Alex Trebek, host of "Jeopardy!" since 1984 courtesy marabuchi (CC-BY-SA 2.0)

Two rugged Jeopardy! game show champion of champions, Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter agreed to a fight to the finish with their toughest opponent, the IBM supercomputer Watson.

The quirky idea didn’t hurt the 47-year old program either, with an 8.7 Nielsen overnight.  That translates into the second highest rating for Monday and the show’s highest rating in four years.

Alex Trebek hosted the three-day competition with the two winningest players ever.

The prize is an even million dollars.  The money goes to charity if Watson wins and if one of the humans wins, half the cash will still go to the more needy.

And how did the computer do on the first night? Watson tied Rutter with five grand and outdid Jennings by $3,000.