What is "The Most Money Ever Won On Jeopardy! By a Woman?"

Slightly pre-dating Jeopardy! legends Larissa Kelly and Julia Collins, and long before Amy Schneider, there was a long-lasting record for the highest-earning female player in Jeopardy! history that was set sixteen years ago today, during the 20th Tournament of Champions held in the Trebek era. Over the course of 40 years, women have been generally underrepresented in terms of accomplishments on Jeopardy!. When you analyze the top 100 highest-earning Jeopardy! players, the gender discrepancy becomes pretty apparent: 81 men, 18 women, and one non-binary contestant (Mattea Roach). While the show has improved on this, particularly in recent years, it’s been a long road to get where we are now. Before we get to the core of today’s anniversary, let’s take a moment to look back at the previous recordholders.

On October 5th, 1984, Elise Beraru made history by becoming the very first person to ever win 5 straight games in the Trebek era, thus retiring undefeated and getting a chance to compete in the first Tournament of Champions held in 1985. In the TOC, she went down in the quarterfinals but pocketed another $1,000 for a series total of $48,350 at the time. Though there were a select few women who were able to qualify for a TOC in the following years, including Liz Caccese and Paula Tupper from Beraru’s own TOC, none were able to quite replicate the heights of which she had reached in the first year of the show’s programming. Infamously, one of the only women to win 5 games following Beraru’s streak, Barbara Lowe, was not given an invitation to the 1986 TOC and has never appeared on the show since then.

In the final regular game that aired before the all-male TOC that was held in 1987, Kate Waits made history by winning her 4th game with $12,001 for a 4-day total of $49,804, scraping past Elise Beraru’s combined earnings of $48,350 and becoming the show’s all-time biggest female winner. She wound up losing her 5th game on November 23rd, 1987, but her earnings were substantial enough to qualify for the 1988 TOC the following year. In the same qualification period, Sandra Gore emerged as an undefeated champion by winning 5 games and surpassing Waits’ total with $53,507 in earnings. Like Kate Waits however, this record was short-lived as Leah Greenwald became the new recordholder after winning 5 games worth $58,802, her final game airing on January 15th, 1988. Just three weeks later, Barbara Anne-Eddy earned a 5-day total of $52,000. The final 1988 TOC female qualifier emerged on May 20th, 1988 when Peggy Kennedy (R.I.P.) won the 1988 Seniors Tournament for $25,000.

With more women in the TOC than any previous year before, a lot of stakes were riding on each female participant, as well as everyone else of course. Of the five participants, Sandra Gore was the only one to advance automatically after winning her quarterfinal game. Peggy Kennedy and Kate Waits advanced as wildcard semifinalists, while Leah Greenwald and Barbara Anne-Eddy were eliminated in the quarterfinals, taking home $1,000. Gore was the only woman to make it past the semifinals, but she finished in third place behind Bruce Naegeli and winner Mark Lowenthal, taking home $13,000. Despite this, her winnings was immense enough to surpass Greenwald’s all-time total of $59,802 by that point with $66,507.

Over the course of the next few years, it was a struggle for women to perform to the same standard that was set by the female participants of the 1988 TOC. As a result of this, Sandra Gore’s all-time score remained the top record of female Jeopardy! winners until Lynne Wexler’s fifth victory on January 29th, 1991. Three other women qualified for the 1991 TOC that year, but none of them were able to make the finals. On November 18th, 1992, Wexler’s record was anti-climactically broken when India Cooper (R.I.P.) was eliminated in the TOC semifinals by Bruce Simmons. Despite this, Cooper added $5,000 to her 5-day total of $68,400 for a total of $73,400 at the time, surpassing Wexler’s record of $71,351.

The 1993 TOC was the most hopeful year for women on the show to date, as a record seven out of fifteen qualifiers for the season were women. Of the seven women to qualify, four advanced to the semifinals, and two made it through to the final round. It was a strong battle between Tom Nosek (R.I.P.), Bev Schwartzberg, and Marilyn Kneeland for the $100,000 grand prize, but it boiled down to Final Jeopardy! on November 26th, 1993. Nosek was the only player to respond correctly, adding $8,400 to his first day total of $19,200 for a two-day total of $27,600 and the $100,000 grand prize. For the 1st runner-up, Bev Schwartzberg, her tournament total of $19,100 pushed her above the ranks of India Cooper for an all-time total of $85,000. Regardless of this achievement, there had been no female TOC winners after nine tournaments had been held already.

