Why James Holzhauer is not on Jeopardy! Masters 2025

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James Holzhauer on Jeopardy! Masters. | Credit: ABC/Christopher Willard

Jeopardy! Masters has become a fun annual tradition for the game show, as every spring Jeopardy! welcomes back some of its best players of all time for a prime time tournament. A fixture in the first two years has been self-proclaimed Jeopardy! “villain” James Holzhauer, but Holzhauer is not competing in Jeopardy! Masters 2025, which premieres on Wednesday, April 30 at 9 pm ET/PT on ABC.

This was a surprise to many when the Jeopardy! Masters 2025 field was announced back in March. First, because Holzhauer qualified for Jeopardy! Masters 2025 with his third-place finish in the Jeopardy! Masters 2024 tournament. And second, because for the first time, the field for Jeopardy! Masters has expanded to nine total players, up from six in the first two years. So why is James Holzhauer not on Jeopardy! Masters 2025?

During an Inside Jeopardy! Live on Tour event, Jeopardy! Masters executive producers Sarah Whitcomb-Foss and Michael Davies explained why Holzhauer would not be participating in the 2025 tournament — long story short, he chose not to.

“As we mentioned, it’s an invitational tournament,” said Whitcomb-Foss. “We absolutely did extend an invitation to James, and he decided, for this year, he was not going to compete.”

Davies added: “Absolutely his right. It’s an invitational. We invite the people we want to invite. … So we completely respect James’ decision.”

So by all indications, there does not appear to be any scandal brewing. Holzhauer simply opted not to participate in Jeopardy! Masters 2025. But it seems entirely possible that he could be invited and return to the tournament in a future year if he so chooses.

As for those who are going to be competing in Jeopardy! Masters 2025, they include defending champion Victoria Groce and 2024 runner-up Yogesh Raut. There’s also Matt Amodio, 2025 Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament champion and past Jeopardy! Masters contestant, Roger Craig, 2025 Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament finalist, Adriana Harmeyer, 2025 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions finalist, Isaac Hirsch, 2025 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions finalist, Brad Rutter, Jeopardy!’s all-time winnings record holder, Neilesh Vinjamuri, 2025 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner and Juveria Zaheer, 2025 Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament finalist.

Ken Jennings on Jeopardy! Masters | Credit: Disney/Eric McCandless/Getty Images

With Ken Jennings once again hosting the tournament, each episode of Jeopardy! Masters will feature two traditional games of Jeopardy! during the hour-long broadcast. Though questions will still have point values in the games, the contestants are competing for end-of-game points to move up the Jeopardy! Masters leaderboard. Three points are awarded to the winner of each game, one point for the player who comes in second place and no points for the third-place finisher. Tiebreakers on things like number of games won, correct responses and in-game points will also help sort out the leaderboard.

Once again, Jeopardy! Masters 2025 premieres on April 30 at 9 pm ET/PT on ABC. Episodes of Jeopardy! Masters will stream on-demand on Hulu the day after they air on ABC.