Despite Matt Amodio’s non-traditional gameplay methods, “Jeopardy!” fans continue to root for him as he breaks record after record on the show.
This past Friday, Sept. 24, Amodio crossed the one million dollar mark, one of only three contestants to do so. He’s also won 28 consecutive games, blowing past the previous third-highest record-holder who won 20 games.
We’ll see if Amodio’s winning streak continues, but “Jeopardy!” fans are following his success with an avid interest in the meantime. So much so that they’ve started commenting about him in the “Jeopardy!” subreddit on Reddit, even going so far as to analyze his wardrobe for the show.
“The Ringer” writer Claire McNear found a hilarious conversation on the messaging board that breaks down every single outfit Amodio’s worn on the show. She posted a screenshot of the conversation and captioned it, “the Jeopardy! subreddit is the beating heart of the Amodio Rodeo.”
For fans who don’t know, the game show itself coined the term “Amodio Rodeo” to describe the champion’s monumental journey so far. We’re all here for the Amodio Rodeo, no one more so than the man himself. Amodio quote tweeted McNear’s tweet and wrote, “I may not be commenting, but I’m a long-time lurker. How does it feel that this awesome sub is saying nice things about me?”
So, it sounds like the “Jeopardy!” champion occasionally goes onto Reddit to interact with fans who comment nice things about him. And if he’s not commenting, he’s at least keeping up to date with what fans are saying about him.
Can we also take a moment to admire the sheer level of detail in the Reddit conversation about Amodio’s outfits? This user figured out how many outfits he’s worn twice or three times, which games he didn’t wear a jacket for, and how he might’ve borrowed an outfit for one game because it didn’t fit his “usual style.”
Here’s What Matt Amodio Needs to Do to Keep Climbing the ‘Jeopardy!’ Leaderboard
Though Matt Amodio’s firmly secured the third-place position for highest earnings and consecutive wins, he’s not too far off from breaking into the second-place spot for one of those records.
At this moment, James Holzhauer’s won the second-highest number of consecutive games at 32. Amodio just needs to win the next week of games to beat Holzhauer’s record and hold the second-place spot at 33.
But in terms of winnings, Amodio’s got a long way to go to catch up to Holzhauer’s $2.4 million and Ken Jennings’ $2.5 million. Jennings won that amount over the course of 74 games, playing more of a long game than Holzhauer did. If Amodio wants to go the distance, he likely needs to play it safe. But if he wants to win big, he can take more notes out of Holzhauer’s book and place even bigger, riskier bets to increase his winnings in a short period of time.
