Ken Jennings‘s Jeopardy! record remains safe and sound. On Monday, Matt Amodio was ousted as Jeopardy! champion after 38 consecutive wins.
A P.H.D. candidate from New Haven, Amodio, who saw the rise and fall of would be Jeopardy! host Mike Richards, now holds the record for second most consecutive Jeopardy! wins of all time, trailing only Jennings at 74 consecutive wins. Amodio’s streak was foiled when he came in third place, bested by Jessica Stephens, a statistical research assistant from Tennessee who took second, and new champion Jonathan Fisher, an actor from Florida. When all was said and done, Amodio won won $1,518,601 during his reign as Jeopardy! champion and answered 1305 questions correctly.
Going into Final Jeopardy, Amodio was trailing both Stephens and Fisher—an unusual position for the champion, who had typically locked up the game going into the final round. His fate was sealed when he missed the Final Jeopardy question in the category “Countries of the World”: “Nazi Germany annexed this nation & divided it into regions of the Alps & the Danube; the Allies later divided it into 4 sectors.” Amodio incorrectly responded with “What is Poland?” and ended with a grand total of $5000, while Stephens and Fisher both correctly identified the country, which was Austria. Stephens narrowly out-wagered Fisher, ending up with a grand total of $29,200 to her $28,799 and earning the top spot.
Interim Jeopardy! host Mayim Bialik sung Amodio’s praises to Jeopardy.com after the show. “He was unbelievable, and also really, really fun to watch,” she said. “I don’t think that I’ve experienced in all the time that I’ve been here anything like that, with the pace and intensity that he was able to keep up.” Jennings, who will step into hosting duties later this year, said Amodio was “such a fantastic player.” “The one thing I admire more than anything else on Jeopardy! is consistency” he said. “It’s so hard to come out and win day after day and week after week,”
While Amodio’s reign has ended, all is not lost for him. He’ll be back for the show’s next Tournament of Champions in 2022, and he can rest easy knowing he’s third on the all-time Jeopardy! money list (not including tournaments) to Jennings ($2,520,700) and James Holzhauer ($2,462,216). Also, he lasted 33 shows longer than Mike Richards.
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