Remarkable Win Streak on Jeopardy! Finally Ends

Matt Amodio has 2nd-longest streak and 4th-highest total earnings
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 12, 2021 6:04 AM CDT

The second-longest winning streak in Jeopardy! history has come to an end. Jonathan Fisher was crowned champion on Monday, ending Matt Amodio's impressive 38-game winning streak. Only Jeopardy! legend and current co-host Ken Jennings has won more consecutive games with 74. "Everybody's so smart and so competent that this could happen any game. And this time it did," Amodio, a computer science PhD student at Yale, said following his loss, per USA Today. Still, he said he accomplished his goal of becoming a champion. He also cemented a place for himself in Jeopardy! history. The 30-year-old Ohio native nabbed $1,518,601 in winnings for the third-highest total in regular season play and fourth-highest total in all-time winnings.

Amodio was leading Fisher, an actor from Florida, and Jessica Stephens, a statistical research specialist living in Tennessee, after the first round. But his lead evaporated in the second round and he was in last place going into Final Jeopardy! To the clue, "Nazi Germany annexed this nation & divided it into regions of the Alps & the Danube; the Allies later divided it into 4 sectors," he incorrectly answered "Poland," and dropped from $10,600 to $5,600. Fisher, who wagered all of his money on "Austria," moved to $29,200—besting the $28,799 total for Stephens, who also answered correctly. "Matt is so good that it was just kind of an honor to be there with him," Fisher said. Per Variety, Amodio later said he would at least have "a little intimidation factor" at "every bar trivia game that I play." (More Jeopardy stories.)

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