A whopping 14.5 million people watched the moment Jeopardy! contestant James Holzhauer lost to librarian, Emma Boettcher, on June 3 - making the episode the third most watched regularly scheduled TV show of the 2018-2019 season.
Only the Big Bang Theory's finale after 12 years on the air could beat the single-day viewership figures with 18.5 million viewers, and a December episode of 60 Minutes wasn't much further ahead of the program hosted by Alex Trebek, with 14.6 million in the ratings.
Holzhauer failed to beat champion Ken Jennings' November 2004 accolade of winning $2,520,700 and 72 games in a row, and his losing episode didn't trump him in the ratings either as Jennings raked in 18 million viewers.
Data from Nielsen also considers nonlinear and delayed viewing figures, and in that case Jeopardy! could was behind the likes of ABC's Live in Front of a Studio Audience, which got 20 million viewers, and the Game of Thrones finale with 50 million.
14.5 million people watched James Holzhauer lose Jeopardy! June 3 after 32 games and $2,464,216
It was second most-viewed Jeopardy! episode behind Ken Jennings' November 2004 loss at $2,520,700 after a 72-game streak with 18 million people watching
However while the other shows have reruns and streaming views from within the same week of the episode airing to help them boost numbers, current installments of Jeopardy! do not replay elsewhere.
The power of Holzhauer was also evident in the top 10 episodes of Jeopardy from the season; he featured in four of the episodes that made the list and an average week saw 10.8 million views tune in.
The June 3-9 week following his departure with $2,464,216, figures dropped by 4.5 million.
The professional Las Vegas gambler was just $56,484 shy of beating Ken Jennings' winnings record from 15 years ago when he lost to Philadelphia woman Boettcher.
'There's no greater honor than knowing an opponent had to play a perfect game to defeat me,' Holzhauer posted on Twitter on to congratulate Boettcher for her 'world-beating performance'.
Holzhauer also drew more interest in the show as he called out critics who thought he would lose by flubbing one of his famous big bets.
