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Matt Amodio’s ‘Jeopardy!’ win streak ends shy of Holzhauer’s winnings

Matt Amodio had a longer run on “Jeopardy!” than James Holzhauer, but the “Amodio Rodeo” fell almost $1 million shy of “Jeopardy James” in winnings on the show when his 38-game win streak came to an end Monday.

Amodio has the second-longest win streak in the popular quiz show’s 38-year history behind Ken Jennings, who won 74 consecutive games in 2004. His $1,518,601 in winnings is good for third all-time in regular play behind Holzhauer’s $2,462,216 and Jennings’ $2,520,700.

Holzhauer, a Las Vegas-based professional sports bettor, captivated the game-show world during a 32-game “Jeopardy!” win streak in 2019.

Amodio’s run ended with a third-place finish when Jonathan Fisher, an actor originally from Coral Gables, Florida, pulled out a small win over Jessica Stephens, a statistical research specialist from Nashville, Tennessee.

Fisher finished with $29,200, Stephens with $28,799 and Amodio with $5,600.

Fisher landed on the two Daily Doubles in the Double Jeopardy! round to gain an advantage, and he and Stephens answered the Final Jeopardy! clue correctly while Amodio did not.

The category was “Countries of the world” and the clue read: “Nazi Germany annexed this nation and divided it into regions of the Alps and the Danube; the Allies later divided it into four sectors.” The correct response was “What is Austria?”

“Everybody’s so smart and so competent that this could happen any game,” said Amodio, a Yale Ph.D. student and Medina, Ohio, native. “And this time it did.”

Amodio will return for the next Tournament of Champions.

“I always wanted to be a Jeopardy champion, and I accomplished that,” Amodio said. “I know going into every bar trivia game that I play that I’m going to come in with a little intimidation factor. But also, I just like the badge that it represents.

“As somebody who prioritizes knowledge and knowing things, this is really a good one to have following me everywhere.”

When Amodio won his 33rd game in a row to eclipse Holzhauer’s streak on Oct. 1, Holzhauer congratulated Amodio on Twitter, writing that “I’ve been betting sports since 2005 and this is the first time I’ve seen anyone hit a 33-game parlay.”

Holzhauer followed that up by writing, “Still haven’t seen anyone hit one for more than $2.46M though. Stay hungry!”

Amodio retweeted Holzhauer’s original post and wrote that “I am so proud that a cursory glance of the #jeopardy record books can now yield a wrong conclusion about which one of us is the better player.”

A native of Naperville, Illinois, Holzhauer was on the cusp of passing Jennings’ record of $2.52 million in winnings when he lost his 33rd game to University of Chicago librarian Emma Boettcher.

Holzhauer has the top 10 spots on the “Jeopardy!” single-game winnings list, including six wins of at least $100,000 and the record of $131,127.

After Amodio’s run ended Monday, Holzhauer told the Review-Journal that he still hasn’t seen Amodio play and can’t comment on too many specifics. But he wouldn’t be surprised if he squares off against Amodio in the near future.

“Clearly he is an amazing player,” Holzhauer said in an email. “Jeopardy probably already has some plan for a super-tournament that they just aren’t telling us yet.”

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.

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