American game show winnings records

Both the 1955–1958 and 1999–2001 eras of rapidly set and broken records were driven primarily by one-upmanship between the networks each trying to secure bragging rights and ratings by inflating their prize offerings, rather than the merits of the contestants themselves.

American daytime television has historically had smaller prize budgets for game shows that air in that daypart.

Ken Jennings is the highest-earning American game show contestant of all time, having accumulated a total of $5,296,214 over the course of twenty years.

Andrew Kravis, however, is the highest-earning contestant on a single American game show, having won $2,600,000 in one appearance on The Million Second Quiz in 2013, beating Jennings record of $2,520,700 on Jeopardy!

The single day record for shows in daytime television was set in 1984 by Michael Larson, who won $110,237 (equivalent to $323,000 in 2023)[3] on Press Your Luck.

In March 2003, Game Show Network produced a documentary about the event featuring Ed Long and Janie Litras-Dakan, the contestants Larson handily defeated in 1984.

[5][7][8] In 2016, Heil was succeeded by Christen Freeman, who set the record by winning $210,000 on October 28, during the show's "Big Money Week" special.

[10] The current single-day record holder is Michael Stouber, who won a total of $262,743 on the October 14, 2019, episode of The Price Is Right.

[3][26] Nadler's record would stand for more than two decades, because in the fall of 1958, allegations that many big-money quiz shows were fixed were corroborated; several of the programs under scrutiny were almost immediately cancelled.

[28] Van Doren, by comparison, insisted he had wanted to do the show honestly and refused to speak on the topic for decades afterward, until writing an essay on the subject for The New Yorker in 2008.

Nadler, a middle-school dropout,[30] failed a civil service exam trying to get a temporary job with the United States Census Bureau in 1960.

Naval officer Thom McKee began a winning streak on Tic Tac Dough that carried from the spring of 1980 into the 1980–1981 season.

[36] McKee's record on Tic Tac Dough was not surpassed by another player, and this was in part because when WCBS-TV in New York purchased the right to air the syndicated Tic Tac Dough in 1983, CBS (the station's owner) realized that airing a game show without a winnings cap on a station it owned was a violation of its own Broadcast Standards and Practices.

[38] In 1999, McKee's winnings total was passed by Michael Shutterly, who became the biggest winner in the first season of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire in the United States.

The ratings success of Millionaire sparked a brief glut of high-stakes game shows from the other networks, each attempting to outdo the other.

[41] For surpassing Carpenter's mark, then-host Maury Povich proclaimed Oberholtzer "the TV Game Show King".

[42] Late in its run, the Fox game show Greed brought back some of its previous winners to try for an extra $1,000,000.

Three days before Warren's win, David Legler, who also appeared on Twenty One, began a run as champion on the show.

[44] Legler held the record for well over a year, outlasting Twenty One and Greed themselves; by July 2000, the million-dollar game show boom had gone bust and both Greed and Twenty One (along with several others) were cancelled, leaving Millionaire as the last surviving million-dollar game show on American television from that boom; it would not be until April 2001 (with the arrival of the similarly short-lived Weakest Link) that another would be attempted.

Olmstead became the first contestant to top $2,000,000 in total winnings on a game show and supplanted Legler as the all-time leader.

However, despite the higher stakes and the potential for someone to top the all-time record for winnings, the largest prize awarded was $1,000,000, won by Robert Essig.

joined Tic Tac Dough from two decades earlier in allowing unlimited appearances by a returning champion on a quiz show.

On October 15, 2003, a month into the new season, Pennsylvania college student Sean Ryan became the first champion to play (and win) a sixth game.

But nearing the end of the season on June 2, 2004, software engineer Ken Jennings of Salt Lake City, Utah became the new champion on Jeopardy!

Jennings received a bye into the finals of the tournament, where he faced semi-final winners Jerome Vered and Brad Rutter in a three-game, cumulative total match.

[56] A year later, Jennings won the Grand Slam tournament on Game Show Network and the $100,000 top prize by defeating Ogi Ogas in the final round.

NBC's The Million Second Quiz artificially inflated its grand prize to allow for Andrew Kravis, the winner of the ten-day tournament, to claim a record for most money won on a single game show in regular play.

Kravis had only won $2,326,346 during actual play ($326,346 during the game, plus the $2,000,000 grand prize) but was awarded $2,600,000 solely so the show could lay claim to the record.

Both men advanced to the two-day tournament final with Roger Craig (who had set the previous single-day winnings record of $77,000 in 2010) filling the third position.

run, plus an additional $250,000 for winning the Tournament of Champions,[68] which combined with his prize of $58,333.33 from his appearance on The Chase in 2014, places him third in total game show earnings.