The week following the 1993 TOC, Tom Nosek appeared in a special tournament celebrating 10 years of Jeopardy! in the Trebek era. The winner of the tournament would pocket their two-day final score, along with a $25,000 bonus. Nosek made it to the finals against Frank Spangenberg and Leslie Frates. Nosek had a massive lead after the first day, earning $13,600 compared to $600 for Spangenberg and $100 for Frates. Despite this, Frates and Spangenberg dominated most of the action, and Frates came out with the advantage at $13,000 before FJ! compared to $8,100 for Spangenberg and $4,000 for Nosek. A correct response in FJ! from Frates would have given her the new record, but Spangenberg was the only player to answer correctly, earning $16,800 in two days and another $25,000 to his total for $41,800. With women in the finals becoming more prevalent and the competition getting steeper, it wouldn’t be long before the first woman would end up winning a TOC.

The 1994 qualification season wasn’t the most hopeful for women. Rachael Schwartz was ultimately the first woman to qualify, but she had to hold her breath through the entire qualification period as she ended up being the #15 seed for the tournament, with 4 wins and $37,499 to her name. Jean Grewe became the first to automatically qualify after winning 5 games and $62,801, with Amy Fine being the final woman to qualify for that year with 5 wins and $72,803. With three women on the roster and none very close to $85,000 in earnings, a win was needed in order for history to be made yet again.

The highest-seeded woman of the tournament, Amy Fine, was eliminated in the quarterfinals. Between Grewe and Schwartz, it was Schwartz who made it through to the finals despite being the lowest-seeded player of the tournament. Facing off against college champion Jeff Stewart and 4-time champion David Hillinick, Schwartz was in command and control for much of the finals and had the cover bet advantage before Final Jeopardy! on the second day, November 25th, 1994. After earning $0 in his first game, Jeff Stewart maxed out at $20,800 on the second day, well above Hillinick’s two-day total of $7,500. $7,500 was also the third place minimum at the time. For Rachael Schwartz, however, it was $13,601 on her second day plus the $7,200 from the previous game which gave her a two-day total of $20,801, making her the first woman to ever win the Jeopardy! TOC of the Trebek era. With $100,000 in earnings, along with her $37,499 from regular games, she became the biggest female money winner on the show with $137,499.

After Schwartz’s historic win in 1994, the success rate for women slightly regressed a bit over the years as none were able to accomplish a TOC victory or get close to her winnings. While there were some 5-time winners over the years and memorable TOC performances, it wasn’t until the end of the millennium when Schwartz’s all-time total would be dethroned. On March 17th, 2000, Robin Carroll won her 5th game, sweeping the entire weekly bloc of episodes and qualifying for the TOC that took place just two months later. With $64,100 in earnings from regular games, she was the #2 seed of the tournament, behind only Eddie Timanus.

Robin Carroll’s path to winning the 2000 TOC wasn’t the easiest. After losing her quarterfinal game to Michael Rooney, she was on the brink of elimination but got the final wildcard spot necessary for the semifinals. In her semifinal game against Terry Currin and Mike Blumenfeld, she ran away with the game and advanced to the finals to compete against 5-timers Jeremy Bate and Steve Fried. After the first day, she led with $8,000 compared to $7,000 for Bate and $4,500 for Fried.

On the second day of finals, held on May 20th, 2000, Fried had control of most of the game but not enough to put the tournament away, accumulating $7,000 before FJ! compared to $4,600 for Carroll and $1,500 for Bate. All three players missed the final clue with Carroll and Bate betting the farm and Fried utilizing the standard cover bet, as he did have the advantage. Because of the miss, Fried slipped back into third place with $5,799 in two days, thus granting Robin Carroll the $100,000 prize and making her the highest-earning female winner with $164,100 in total winnings.

