Who won Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions? Details explored

Before entering Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions finals day five, Adriana Harmeyer and Isaac Hirsch had one win, while Neilesh Vinjamuri was leading with two wins and just needed one more win to take home the trophy.

During the day five episode, the three finalists competed in several categories over three rounds trying their best to finish each round with the highest total score.

Harmeyer was leading the scoreboard in the second round, however, everything changed for her and led to her losing the game when she pronounced a word. This mistake deducted over $3,200 from her score and helped Vinjamuri finish the round with $13,600.

Vinjamuri maintained the lead in the final round and was crowned the winner of Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions.

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How did Neilesh Vinjamuri win Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions finales?

The Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions Finals Day 5 kicked off with the Jeopardy! Round, where Vinjamuri took an early lead, finishing with $6,600. Hirsch followed with $3,400, while Harmeyer secured $2,000 heading into the next round.

Despite finishing last in the first round, Harmeyer took the lead in the Double Jeopardy! round after correctly answering one of the Daily Doubles that brought her total to $8,000.

Further in the Double Jeopardy! round Vinjamuri picked the "POP CULTURE JEOPARDY!" category. The clue was a picture of an actress which host Ken Jennings read played the role of the "mother in How I Met Your Mother and the daughter of Carmine Falcone on the HBO show, The Penguin.”

Harmeyer buzzed in first, stating that its answer would be “Who is Miloti?”. Jennings noted that it was the correct answer and it brought her to $13,600. However, as the round continued, Jennings learned that there was a change in scoring.

The Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions host informed Harmeyer that she had mispronounced Cristin Milioti's surname and for that, they would have to take away $3,200 from her score.

With this deduction, Harmeyer fell back and finished that Double Jeopardy! Round with $10,400. Meanwhile, Vinjamuri maintained his lead with $13,600 and Hirsch finished last with Hirsch $7,800.

The Final Jeopardy! Round featured the "GREEK MYTH" category and its clue read: "Panoptes, meaning all-seeing, was the byname of this legendary figure, slain by Hermes while standing guard over Io."

All three of the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions finalist answered the category correctly, increasing their scores significantly. Hirsch's score went from $7,800 to $15,500, while Harmeyer's score increased to $16,400. Meanwhile, Vinjamuri finished the round with the highest total score of $20,801.

Vinjamuri received his third final victory and was crowned the winner of Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions 2025, securing prize money of $250,000. Harmeyer and Hirsch finished as runners-up and they each received $75,000.

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Harmeyer reflects on her spelling mistake

Harmeyer's spelling mistake was responsible for her loss. If she had ended the second round by tying her score with Vinjamuri, then she would have got a higher wager for her answer in the final round. This could have ultimately led to a need for a tiebreaker which could have resulted in her victory.

Harmeyer reflected on her mistake, under Jeopardy's Reddit thread published on February 13, noting that she knew the correct spelling but somehow mispronounced it on the show.

"Huge congratulations to Neilesh, who showed throughout this tournament why he's a deserving champion. Both are Jeopardy greats for a reason! This whole tournament was an incredible experience, full of wonderful people. I actually do know her name. I’ll spend the rest of my life thinking about why it came out that way," she said.

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Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions 2025 episodes are available to watch on Hulu.