant Killers as of December 1, 2025, continuing in the same format I used in 2014 (because it’s cool). If, however, you don’t want to see how many you know, you’ll find the Giant Killers sorted by number of games won on Page 2.
She defeated 14x champ Harrison Whitaker ($373,999) on 12/1/25.
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He defeated 16x champ Scott Riccardi ($455,000) on 7/25/25.
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He defeated 15x champ Adriana Harmeyer ($349,600) on 6/19/24.
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He defeated 13x champ Ray Lalonde ($386,400) on 1/3/23.
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He defeated 21x champ Cris Pannullo ($748,286) on 12/6/22.
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He defeated 16x champ Ryan Long ($299,400) on 6/6/22.
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She defeated 23x champ Mattea Roach ($560,983) on 5/6/22.
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He defeated 40x champ Amy Schneider ($1,382,800) on 1/26/22.
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She defeated 11x champ Jonathan Fisher ($246,100) on 10/26/21.
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He defeated 38x champ Matt Amodio ($1,518,601) on 10/11/21.
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He defeated 19x champ Jason Zuffranieri ($532,496) on 9/26/19.
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She defeated 32x champ James Holzhauer ($2,462,216) on 6/3/19.
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She defeated 12x champ Austin Rogers ($411,000) on 10/12/17.
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She defeated 12x champ Seth Wilson ($265,002) on 10-5-16/.
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He defeated 13x champ Matt Jackson ($411,612) on 10/14/15.
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He defeated 20x champ Julia Collins ($428,100) on 6/2/14.
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She defeated 19x champ David Madden ($430,400) on 9/19/05.
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Originally posted on 3/13/2014
When a Jeopardy! player lasts more than a week, it’s usually a big deal when he or she is defeated — at least on the day that it happens. Chances are, though, that if the player who does the defeating gets defeated in the next day or two, you won’t even remember the name after a couple of weeks.
Yesterday, 11x champ Arthur Chu was defeated by Diana Peloquin. She was defeated today, but because of Arthur’s “notorious” status, there was a lot more news coverage mentioning her name than there usually is, so the question for “She defeated Arthur Chu” might not be as hard to recall as the players who struck down these champs last year:
He defeated 6x Jared Hall ($181,001) on 9/20/13.
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He defeated 8x champ Ben Ingram ($176,534) on 7/11/13.
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He defeated 6x champ Andrew Moore ($137,803) on 6/25/13.
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There have been many more but here is the biggest Giant Killer moment of all: When Nancy Zerg defeated Ken Jennings moment on 11/30/04. Oh, if it had only been closer to April 15th, Ken probably wouldn’t have been thinking of Christmas packages.
sorry, 148/149 opponents. i shorted him to 72 wins from 74…
ken really had it all. the poster boy. smart,friendly,good looking and when he lost he did so most graciously. i still don’t get it how he could NOT get h&r block. even I got that immediately. and fedex??? he must have had a complete blackout.shows we are all human. ironic though that he lost on a very easy clue, being in the lead when he pulverized – what – 144 opponents before (145 if you count the one that was not in fj when ken lost)?
You’re not being — well, logical.
If you’re talking about the people he defeated, then the last game where he lost shouldn’t be counted, so adding or subtracting the one who was not in FJ when he lost is irrelevant.
Before the last game, he won 74 games — so he defeated 148 opponents (whether any of them were around for FJ or not, by the way — he still defeated them, didn’t he?)