'Jeopardy!' Fans Think the Show Will 'Never Be the Same' after James Holzhauer’s Sudden Defeat

Following an impressive 32-game winning streak on the classic game show, the professional gambler was surprisingly defeated by a Chicago librarian named Emma Boettcher even though he gave the right answer.

35-year-old record-breaking “Jeopardy!” star contestant James Holzhauer missed his chance of breaking the most challenging record of the show: that of the show’s legend Ken Jennings and his 2004 74-game winning streak.

Nevertheless, Holzhauer made TV history with his two-month run on the show hosted by Alex Trebek, and his style of playing and trivia knowledge, in addition to his high bets, will be talked about and emulated for a long time.

Holzhauer cultivated a great fandom during his time on “Jeopardy!” and they made sure to express their admiration for the contestant by taking to social media to comment on his sudden loss.

“Damn. I’m pretty bummed to see @James_Holzhauer go down on Jeopardy, but Emma killed it! Will miss watching this guy every night. He can still break the earnings record when Tournament of Champions rolls around!" a Twitter user wrote.

“Emma dominated her warmup games that day, and I knew she would make an extremely tough challenger. I was still incredibly impressed by her courage on that ‘True Daily Double.’ I’m proud that it took a top-level player at her absolute best to eliminate me,” Holzhauer acknowledged.

“All good things sometimes end and TONS of #Respect to @James_Holzhauer on your remarkable run on @Jeopardy... Thank you for giving us fans a thrill… #Jeopardy #JeopardyJames #ThankYou," tweeted another user.

"James, you were absolutely the greatest Jeopardy contestant that I've ever seen. Your style of play was 2nd to none! Thanks for an amazing run & a very entertaining 2 months & best of luck!" Anthony Giordano added.

While Jennings accumulated more than twice as many victories as Holzhauer did, the latter’s total cash winnings of $2.464.216 weren’t that far from the former, who holds the record by having earned $ 2.520.700.

This makes Holzhauer the show’s second most successful player of all time, which is certainly no small achievement.

“I never really believed I could win 75 shows, but I definitely thought I had a great shot at Ken’s cash winnings record,” he shared, and he certainly could have gotten there.

Holzhauer leaves the show as a legend, and he still can brag about having broken the show’s single-day cash winnings back in April, taking over Roger Craig’s previous record.

Holzhauer spent years preparing himself for the challenge, applying game theory to the game show in order to crack it instead.

This is something that might sound like rocket science to many of us, but he doesn’t seem to find his method to be too sophisticated.

“My approach isn't complicated: Get some money, hit the Daily Doubles, bet big, and hope I run hot,” Holzhauer told Wired.

Considering this, it was baffling to learn that Holzhauer’s winning streak came to an end not because he didn’t know the right answer to a key trivia, but just because he didn’t place a high enough bet and finished second to Boettcher.

“Emma dominated her warmup games that day, and I knew she would make an extremely tough challenger. I was still incredibly impressed by her courage on that ‘True Daily Double.’ I’m proud that it took a top-level player at her absolute best to eliminate me,” Holzhauer acknowledged.

While Holzhauer couldn’t beat Jennings, at least he received the latter’s recognition and congratulations on Twitter, where Jennings compared the Las Vegas native to the Avengers’ omnipotent villain Thanos.

Apart from his charming personality and intelligence, Holzhauer has won the public’s heart with his $10.000 donation to a charity that prevents children from dropping out of school: Communities in Schools of Nevada.

He previously donated another $10.000 from his winnings to the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, to further give back to the community and support education.