After Carroll’s historic TOC win, she was invited to participate in the 2001 International Championship as the USA representative. This was the third international tournament to be held, with previous USA representatives being Fritz Holznagel for 1996 and Gay Mollette for 1997. Swedish representative Ulf Jensen won the 1996 tournament, with Canadian representative, as well as participant of the American version, Michael Daunt winning the 1997 tournament. In 2001, Carroll emerged as the winner against Fredrik Gildea (Sweden) and Carsten Wiedemann (Denmark), earning $50,000 and bumping her all-time total up to a staggering $214,100.

Following the doubled clue amounts on November 26th, 2001, she appeared again in the 2002 Million Dollar Masters, but was eliminated in the first round, taking home $10,000. She appeared once again in the 2005 Ultimate Tournament of Champions, with a bye into the second round, but was axed once again by Matt Zielenski. Regardless, she earned another $25,000 from the tournament for an all-time cumulative total of $249,100. In summary, she extended her record for another 5 years after breaking Rachael Schwartz’s record in 2000. Which brings us to the last female winner of the TOC before Amy Schneider in 2022, following Rachael Schwartz and Robin Carroll, sixteen years ago today. Who would later emerge as the highest-earning woman for the next couple of decades?

The 2007 Tournament of Champions aired from November 5th to November 16th that year. Among the eight 5-time winners that year, Celeste DiNucci was the lowest-ranked of them all, accumulating $83,601 in her original run + $1,000 for third place. However, if Rachael Schwartz was any evidence, being a low-seeded player doesn’t guarantee that you’ll lose. This is also represented by Michael Falk, 3-time winner and #14 seed of the tournament, winning the 2006 TOC. In her quarterfinal game, which has been re-aired several times during off season including Christmas Eve of 2020, she came in second place against Craig Westphal, finishing with $21,800 and the #1 wildcard spot of the quarterfinals.

In her semifinal game, DiNucci went into Final Jeopardy! in third place with $8,800, compared to $13,100 for Christian Haines and $15,400 for Jeff Spoeri. In a shocking and unusual turn of events, Christian Haines made the error of only betting to cover Jeff Spoeri’s leading score, rather than Celeste DiNucci’s hypothetical doubled score of $17,600. With Spoeri answering incorrectly, DiNucci and Haines faced off in a tiebreaker in order to determine who would get the second spot in the finals alongside Doug Hicton and the winner of the third semifinal match, Cliff Galiher. DiNucci was able to ring in first with the correct response, thus granting her a spot in the finals.

In the first game, DiNucci played very evenly with Hicton, accumulating $14,200 before FJ!, compared to $16,200 for Hicton and $7,400 for Galiher. In a science clue about J. Watson, DiNucci was the only player to respond correctly, thus giving her the advantage going into day 2 with $20,000 compared to $12,400 for Hicton and $2,800 for Galiher. By this point in Jeopardy! history, the top prize for the TOC bumped up from $100,000 to $250,000. This signified that a win from Celeste DiNucci would catapult her past Robin Carroll into becoming the highest-earning female winner in Jeopardy! history.

The second game in the finals was extremely favorable to Hicton at first, with him getting 27 correct answers and $22,600 before FJ!. Throughout the match, it looked like he would be able to accumulate enough money to run away with the tournament and $250,000 grand prize. However that chance was snatched away when DiNucci found the final Daily Double of the game on the 28th clue of the Double Jeopardy! round. With $7,200 at her disposal compared to $23,000 for Hicton, she went for near-broke by betting $7,000. After a while of contemplating the clue, she eventually guessed the correct response, propelling her to $14,200 and an extremely competitive race between her and Hicton. With $3,000 before FJ!, Galiher was out of the running but guaranteed $50,000 for third place.

In FJ!, it was a monetary massacre. Galiher was the only player to answer correctly, gaining $200 for $3,200 + $2,800 from day 1 for a 2-day total of $6,000. DiNucci wagered a staggering $12,200, plummeting to $2,000. In addition to the $20,000 she earned from day 1, she earned a 2-day total of $22,000. Hicton was last as he held the lead… and he missed it, wagering $13,401 in the case of a max-out being done by DiNucci. With $9,199 in his second game, coupled with $12,400 from the first game, he finished with a total of… $21,599. Even though DiNucci made a large wager in FJ!, it was a proper wager because it left her with just enough money to win in case Hicton went for the cover bet. And with that, DiNucci become the third female TOC winner, adding $250,000 to her all-time earnings for a grand total of $334,601. With these earnings, she surpassed Robin Carroll and became the winningest woman in the show’s history, a record which stood for many years. And it all happened sixteen years ago today - November 16th, 2007.

