‘Jeopardy!’ Champ Matt Amodio Makes History, Becomes Third Player to Make Over $1 Million

Finally, Jeopardy! super-champ Matt Amodio has broken the $1 million threshold. On tonight’s episode of the game show, the Yale Ph.D. student became the third contestant in the show’s history to earn more than $1 million in non-tournament play. After he scored his 28th victory, Amodio brought his total winnings to $1,004,001.

“This was beyond my wildest dreams going in,” Amodio said in a statement provided to Decider. “I knew it was a possibility, but I thought it was a very remote possibility, and to have it actually happen is unbelievable.”

The only other contestants to win more than $1 million in regular season games are Ken Jennings, who nabbed a whopping $2,520,700 from his 74-game streak, and James Holzhauer, who’s right behind him at $2,462,216 after a 32-game streak. Holzhauer, who has been known for his iconic Jeopardy! snark on Twitter, took to the social media platform to roast Amodio earlier this week.

“When you order something online vs. when it arrives,” Holzhauer tweeted, sharing an image of his winnings at day 23 (totaling $1,780,237) versus Amodio’s at the same milestone (only $825,801).

But Amodio has finally reached the $1 million milestone and he’s still going strong! He will continue competing next week, fighting for his champion slot starting on Monday’s (Sept. 27) episode. At the moment, Mayim Bialik is slated to guest host the show.

Holzhauer’s friendly roast isn’t Amodio’s first run-in with social media backlash. He’s infamous for the way he answers questions: instead of answering with “Who’s” when the response is about a person, he still says “What’s.” So, if the question were: “The host of Jeopardy! at the moment,” Amodio would answer, “What’s Mayim Bialik?” Folks aren’t a fan of this technique, but Amodio did explain why, exactly, he answers the way he does.

“I have a strategy where I form all of my questions with a ‘what’s’ at the beginning – then, I can focus on the rest of the clue,” Amodio explained. “Other people have been very upset about me being robotic instead of forming a question differently each time. I was glad that Jeopardy! said this was perfectly within the rules. I’ve watched Jeopardy! every day of my life, so I knew it was OK.”

Jeopardy! airs weeknights on ABC at 7/6c.

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