Buzzy Cohen Won More Than $160K as a Contestant on 'Jeopardy!'

Former Jeopardy! champ Buzzy Cohen was nicknamed "Mr. Personality" by Alex Trebek for his appearances on the show. Now, he's back — but he's not competing. This time, Buzzy is hosting Jeopardy!'s Tournament of Champions. From May 17–28, this event will pit 15 top competitors from the show against one another for a $250,000 prize. 

Buzzy himself had won tons of money from his time on Jeopardy!, but what is his salary for hosting the show this time? The guests on his episodes are competing to win a big prize. This prize is a huge part of the donation that the show has been doing since it began having guest hosts. 

Just like with the Jeopardy! hosts before him, there's no word if Buzzy will be getting a salary for his time behind the podium or how much money he will make. The $250,000 prize, however, will be matched and donated by the show. Each guest host chooses a different organization for the donation, and Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission's new Trebek Center was chosen this time.

The Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission says, "Our mission is to prevent, reduce, and eliminate poverty, hunger, and homelessness," according to its website. The new Trebek Center is specifically tackling the homelessness issue in LA. The Trebek family along with others helped raise $2 million for the center. 

"The $250,000 grand prize will be matched and donated to the Hope of the Valley Trebek Center for the Homeless, which will assist up to 300 people per year with shelter, intensive case management, mental health services, job training and placement, substance abuse counseling, housing navigation, life skill training, and medical care," said a post on the Jeopardy! website. 

The post on Jeopardy!'s site also said that Buzzy won more than $160,000 as a contestant on a total of nine episodes of the game show in 2016. The next year, he won a Tournament of Champions as a team captain for the All-Star Games. But since he's the guest host now, he won't be able to return as a contestant again. 

"Buzzy has been where each of these champions is, so we think it’ll be comforting for the contestants to see a familiar face behind the lectern," Jeopardy! executive producer Mike Richards said in the post. "We will miss seeing him compete, but we look forward to seeing how he uses his quick wit and personality as guest host."

Buzzy's Jeopardy! run is being broken up into quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals. For the first week, all the contestants will compete in the quarterfinals to move forward. Then, the winners and some players called Wild Cards will compete in the semifinals. Finally, the grand prize winner will be determined from the remaining three players for the last two days. 

Only the grand prize winner gets the $250,000, but the second place and third place winners get $100,000 and $50,000, respectively.