DiNucci kept her record for a long time, though it wasn’t without its close calls along the way. In May of 2008, Larissa Kelly emerged as one of the show’s biggest winners in regular play, third only to Ken Jennings (74x, $2,520,700) and David Madden (19x, $430,400) at the time. She won $222,597 in six games + $1,000 for third place, putting her in the top tier of qualifiers for the 2009 TOC. In the TOC, she played valiantly well by winning both of her quarterfinal and semifinal games and extending her streak of consecutive correct Final Jeopardy! responses.

By the final game of the tournament, she had $24,400 after the first game of the finals, followed by Dan Pawson with $22,301 and Aaron Schroeder with $9,600. She continued to hold the advantage over the other two, but not by much. She had $21,800 before FJ! compared to a whopping $19,200 for Pawson and $7,400 for Schroeder. In the final clue, Schroeder answered correctly and doubled up to $14,800 for a 2-day total of $24,400. Pawson also responded affirmatively, capitalizing on $7,000 for a total of $26,200 and a 2-day overall total of $48,501. By this point, Kelly had never answered a FJ! clue incorrectly… but that didn’t happen this time. She responded with “What is Philip?” instead of “What is George?” in a clue about the second British king with the name “George” born in 1683. She dropped $15,000 and finished with $6,800 for a 2-day total of $31,200. Taking home $100,000 for second place, her all-time total rocketed to $323,597, just short of DiNucci’s total.

In 2014, Jeopardy! held a celebratory tournament called Battle of the Decades where the best players from the periods of 1984-1993 (‘80s), 1994-2003 (‘90s), and 2004-2013 (‘00s) faced off against another for the grand prize of $1,000,000. It started with preliminary games for a group of 15 players for the ‘80s, 15 for the ‘90s, and 15 for the ‘00s. Celeste DiNucci and Larissa Kelly were both in the 2000s bracket. DiNucci was in the first game, playing against 2013 TOC winner Colby Burnett and 2011 TOC 1st runner-up Tom Nissley. She played a really strong game but came just short of defeating Burnett when he bet on his opponents being incorrect rather than doing the cover bet. Since both him and DiNucci were incorrect, Burnett won the match and moved onto the quarterfinals. DiNucci took home $5,000 for an all-time total of $339,601. She hasn’t appeared since.

In Larissa Kelly’s preliminary game, she faced off against 2006 TOC quarterfinalist and 8-time champion Tom Kavanaugh, as well as 2004 TOC winner Russ Schumacher. She spent most of the game leading, but was caught short of a runaway after Schumacher grabbed the last Daily Double in the game, accumulating $15,400 before Final compared to $22,800 for Kelly and $5,600 for Kavanaugh. With Kavanaugh snagging the last $400 clue, he prevented Kelly from being able to earn a “crush” scenario, in which she would have had more than 2/3rds of Schumacher’s score. This turned out to be fatal for her as the final clue was a triple stumper, with her making the standard cover bet compared to a $0 wager from Schumacher. Taking home the $5,000 prize, her all-time cumulative total bumped up slightly to $328,597 but it wasn’t enough to overtake DiNucci.

On April 21st, 2014, Julia Collins appeared in her very first game. It was kind of a sluggish match, as the three players posted a Combined Coryat of $23,600. Collins went into Final Jeopardy! barely leading after a string of three correct responses on the last clues to be revealed. After responding correctly in FJ!, she finished the game with a victorious score of $15,605 and went on to sweep the week of episodes for a 5-day total of $102,810. She wound up sweeping the next week of games as well, right before the quarterfinals of the Battle of the Decades were set to begin, picking up a 10-day total of $220,610.

Although previous recordholders Rachael Schwartz and Robin Carroll did end up winning their preliminary matches, both were eliminated in the quarterfinals of the BOTD, taking home $10,000 each, putting their all-time totals at $162,499 and $259,100 respectively. The only woman to advance into the semifinals of the tournament was Pam Mueller, a 2000 college champion and semifinalist of both the 2001 TOC and 2005 Ultimate TOC. She was eliminated by Roger Craig though, along with Colby Burnett, picking up the $25,000 prize and jumping to an all-time total of $182,201. The million dollar tournament was won by Brad Rutter, with Ken Jennings finishing in second place for $100,000, followed by Roger Craig in third place for $50,000.

