Matt Amodio (b. December 4, 1990) is a postdoctoral researcher from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Jeopardy! Run[]
Regular game[]
He made his Jeopardy! debut on July 21, 2021, and rode a 38-game winning streak, where he accumulated $1,518,601. He is the third-highest money winner in regular competition behind only Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer, and he also holds the third-longest winning streak. Additionally, he is the fifth-highest money winner in the entire show, behind only Jennings, Holzhauer, Brad Rutter, and Amy Schneider
Unlike most contestants, most of whom played with one host, or two at most, Matt has played with a total of seven guest hosts in his entire Jeopardy! career. His initial run saw him play under Robin Roberts (Games 1 - 3), LeVar Burton (Games 4 - 8), David Faber (Games 9 - 13), Joe Buck (Games 14 - 18), Mike Richards (Games 19 - 23), and Mayim Bialik (Games 24 - 39), while his Tournament of Champions and Masters games were hosted by Jennings. While many have praised him for the ability to quickly pick up timing with multiple hosts, he said that it didn’t affect his gameplay very much. Given how it is unlikely that there will be more guest hosts in the future, Matt's tally of seven guest hosts is a record that will more than likely stand for the rest of the show's lifespan.
His gameplay style mimics that of Holzhauer in the Jeopardy round in that he selects the highest value clues on the board first to amass as much money as possible with which to wager whenever he hits a Daily Double, and always wagers everything he has on the Jeopardy round Daily Double. In the Double Jeopardy round, though his regular style is mimicking of Holzhauer, his Daily Double style is much more similar to that of Jennings in that he wagers somewhat conservatively unless he is behind someone else or is in a close game; in these cases, his bet is much more similar to Holzhauer.
Matt phrases his responses as "What's..." rather than "what is/who is" regardless of what is grammatically correct, drawing criticism from some fans. He chose this strategy as it is one less thing he has to think about when forming his response. Jeopardy! even went out of its way to clarify that Matt's strategy is perfectly within the rules, noting that the only requirement is for responses to be in the form of a question - it need not be grammatically correct.
Matt holds the record for most money earned in Double Jeopardy after going into the round with a negative score as well, racking in $31,000 in one round after entering it with -$600 in his 22nd game. In his 34th game on October 4, Matt finished with $83,000 after a successful $37,000 wager in Final Jeopardy! which is the highest single-day winnings of all players besides Holzhauer, beating Roger Craig's record of $77,000.
However, Matt also holds the infamous record for most money lost on a Final Jeopardy! response - in fact, he actually has the top two. He lost $37,000 in his eleventh game and $34,000 in his fourteenth, respectively. Ultimately, these wagers were both made in games where Matt had a runaway, so he won them both. It should be noted that both of these wagers were attempts to best Craig’s $77,000 record, though they were both unsuccessful.
He was finally defeated by Jonathan Fisher on October 11, 2021. He had a lead at the end of the Jeopardy round ($9,800 vs $4,000 for Jonathan) despite not finding the Daily Double. However, Matt gave four incorrect responses in Double Jeopardy (worth a total of $6,000) and did not find either daily double, giving him a net gain of only $800 for that round and putting him in third place going into Final Jeopardy. Matt did not answer correctly to Final Jeopardy either, the tenth time he failed to do so, and only the second instance in which it was not a Triple Stumper. He finished in third place with $5,600 and was given the $1,000 consolation prize.
Jonathan went on to win 11 games and $246,100, making him the highest-winning and longest streaking giant killer (term given to contestants who defeat ultrachampions, or people that have won 10 or more games) taking both records away from Emma Boettcher (3 games, $98,002). Jonathan’s run also made history, but in a different way - Matt and Jonathan are the only back-to-back ultrachampions in Jeopardy history.
Not only that, but the performance of the third contestant, Jessica Stephens, was impressive enough that the new Executive Producer, Michael Davies, saw fit to create a mini-tournament that would bring 18 players back for a second chance. Jessica’s victory in the Second Chance Tournament meant that, for the first time, all three players from one regular season game of Jeopardy would go on to play in the Tournament of Champions.
Tournament of Champions[]
Matt was given a bye, or an automatic slot, to the semifinals of the 2022 Tournament of Champions, and faced John Focht and Sam Buttrey in his semifinal. Matt only found the first Daily Double in Double Jeopardy, while Sam found the other two, got both correct, and bet substantially enough to lead Matt going into Final Jeopardy, with John trailing the both of them. All three players got Final correct, and both Sam and John wagered to cover Matt, who himself wagered $0 in hopes of a Triple Stumper. Sam went on to the finals of the Tournament, while Matt collected the $10,000 consolation prize.
Jeopardy! Masters[]
Matt was invited to participate in the show’s first ever Masters tournament, which saw six of the best players ever go head-to-head for a $500,000 prize (and a further $100,000 donated to the winner’s chosen charity). Matt struggled mightily in the quarterfinals, even being the only player to finish a game in the red; however, he was also the only player who managed to beat James Holzhauer over the course of the entire tournament. He managed to get a win when he desperately needed it in quarterfinal game #13 (which also mathematically eliminated Amy Schneider, turning quarterfinal #14 into essentially an exhibition game) to secure his spot in the semifinals. Matt did so again in the semifinals to secure a finals berth - beating Andrew He to both Daily Doubles in Double Jeopardy, betting everything both times, and getting both correct to barely secure a runaway game and a spot in the finals (again, when he desperately needed it - any result that was not first would have eliminated him). He finished the final in third place to James and Mattea Roach, picking up $150,000 and an automatic slot in the following year’s tournament.
Matt is just $30,199 behind Amy in total earnings, and the 6th place prize for Masters is $50,000; if Matt plays in the next tournament but Amy does not, Matt is guaranteed to pass her and take back the #4 spot for all-time earnings (a spot which would also give him back the title of highest-winning contestant who did not participate in the Greatest of All Time tournament.
Trivia[]
- In an interview, he claimed that his ultimate goal was to win $2,520,701, $1 more than Ken Jennings’ streak earnings.
- He was given the nickname “Ol’ Mr. Can’t Be Caught” by Joe Buck in his 16th game.
- He is the second player to reach $60,000 three times, $70,000 twice, and $80,000.
- His run on the show has been dubbed the “Amodio Rodeo” or the “Matt Gala”, and contestants who have lost to him are said to have been Amodio’ed.
- A few online are pushing for him to become a Chaser on ABC’s The Chase.
- In a Reddit AMA, when asked about the Final Jeopardy clue in the game that he lost, which he did not know the answer to, he clarified that he did not get it incorrect on purpose, but overlooked a major part of the clue, being the part about the Danube River, which misled him towards Poland instead of the correct answer (Austria).
- Matt is the only champion whose consolation prize is less than the square root of his total winnings ( √1,518,601 = 1,232).
- Matt is also one of only three champions to have “shot his age” in wins (all of his games were played at age 30) along with Jennings (74 wins at 29 years old) and Mattea Roach (23 wins at 23 years old).
- Along with Schneider and Roach, Matt is one of three champions to have a bye - a guaranteed slot - in the semifinals of the 2022 Tournament of Champions.
- Along with Season 6 5-day champion Steve Berman, Matt co-owns the record for highest loss on a single Daily Double, with a $15,000 loss in Matt’s 25th game and a pre-doubled $7,500 loss in Steve’s 3rd game.
- Matt is the first and only person whose run contained the runs of three other separate Tournament of Champions challengers - Rowan Ward from his 18th game, and Jessica Stephens and Jonathan Fisher from his 39th game.