How good is it to win two episodes?
Well, I was curious to the answer of this question, so I ran a little analysis. Using the online Jeopardy Archive (google J! Archive, it’s a really great website), I collected summary data on somewhere between 600 and 1000 old Jeopardy episodes and found out what percentage of people appear on just one episode (coming in 2nd or 3rd place) versus two episodes (one-day champion), etc…The numbers are just an approximation….but my data indicates approximately 75% of Jeopardy contestants only appear on one episode and lose (which intuitively makes sense if you think about it). Another 15% leave as one-day champions after two appearances. After that, it’s roughly 5% that win two days (including myself)…and much smaller percentages for the remaining Super-Champions. I don’t think anyone else has ever checked the data for that, so it’s not confirmed, and the whole process only took like 20 minutes, but it’s my best guess.
