Matt Amodio may be dominating the “Jeopardy!” stage, but he still manages to be pretty humble about it.
The all-star competitor just won his 17th game last night. In the process, he has become the third all-time highest-earning winner ever on the show. He responded to the news on his Twitter by sharing the official “Jeopardy!” account’s graphic showing the highest winners.
‘Jeopardy!’ Competitor Responds to His Success
He posted a GIF from “Sesame Street” that says “One of these things is not like the other.” He captioned it, “(Hint: it’s me.)”
During his run so far, Amodio has racked up a total of $547,600. Meanwhile, James Holzhauer is in second with $2,462,216 and Ken Jennings has a total of $2,520,700. Although he is in third Amodio is likely referring to the massive money gap between him and the other champions.
Jennings’ streak lasted 74 consecutive games and Holzhauer dominated the playing field for 32. This means that the New Haven, Connecticut Ph.D. student has a lot more time before he will really “catch up” to the other two.
“The show has had so many brilliant people [on it]. I’m honored to be thought of as even close to them,” Amodio said in a statement, according to People.
Matt Amodio’s Playing Style
Matt Amodio has shown that he has an extremely successful and analytical playing style.
A big part of it is actually the product of proper preparation. The “Jeopardy!” champion spent a lot of time reading up on pop culture on TMZ before coming on the show. He considered the pop culture category his greatest weakness.
“Anything that has ever been published in TMZ in the last ten years. Pop culture in general. I did my best. Thankfully, if there’s one thing the internet has information on, it’s celebrities. That’s pretty easy. I did my best to be interested in the minutiae of the celebrity eye. I’m naturally a curious person, which helps, but I still went in very skeptical,” Matt Amodio said in an interview with Vulture.
One of his current strategies has rubbed some viewers the wrong way. He starts each of his responses with “what’s,” regardless of what follows the answer and what is true grammatically. That pattern made his “life easier” on the show.
He’s also not afraid to bet big. When a Daily Double rolls his way, he takes a chance so he can pull ahead of his competitors. This playing style is similar to other very successful champions on “Jeopardy!” and it’s a big reason he’s doing so well.
Matt Amodio’s streak is ongoing and he will play again Friday night for his 18th win. He is playing against Nicolle Neulist from Chicago and Eric Shi from Houston. This also happens to be the last episode of season 37.
