Jeopardy! Masters continues to heat up as the Knockout Round ended on Wednesday night (May 14) with three contestants being eliminated from the competition.
In the first game of the evening, last year’s Masters champion Victoria Groce, Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament winner Matt Amodio, and 2025 Tournament of Champions finalist Adriana Harmeyer battled it out. The pressure was on for Amodio and Harmeyer, who only had 1 point apiece heading into Wednesday’s game.
As usual, Groce got off to a hot start, answering 14 correct clues in the first round. She also found the game’s first Daily Double, giving her a lead with 11,400 points after the first round. Amodio stood at 4,200, while Harmeyer trailed with 2,200.
Groce continued her success in the Double Jeopardy round, even after Harmeyer found the second Daily Double. Groce landed on the third Daily Double and ended the round with a runaway of 27,200.
Jeopardy YouTube!
Host Ken Jennings then read out the final clue: “Naturalist the Count de Buffon mocked N. & S. American animals, like this “elephant of the new world…the size of a very small mule.”
Everyone answered correctly with “What is a tapir?” and with his small wager of 601, Amodio finished in second place with 13,601, giving him another point and allowing him to advance to the next round. Groce earned the 3 points for winning the episode, while Harmeyer finished third and was eliminated from the competition.
The stakes were even higher in the second game of the night as only the winner would advance to the quarterfinals, while both losers would be knocked out of the competition. The tense episode saw a showdown between Brad Rutter, Juveria Zaheer, and Neilesh Vinjamuri, all looking for their first points of the series.
Rutter started strong in the opening round, answering 15 of the 30 clues correctly for a lead of 9,000. Zaheer, meanwhile, doubled up through a Daily Double to put her in second place with 4,400. Vinjamuri trailed in last place with just 1,600.
Vinjamuri had an excuse for his poor performance during the contestant chats with Jennings, saying, “I’m just learning from the greats, and I’m just trying to learn as much from them as I can. On Jeopardy! you see a lot of stuff that kind of like, it feels kind of dated. Like it could be 80s-70s culture.”
Jennings interrupted, jokingly telling the 2025 TOC winner, “It’s dated to you, it’s not dated…” Rutter then chimed in, saying, “Hey, man!”
“Brad’s right here,” Jennings quipped.
After laughing about it, Jennings admitted, “You’re right. It’s a broad spread of years. You’re not wrong.”
As the game continued, Vinjamuri never did find his groove. Zaheer, however, stepped up her game in Double Jeopardy, finding both Daily Doubles to take a substantial lead. Heading into Final Jeopardy, Zaheer led with 26,800, Rutter followed behind with 15,800, and Vinjamuri trailed with 4,000.
The final clue read: “After he died in 1990 at age 90, his ashes were scattered at Tanglewood, where he taught for 25 years & where his music was performed.”
Nobody answered with the correct response (“Who is Aaron Copland?”), so it all came down to wagers. Vinjamuri went all in, ending the game on zero. Rutter, meanwhile, bet 11,001, dropping him into second place with 4,799. Zaheer wagered 6,000, giving her an episode-winning total of 20,000 and securing 3 points, meaning she advances to the quarterfinals.
That meant Rutter, who earned 1 point for finishing second, and Vinjamuri, who finished on zero, were both eliminated from the competition alongside Harmeyer.
Fans took to social media to react to Wednesday’s episodes, with one Reddit user writing, “Like an aging athlete making a last stand, it’s great to see Rutter turn back the clock and just throw haymakers for four minutes.”
“Probably the last we see of brad congrats Juveria though,” said another.
“I expected Brad and Adriana to go home. Neilesh I am sad about but I have a feeling he will be back,” another added.
Another wrote, “I’m happy juveria finally had a performance reminiscent of her scc and cwc performances especially at such an opportune time. i know she’s been competing against more difficult contestants ever since the toc but today she definitely performed very well. looking forward to seeing what she can do next week.”
“If Brad was going to lose tonight, I had hoped that he would with a dignified strong performance, which I can happily say he delivered on. Not sure if we’ll see him in JIT or not, but it would be a good “final opportunity” to see him try and win one last tournament or to at least surpass that $5 million mark,” said one fan.
“Juveria is a worthy champion, and obviously a fan favorite, but I was pulling for Brad. Will be interesting what the stats say, but it seemed like to me he outplayed his opponents. Just couldn’t land a DD. Would love to see him back, but it feels like this was his swan song,” added one commenter.
Below is how the league table is looking so far. As you can see, Yogesh Raut remains the clear leader with 6 points, while Groce and Roger Craig take up the second and third spots, each with 4 points. Zaheer and Isaac Hirsch are in the fourth and fifth spots with 3 points apiece, while Amodio is in sixth with 2 points.
Jeopardy, Inc!
The quarterfinals kick off next week (on Tuesdays and Wednesdays) and have the same format and point structure as the Knockout Round. The four highest-ranked players move on to the semifinals, while the two lowest-ranked players are eliminated.
Below are the first two quarterfinal match-ups.
Jeopardy, Inc!
Jeopardy, Inc!
What did you think of Wednesday’s episodes? Did your favorites make it through? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Jeopardy! Masters, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 9/8c, ABC, next day on Hulu
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
