‘Jeopardy! Masters’ Season 3 Sneak Peek: Champs Preview ‘Rough’ Tournament Ahead (VIDEO)

Nine of Jeopardy!‘s finest players are all coming together to compete for Jeopardy! Masters Season 3, which premieres on ABC this Wednesday (April 30) night with its first hour-long episode.

Competing for the title of Jeopardy! Master (and the $500,000 cash prize) this season are: Greatest of All Time contender Brad Rutter, Masters Season 2 winner Victoria Groce and finalist Yogesh Raut, 2025 Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions winner Neilesh Vinjamuri and finalists Adriana Harmeyer and Isaac Hirsch, and 2025 Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament champion Matt Amodio and finalists Roger Craig and Juveria Zaheer.

For Rutter, who hasn’t played since 2020’s G.O.A.T. event, it’s going to be a bit odd to play with G.O.A.T. winner Ken Jennings as host. In the above-embedded exclusive sneak peek at the new season, he admits, “You know, usually, if I was on this stage and I heard Ken’s voice, it was bad news because it meant he buzzed in in front of me.” It’s a chance, though, for Rutter to extend his current lead as the winningest contestant in the game show’s history (he currently boasts $4,938,436 over Jennings’ $4,370,700). “All records are meant to be broken, so I’m sure I’ll have to pretend to graciously congratulate somebody passing me one of these days,” he says in the clip. Perhaps a Masters win could put that day off a bit more.

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Groce, meanwhile, wants to prove her impressive “final boss” Season 2 win was no accident. “Oh, I’m so excited. This is so much fun to do — nerve-wracking fun, but fun,” she says in the featurette. “This year, I would like to prove that it’s not a fluke that I got through last year.”

“These are experienced players. They’ve been down before. They’re not going to get panicked or skittish,” Jennings predicts of the games. “Half a million dollars for the winner, the Trebek Trophy, of course, but more than that in the Jeopardy! world, it’s knowing you can play the best of the best.”

Still, some of the contestants note the challenges they’ll face in the competition. “I think the challenge of Masters is going up against Masters,” said Harmeyer. “I think with Masters, the knowledge required to do well in this game is so deep,” Zaheer adds. “You really have to pay attention to pretty much every book you read, every observation you make to know something that could show up in Jeopardy! Masters,” Vinjamuri also says.

For Raut, the opportunity to be back for another Masters round is a chance to make new friends in the Jeopardy! all-timers circle: “Losing three people after just playing two games is gonna be rough, but it’s nice to see all of these people, some of them I only saw on TV, now you know you get to actually get to know them,” he says.

Watch the full video above to see what else the contestants had to say about the season ahead, and tune in Wednesday night for the first two knockout episodes of Jeopardy! Masters Season 3, featuring Groce, Raut, and Rutter going head to head, then Amodio, Craig, and Zaheer.

Jeopardy! Masters, Season 3 premiere, April 30, 8/7c, ABC