American Game Show Winnings Records - Top Ten Winnings List

Top Ten Winnings List

Rank Name Total winnings Show(s) Notes
1 Ken Jennings $3,773,414.29 Jeopardy!, $3,172,700 Jennings won $2,522,700 in his original run on Jeopardy!, $500,000 for his second place finish in the Ultimate Tournament of Champions., and $300,000 ($150,000 of which was donated to charity) in the 2011 Jeopardy! IBM Challenge.
1 vs. 100, $714.29
Grand Slam, $100,000
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?, $500,000
2 Brad Rutter $3,470,102 Jeopardy!, $3,370,102 Rutter's total includes $55,102 during his initial appearance on Jeopardy! in 2001, $100,000 in 2002's Tournament of Champions, $1,000,000 for winning the Million Dollar Masters tournament in 2002, $2,115,000 for winning the Ultimate Tournament of Champions in 2005, and $200,000 ($100,000 of which was donated to charity) for finishing third in the 2011 Jeopardy! IBM Challenge.
Million Dollar Mind Game, $100,000
3 Kevin Olmstead $2,207,000 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, $2,180,000 Olmstead's win occurred during the progressive jackpot shows on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in 2001. Following this win, Olmstead held the record as the biggest winner in American television for over three years until it was broken by Ken Jennings.
Jeopardy!, $27,000
4 Sandra Diaz-Twine $2,000,000 Survivor: Pearl Islands, $1,000,000 Diaz-Twine's total includes her prize for being Sole Survivor on Pearl Islands and her prize for Sole Survivor on the all-star series Heroes vs. Villains, each prize being $1,000,000. Also holds the record for most winnings by a woman.
Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains, $1,000,000
5 Ed Toutant $1,871,401 Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, $1,860,000 Toutant was another contestant during the progressive jackpot shows on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in 2001. After missing a question which was later revealed to be flawed, Toutant was invited back to continue playing for the jackpot at the same level he was playing for during his original appearance. Toutant was able to complete the remaining questions and win a jackpot of $1.86 million.
Jeopardy!, $11,401
6 Ashlee Register $1,795,000 Duel Register won $75,000 plus an accumulating $1,720,000 jackpot, giving her the record for most winnings by a woman at the time.
7 David Legler $1,765,000 Twenty One Legler won $1,765,000 over six wins with Twenty One's new payout structure, and was Twenty One's biggest winner.
8 Curtis Warren $1,546,988 Greed, $1,410,000 Warren won $410,000 during his initial appearance on Greed and later won an additional $1,000,000 during a Million Dollar Moment contest.
Sale of the Century, $136,288
Win Ben Stein's Money, $700
9 "Boston" Rob Mariano $1,345,910 Survivor, $1,298,410 From 4 appearances on Survivor, including 1 win, and 2 appearances with his wife Amber on The Amazing Race. Their best result was a second place finish in season 7.
The Amazing Race, $47,500
10 Adam Rose $1,153,908 The Price Is Right Rose was the first millionaire on the prime-time $1,000,000 Spectacular. Total includes a $1,000,000 double showcase win bonus, two showcases, a $20,000 cash prize for winning the Grand Game pricing game, and winning an item up for bids in One Bid.

Read more about this topic:  American Game Show Winnings Records

Famous quotes containing the words top, ten and/or list:

    “The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of a mountain or in the petals of a flower.”
    —Robert M. Pirsig (b. 1928)

    “Once one is caught up into the material world not one person in ten thousand finds the time to form literary taste, to examine the validity of philosophic concepts for himself, or to form what, for lack of a better phrase, I might call the wise and tragic sense of life.”
    —F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)

    “The advice of their elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best books.”
    —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935)