Jeopardy! legend James Holzhauer says controversial champ Yogesh Raut ‘should get lifetime ban’ for ‘criticizing’ show

JAMES Holzhauer is not exactly buzzing about controversial Jeopardy! contestant Yogesh Raut.

The Jeopardy! legend posted that Yogesh's weeklong Facebook tirade against the show warrants a "lifetime ban."

Yogesh, 38, made quite a splash in the three games that he won before his defeat on Jeopardy! last Monday.

The $98,000 winner used three of his four on-stage stories to brag about being a self-professed trivia big wig.

He claimed that he beat James at high school trivia (whom he referred to as "Jamie") and implied he was smarter than him - got recognized by a now-deceased contestant, and even beat host Ken Jennings, 48, at a trivia convention.

This persona didn't go over well, nor did his fiendish buzzer technique or failure to clap for his spirited victor Katie Palumbo.

Yogesh proceeded to post online rants slamming fans, the culture of Jeopardy!, and his peers the next week.

Such sour grapes were so unprecedented that NBC ran the headline: "Jeopardy!' champ Yogesh Raut takes aim at the relevance of the very game he won 3 times."

'SHOTS FIRED'

James quote-tweeted the headline and wrote to his Twitter:

"Anyone who’s ever used social media to criticize Jeopardy or its producers should get a lifetime ban from the show."

"Shot fired" one stunned fan replied, as its not every day that the second-highest winner of all time sides against someone (other than Ken.)

Another agreed: "Yogesh Raut always looked like he felt entitled to win on Jeopardy!. If he felt this way about the show long ago, why did he go on it? Sore loser is too kind."

A third replied: "I felt totally relieved when he lost!"

And a fourth wrote: "Do you know how repugnant you have to be for me to agree with 'Jamie' Holzhauer??"

"I think a healthy bit of criticism isn't a problem. But that wasn't healthy or a bit, tbh."

A sixth similarly commented: "My wife noted that he seemed angry in his first game. If it’s such a meaningless bother to him, why audition in the first place?"

Others replied that they James may have been "trolling" but it sure didn't come off that way to most people.

RAUT'S RANTS

In one Facebook post, the brief winner went long on his stint while sharing an image of an internet post that called him "arrogant."

"Let's talk here about the criticisms of my 'sportsmanship,'" he wrote.

"You may not see me congratulate the person who beat me on camera.

"THAT DOESN'T MEAN I DIDN'T CONGRATULATE THEM."

Yogesh continued: "What does it mean when people read aggression into the behavior of dark-skinned men?"

In a second fiery Facebook post, he also ripped: "If anything I’ve said has offended you ... well, there’s probably a way I could have phrased it that would have hurt your feelings even more.

"And I hereby apologize to myself for not phrasing it that way."

Yogesh's rants continued and widened in scope: "Jeopardy has not nor will ever be the Olympics of quizzing," he wrote.

"Jeopardy is not the problem, its centrality to American quizzing culture is.

"There will never be healthy quizzing culture in this country until we can learn to stop pretending Jeopardy! is important."

Yogesh then insulted the community for being gossipy - ranting about how insiders knew he would win before his games aired.

He called out many of its beloved figures for propagating Jeopardy! as the main marker of trivia success in the U.S.

He called reporter Claire McNear - who discovered former executive producer Mike Richard's sexist comments thus getting him fired - "anodyne," and "status quo-celebrating."

He also mentioned: "Amy Schneider's BS relating quizzing expertise to 'privilege.'"

He added that his three wins will “never top the list of my quizzing accomplishments — not even my quizzing accomplishments of 2022.

“It is entertaining to watch but it bears the same relationship to real quizzing that ‘Holey Moley’ does to golf.”

'WHO KNOWS?'

The game show's bosses are leaning into the Yogesh problem and they actually don't seem to mind the idea of a Jeopardy! villian.

On their weekly podcast, EP Mike Davies called him "a character" and said the show is not "prone to criticism".

They even teased they may "welcome" him to the 2023 Tournament of Champions.

The tournament is typically reserved for four-day winners.

Longtime producer Sarah Foss said: "Yogesh is certainly well-known in the trivia community, you can't argue that."

"As a three-day champion with a high total, who knows, we could see Yogesh back on the Alex Trebek stage."

James (who won the 2019 tournament after his 32 huge-margin victories) took his stance after the execs made clear Yogesh would be allowed to return in some capacity.