Is it also possible that he caused James to lose?
Quite possible someone behind the scenes rigged the doubles.
I doubt that.
The way that he played was brash and aggressive. And it was bound to fail after a while. But, boy it was fun while it lasted.
Not a conspiracy tard, but it seemed like it was a little TOO perfect.
Maybe he wanted to just go home?
I was on a TV game show in 1970, at the tender age of 20 (The Who, What, or Where Game). Jeopardy was still on in the daytime, back then, hosted by Art Fleming. I tested for both shows on the same day.
Anyway, there is no question whatsoever that the producers and the stage manager (who is a different person than the host) pick the guests and pick the categories to heavily influence the outcome.
In my first game, I was on against a woman, a welfare mom who came to NY on a bus ticket and won four in a row. If she won #5, she was going to get some big deal prize. She was, IOW, supposed to win.
But I won. The stage manager/assistant producer was not happy.
The next game, I was on against an old man FROM MY HOME TOWN (how often are 2/3 contestants from the same little place).
Every category was for him - Big Bands - The Roaring Twenties - Old Cars - World War One, etc, etc. We were tied at the end, he got a tiebreaker - "What is the name of the COUNTRY in the South of France with the famous casino?" His answer: "Monte Carlo". They gave it to him, and I was out the door.
I'm sure there's much. much more to Jeopardy, but based on your test scores they have a pretty good idea about how to stack the board if they want you to win, and if they want you to lose.
Obviously a guy like Holzhauer has very few weaknesses, and also obviously he was good for business.
But if they wanted him gone, I'm sure between picking the right opponent and whatever they do with the buzzers, even he would be gone.
“Quite possible someone behind the scenes rigged the doubles.”
There are likely many controls in place to avoid any rigging, no need for another game show hearing as when there was rigging in the 50’s.
This was simply luck catching up with him. The show was taped on March 12th, a Tuesday before any of his shows had aired. Tapings are on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 5 shows each day. There are alternates that sit through the shows and then come back the next taping if they are not used. Based on the fact both “new” contestants were playing his game, likely they were both in the audience the preceding Wednesday and saw him in action for 5 shows. They had a full 6 days to digest and adopt his strategy of picking the high values first along with searching for the Daily Doubles to take those away from opponents.
His very bad luck was picking the first round Daily Double on his first pick, when he had no amount to wager and was only able to pick up the $1,000. While he entered the second round ahead, her picking up both Daily Doubles and adopting his game plan of betting it all on the first one was the clincher.