After the big tournament, we returned to regular games for Julia Collins and her unprecedented streak. Before her, no woman had ever won at least ten games. In fact, the only three to officially do so by that point were Ken Jennings, David Madden, and Arthur Chu. On May 27th, 2014, Collins extended her streak of consecutive wins by winning her 17th game with $35,000, her largest one-day total to date. Her grand total by that point was $372,700, meaning that Celeste DiNucci was finally dethroned after six and a half years. She finished off the week with three more wins for a 20-day total of $428,100 before eventually losing to Brian Loughnane in her 21st game. She came back for the 2014 TOC and made it to the finals, but came in third place behind Arthur Chu and winner Ben Ingram, adding $50,000 for an all-time total of $478,100. Like DiNucci before her, this record stood for a good amount of years before the next big tournament came around, the 2019 All-Star Games (ASG).

In the 2019 ASG, Julia Collins was one of six captains for the first ever team tournament. Each captain chose two people for their teams, and each player of the team would play one round individually. The other captains included Brad Rutter, Ken Jennings, Austin Rogers, Buzzy Cohen, and Colby Burnett. The women in this field included Larissa Kelly (Team Brad), 2015 Teachers Tournament winner and TOC quarterfinalist Jennifer Giles (Team Buzzy), 2013 College Championship winner Monica Thieu (Team Ken), and Pam Mueller (Team Colby). In the first round, Julia’s team with Seth Wilson and Ben Ingram was eliminated first, so they split a prize of $50,000. Julia’s new all-time total was $494,767.

In the wildcard round (teams who didn’t win in the first round), Colby’s team with Pam Mueller and Alan Lin advanced to the finals. Jennifer Giles received $25,000 with Team Buzzy, giving her an all-time total of $130,000. In the finals, it was Brad Rutter’s team with David Madden and Larissa Kelly that came out as the runaway leaders of the pack, winning the tournament with each splitting a prize of $1,000,000. With an extra $333,333 to her resumé, Kelly leapt over Collins to become the biggest female money winner with $660,930 and was ranked in 4th place at the time. David Madden was in third place with $775,733. Monica Thieu took home $100,000 from Team Ken for an all-time total of $205,000. Kelly’s record stood for nearly three years before it was broken by Amy Schneider in late 2021.

After winning her 17th game with $56,000, one of her biggest wins overall from her regular run, Amy Schneider became the biggest female all-time money winner. She went on to win 40 games and $1,382,800 + $2,000 for second place in her losing game. Shortly after Amy’s 17th win on December 23rd, 2021, Larissa Kelly made a rare post on X, formerly known as Twitter, to congratulate her… much to the dismay of several online transphobes. The only other two trans women to appear and/or qualify for a Tournament of Champions are Catherine Ramen (1998 TOC, pre-transition, $110,000) and Hannah Wilson (2024 TOC, 8 wins and $229,601).

She went on to win the 2022 Tournament of Champions for another $250,000, becoming the fourth woman to win the TOC. During the same qualification season, Mattea Roach won 23 games and became one of the top ten Jeopardy! winners. Not long after, they came out as non-binary and appeared most recently in the 2023 Jeopardy! Masters tournament, where they finished in a close second to James Holzhauer, picking up $250,000 and shooting past Larissa Kelly (now in ninth place) into sixth place of all time with $822,983. Even though Schneider was eliminated in 5th place during this tournament for the $75,000, she still currently retains the all-time record for women on Jeopardy! with $1,709,800. And as it stands, it may take a very long time for this record to be broken, especially since Schneider will likely be on the show several more times to come.

Whew! I gotta say, I wasn’t actually planning to write an article today. I wasn’t aware that today was the anniversary of DiNucci’s TOC win. I was gonna make this short and sweet but I decided that it’d be more approachable to a wide audience if I took this moment to celebrate all the best women to play the game over the years, since DiNucci’s win necessitated that. I really hope y’all are enjoying these longer form articles. It might be a bit rough around the edges, but I plan to add more citations later. See y’all again soon. :)