CULVER CITY, CA (MPG) – Sam Buttrey, an Associate Professor of Operations Research at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., became the first-ever JEOPARDY! Professors Tournament champion, claiming the $100,000 grand prize. Ed Hashima, a Professor of History at American River College in Sacramento, Calif., placed second and earned $50,000; Alisa Hove, a Professor of Botany at Warren Wilson College in Asheville, N.C., came in third, taking home $25,000.

“This has been the greatest time, and to come out ahead of all these other great players is something I’ll remember forever,” said Buttrey. “The group was uniformly so smart, charming, and warm, and there’s been a real feeling of camaraderie from the very beginning.”

Winning the Professors Tournament gives Buttrey an automatic berth in JEOPARDY!’s most prestigious event: the Tournament of Champions. The field for the next edition of the tournament is shaping up to be incredibly competitive: recent super-streakers Matt Amodio, Jonathan Fisher, and current 13-game champion Amy Schneider will all return to the JEOPARDY! stage.

“I know there are some strong players, but I want to go up against them,” Buttrey said. “I would like to play against Matt Amodio, he’s a strong player and I’d like to see how I can do.”

JEOPARDY!, America’s Favorite Quiz Show™, is in its 38^th season in syndication. With a weekly audience over 20 million viewers,* JEOPARDY! is the top-rated quiz show on television. The show has won a total of 42 Emmy^® Awards, holds the Guinness World Records^® title for the most Emmy^® Awards won by a TV game show, and received a Peabody Award for “celebrating and rewarding knowledge.” JEOPARDY! is produced by Sony Pictures Television, a Sony Pictures Entertainment Company; it is distributed domestically by CBS Media Ventures and internationally by ViacomCBS Global Distribution Group, both units of ViacomCBS. For more information, please visit Jeopardy.com.