Jeopardy contestant earns more per episode than host in record-breaking run

Every all-time great has a celebration that matches their prowess: Roger Federer clenches his fist as a sign of his aggression on the court, Cristiano Ronaldo stands like a statue, his brilliance powered by self-belief.

To that list we can now add James Holzhauer, the record-breaking Jeopardy! contestant about to play his 13th show in a row. Each time he wins another jackpot, he grins a fake grin and stares into the camera with a look that says, “This was all too easy”.

Jeopardy! has been on air since 1964 with the simple rule that the winner of each episode stays on to play in the next day’s edition of the show. Until 2003, players could only appear on consecutive episodes, but there is now no limit to how long someone can stay on the show.

So far Holzhauer has racked up $942,000 in just 13 episodes, breaking the record for the best one-day earnings on the show (his performances have been so strong he also has the second-best, third-best and fourth-best one-day earnings).

In terms of overall winnings, he’s now second in the show’s history, behind Ken Jennings who won $2.5m over 74 episodes in 2004 – but Holzhauer is on track to beat the record in half the time.

Related: Jeopardy champ Arthur Chu: the game is about intimidation, not trivia | Arthur Chu

Even more unusual then Holzhauer’s winnings is his temperament. He says his day job is “professional sports gambler” and his strategy on the show has been incredibly high risk, often answering the highest-value questions and then wagering most or all of his money on the Daily Double and Final Jeopardy! questions. With tens of thousands of dollars on the line in these moments, he rarely seems nervous, always returning to the same unctuous grin as he’s told he has the correct answer.

As his winnings have increased Holzhauer has become a minor celebrity, yet even his newfound fame doesn’t seem to faze him. When he appeared on the Scott Van Pelt iteration of SportsCenter last week, the first question he was asked was if it was true that his two childhood dreams were to ring the siren at a Vegas Golden Knights game and to appear on Van Pelt’s show. Holzhauer confidently replied that the Knights didn’t exist when he was a child and Van Pelt didn’t have a show so he could hardly have dreamt of them since childhood.

Holzhauer has had previous success on quiz shows, appearing on the US version of The Chase where he also broke records for the amount of money earned by a single player and thrashed the professional quiz player the show pits him against.

On Jeopardy!, Holzhauer’s incredibly fast trigger finger has also been key to his success, consistently being able to buzz in ahead of the other two competitors. This he credits to the e-book Secrets of the Buzzer, by the former Jeopardy! winner Fritz Holznagel, which describes an entire program that helps you press the buzzer more quickly.

In tonight’s episode, Holzhauer could break the $1.3m (£1m) mark. His run will be costly for showrunners, who must be experiencing a little jeopardy themselves, as they normally budget for far smaller prizes: a Jeopardy! winner takes home an average prize of $19,980 an episode; in Holzhauer’s best performance he took home $131,127.

Indeed, some have estimated that Holzhauer is now earning more an episode than Jeopardy!’s extremely well remunerated host Alex Trebek. Trebek reportedly makes $10m a year for hosting the show, which works out at around $34,000 an episode – Holzhauer is currently earning an average of $72,000, more than double Trebek’s salary.