Brad Rutter

Grand Slam History
First appearance:	2007 Grand Slam*
*first Grand Slam

Bradford "Brad" Rutter (born January 31, 1978) is best known as a contestant on the U.S. syndicated game show Jeopardy!. As of 2008, he has won the second most money on a game show than any other person in history Coming in second to Ken Jennings. Rutter became an undefeated five-time champion on Jeopardy! in 2000 and has since won an unprecedented three Jeopardy! tournament titles: the 2001 Tournament of Champions, the Million Dollar Masters Tournament, and the Ultimate Tournament of Champions. In the finals of the Ultimate Tournament, Rutter decisively defeated Ken Jennings and Jerome Vered to become the show's biggest money winner to date, with total earnings of $3,270,102, but as of October, 10, 2008, he lost it to Ken Jennings.

In twenty games, Rutter has never lost a full match of Jeopardy! (Rutter has trailed at the end of the first game of a two-day match twice—against Rick Knutsen in the first game of the Finals of the 2001 Tournament of Champions, and against John Cuthbertson in the first game of the semifinals of the Ultimate Tournament of Champions—but he ultimately won both of those matches with a higher two-day cumulative score.) Given his unequaled records and crushing victories over otherwise highly successful Jeopardy! champions (such as Jennings, Vered, Eric Newhouse, Bob Verini, Doug Lach, Tad Carithers, John Beck, and Chris Miller), Rutter is widely considered the greatest Jeopardy! player of the Trebek era.

Until 2007, Rutter lived in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he hosted InQuizitive, a locally broadcast quiz show for high school students. He has also been a reader and judge for the high school National Academic Championship.

Rutter is a 1995 graduate of Manheim Township High School in Neffsville, Pennsylvania, where he was on the Quiz Bowl team. He is one of the 18 people to have been named to the National Academic Championship Hall of Fame in its 25-year history. At the 2005 Manheim Township High School graduation ceremony, he announced the start of a scholarship fund in memory of his late high-school quiz bowl coach.

Rutter has described himself as a "slacker" in high school and a Johns Hopkins dropout (while there, he studied English and History). Before his success on Jeopardy!, he worked at the Lancaster Coconuts record store.

He appeared on the U.S. game show 1 vs. 100 (as a member of "the Mob") on December 1, 2006 and again on December 8, 2006. He answered every question correctly and was one of only seven mob members to survive to the next show, as was Annie Duke. He would eventually be eliminated on the December 15th episode, on a question about Jewish reggae musician Matisyahu. He again appeared on February 9, 2007 and was eliminated late into a winner-takes-$250,000 "last man standing" competition, but before Ken Jennings.

Rutter was the top seed in Grand Slam, but lost in the second round to Ogi Ogas, a former Who Wants to Be a Millionaire contestant. Rutter was one of four former Jeopardy! champions on "Grand Slam"; the others were #13 seed Leszek Pawlowicz, #12 seed Frank Spangenberg, and Jennings, seeded second.

See also

• American game show winnings records

External links

• InQuizitive - About the Host