Matt Amodio put his name into the Jeopardy! record books. But now that his time on the show has come to an end, he is cheering on the man who defeated him.
That’s right — the 30-year-old Ph.D. student from Yale University had his 38-game winning streak come to an end last week. The defeat came courtesy of current champ Jonathan Fisher. Even guest host Mayim Bialik saw that Fisher had some potential. Back on October 12 (the episode Amodio lost), Bialik predicted that Fisher could go on a streak of his own.
“There have been some shocking upsets over the years on Jeopardy!,” she said. “And I definitely was not prepared for what we witnessed in a highly competitive game. Our new champion, Jonathan Fisher, unseated Matt Amodio who reigned on the Jeopardy! stage for 38 straight shows. Is this the beginning of a new streak?”
Coming into tonight’s game, Fisher was riding a six-game winning streak. He will look to win at least 32 more games consecutively if he wants to hop over Amodio for second place in the history books. Nonetheless, it seems like Amodio will be cheering on Jonathan Fisher while he competes. At least that was the case on Tuesday night.
Amodio posted a gif of a man pointing to the word “believe.” Alongside it, he wrote, “Way to keep it rolling, @JFishtheDish!”
Meanwhile Jeopardy! fans are hoping they get to see a rematch between the two.
“I don’t want to diminish Jonathan’s victories because he’s been superb,” one person said. “But the rematch is going to be must-see TV.”
“Aw! You are such a good sport,” another fan gushed. “Even though you should still be on the winner’s podium.”
“I’m starting to like him, but you’ll always be my favorite all-time Jeopardy champion,” another person exclaimed.
Matt Amodio Knew His Loss Was Coming on ‘Jeopardy!’
Could you imagine being in Matt Amodio’s shoes on this one? The entire world was seemingly cheering him on as he went on the second-greatest winning streak the game show has ever seen. But he found out long before the national audience that he had lost.
How, you ask? Well, Jeopardy! films its episodes weeks in advance. So, even though the audience stays up-to-date with the current episode at the time, Amodio knew for weeks that his streak would be coming to an end. He told the Yale Daily News that it became harder and harder to keep up appearances.
“And it was a little harder to pretend to be happy for all the wins because I knew that the loss was coming,” he said.
Now, though, it’s Jonathan Fisher who has that weight on his shoulders. We’ll wait and see just how far he can go on Jeopardy!.
