‘Jeopardy! Masters’ Ends in a Stunner: Here’s the Real ‘Final Boss’

Amanda Bell May 22, 2024, 9:00 pm

Victoria Groce, James Holzhauer, and Yogesh Raut on 'Jeopardy! Masters' Finale — Disney/Eric McCandless

[Warning: The following post contains MAJOR spoilers about the Season 2 finale of Jeopardy! Masters.]

The second season of Jeopardy! Masters has ended with a new champion of champions taking the top prize. On Wednesday night’s finale, Victoria Groce, Yogesh Raut, and James Holzhauer competed in two back-to-back, total score games to find out who was the true master of this trio, and one contestant closed with a decisive lead that left no doubt.

As was evident from the very beginning of this season, it is indeed Victoria Groce who has emerged as the best of the best this time, handily dispensing with self-proclaimed “final boss” James Holzhauer and Yogesh Raut for the $500,000 cash prize.

Here’s how it all went down.

Game One

The first round was a spirited affair, featuring a category with special guest Jason Kelce and some friendly sidechats about the proper pronunciation of proper nouns like Everest and Salt ‘N Pepa. Otherwise, it was pretty evenly matched, with Groce going into Double Jeopardy with $4,600, Holzhauer just behind her with $4,400, and Raut in a close third with $3,600.

Before Double Jeopardy could begin, each of the contestants then talked about the charities that they were playing for — with the winner’s choice receiving a $100,000 donation from the show as a bonus. Raut revealed he was playing for the Equal Justice Initiative to combat racism in America; Holzhauer went local with his favorite high school student-aid organization Project 150; and Groce supported the Partners in Health organization, which provides healthcare resources to some of the poorest places in the world.

Double Jeopardy was, much like the first round, a close game. Groce made a sizable gain of $10,200 (a true daily double) on the “Health and Medicine” category, correctly identifying mesothelioma as the type of cancer so many legal commercials solicit clients for. Then, Holzhauer pushed his entire $10,400 onto the table in the “Alliteration All Around” category, and it paid off — Baffin Bay is indeed the water whose Eastern shore is formed by Greenland. From there, it was an absolute shootout between Groce and Holzhauer, while Raut kept himself in it.

Heading into Final Jeopardy, Holzhauer led with $27,200, Groce had $25,200, and Raut followed with $9,600. And Final Jeopardy was hardly decisive for any of them.

In the category “Politicians,” the clue was: “This man was the 1st to be governor of one state & then senator from another; 173 years later, Mitt Romney became the second.” Both Raut and Holzhauer guessed it correctly, while Groce got it wrong, but it only made a significant difference for Raut.

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With $9,600 on the line, Raut improved his final first game score to $19,200; Groce’s dropped by $3,800 to $21,400; and Holzhauer improved his score by a slight $1,109 bet, bringing him to $28,309 and ensuring that Game Two would be utterly consequential for everyone.

Game Two

The second game started out better for Raut than the rest, as he snagged the first Daily Double, adding $1,799 to his early score by correctly identifying “I Can See Clearly Now” as the answer to this clue: “In the 1980s Windex competitor Glass Plus seized on the obvious & used a version of this 1972 song in its ads.” Raut’s spirits were clearly high throughout this round because he even made an impromptu Pretty Little Liars reference, just for funzies.

Going into the half, Raut led with $5,799, with Groce on his tail with $5,400, and Holzhauer in third with $2,600.

In Double Jeopardy, host Ken Jennings announced that a mistake in the first half would add $200 to both Groce and Holzhauer’s scores, putting her even nearer to Raut’s total. This time, the celebrity category cameo came from Jimmy Kimmel in “Hosts.”

Groce nabbed both Daily Doubles this time, both in the 800-point boxes. The first was for “Women in Poems,” and she put all $13,600 on the line with a major payoff; lo, Evangeline was the right answer to: “This lass was the daughter of Benedict Bellefontaine, “the wealthiest farmer of Grand-Pre.” The second Daily Double was in the category “New Material About Old Material,” and this time, she wagered just $800. The clue? “Taken to England in 1296, this 26x16x11 block of pale yellow sandstone has but one decoration — a Latin cross.” To that, Groce correctly answered, “Is this the Stone of Scone?”

Going into Final Jeopardy, thanks to these back-to-back Doubles, Groce had a massive lead of $34,000. If she bet anything, Holzhauer could catch up with a wise enough “final boss” style wager and a little luck from his $8,800, considering he had a healthy head start in round one; Raut was also very much still in contention with $15,799 on the round, too.

In the category “American Women,” the clue was: “The New York Times wrote of this woman who had died in 1951, ‘though she was forgotten at the time, part of her remained alive.” Holzhauer correctly guessed it was Henrietta Lacks, but his $908 wager wasn’t enough, and he knew it — alongside his answer, he wrote “*final boss death music*” and proceeded to act it out. He ended with a two-game score of $38,017. Raut also got it right and wagered $10,911, bringing his total to $45,910. Groce also got it right but bet zero, bringing her two-game total to a whopping $55,400 and earning her first place overall.

With that, Victoria Groce is the winner of Season 2, the $500,000 prize, and a healthy donation to her favorite philanthropy, while Raut placed second and nabbed $250,000, with Holzhauer placing third and taking home $150,000.

So, fans, were you surprised by the results of the final? Why or why not?