Quick Facts
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Matthew Benjamin Amodio (born December 4, 1990) is an American mathematician and game show contestant who won 38 consecutive games on the game show Jeopardy! in 2021, the third-longest streak in the show's history, behind Ken Jennings and Amy Schneider. A PhD student in computer science at Yale University, Amodio won $1,519,601 in 39 appearances on Jeopardy!, making him the third millionaire contestant on the show in regular-season play. Across all American game shows, Amodio is the tenth highest-earning contestant of all time. His run on the show has been called the "Amodio Rodeo".
Early life and education
Born on December 4, 1990, Amodio is a native of Medina County, Ohio. He attended Medina High School where he graduated as valedictorian of the class of 2009. Amodio graduated from the Ohio State University in 2012 with a Bachelor of Science with Honors in Actuarial Science from the Department of Mathematics, while also earning a master's degree in Statistics. He also earned a Master's of Science (MS) degree in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 2017. Amodio received a PhD in Computer Science from Yale University.
After receiving degrees from the Ohio State University, Amodio worked for NSA contractor Booz Allen Hamilton from January 2014 until July 2015 "design[ing] and programm[ing] algorithms for machine learning applications," "construct[ing] interpretable network graph models from massive social media data," and "research[ing] algorithmic models and frameworks for graph analysis of IP networks."
Game show appearances
Academic Challenge
Amodio was a contestant on the quiz show Academic Challenge on WEWS in Cleveland, Ohio, while studying at Medina High School in 2009. Participating with two fellow students against two competing high schools, his Medina team finished in second place.
Jeopardy!
Amodio is the third-highest earner of all time in regular-season play, third-most successful in consecutive games won and fourth-biggest all-time winner. Amodio averaged $39,963 per victory, second highest all-time to James Holzhauer at $76,944. During season 37, Amodio qualified as the first seed in the next Tournament of Champions. He responded to 1,299 clues—54.6% of all of the clues given—correctly over the course of his run.
Actor Jonathan Fisher, originally from Coral Gables, Florida, who would himself amass an 11-game winning streak, defeated Amodio in his 39th and final game. The episode originally aired October 11, 2021. Both appeared in the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions that aired in November 2022 but did not play each other. Amodio lost to Sam Buttrey. In May 2023, Amodio and Buttrey (who was the Professors Tournament champion in Season 38) were invited to the Jeopardy! Masters tournament. Buttrey was eliminated in the first round, while Amodio was a finalist and finished third behind James Holzhauer and Mattea Roach.
Production
To become a contestant on Jeopardy!, a prospect must successfully pass a test prepared by the production team as a first step in the audition process. Amodio was repeatedly encouraged by his father to take the online test. After taking the online test twice, Amodio was invited to personally audition for the show. In addition to the test results, the producers consider the personality of the prospective contestant; as an introvert, Amodio was concerned that he would not be interesting enough for the show.
Amodio's winning streak came during an interregnum in the show's hosting position after longtime host Alex Trebek died in November 2020, during which the show was helmed by guest hosts. Amodio's streak spanned episodes hosted by Robin Roberts, LeVar Burton, David Faber, and Joe Buck. Mike Richards was named permanent host on August 11, 2021, but lasted only one taping day (first week of season 38), and was replaced by interim host Mayim Bialik (who rotated the rest of season 38 with Ken Jennings, but Amodio's reign ended before Jennings' official term as host, as Jennings was the first host of the interregnum). As Jeopardy! tapes five episodes per production day, Amodio recorded his 39 episodes on nine separate days (three on his first day, one on his final day).
Amodio played with his seventh different host during the Tournament of Champions, which featured Jennings as host, and won a Jennings-hosted game in the Masters tournament, where he defeated Andrew He (Season 39 Tournament of Champions finalist) and James Holzhauer (Season 36 Tournament of Champions winner) in his second game, becoming only the third contestant in Jeopardy! history to defeat Holzhauer (Emma Bochetter, in Game 33, current host Ken Jennings, thrice in the two-legged tie of The Greatest of All Time).
Strategy
Amodio is noted for his strategy of consistently prefacing his responses with "What's" instead of adjusting the interrogative pronoun to fit the response. Amodio chose this method because Jeopardy! rules allow any question containing the correct response to be used; by not having to adjust the pronoun, he has one less thing to think about when formulating a response, potentially speeding response time. Amodio has credited Wikipedia's wikilinks format for allowing him to meander through various topics in a random but logical progression and learn content quickly.
Regular play winnings
| Game No. | Air Date | Host | Final score | Cumulative Winnings | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | July 21 | Robin Roberts | $40,400* | $40,400 | |
| 2 | July 22 | $41,000 | $81,400 | ||
| 3 | July 23 | $20,000 | $101,400 | First game in which he failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. | |
| 4 | July 26 | LeVar Burton | $21,000* | $122,400 | Contestant Patrick Pearce scored the lowest ever (non-adjusted) score of -$7,400. |
| 5 | July 27 | $25,400* | $147,800 | ||
| 6 | July 28 | $47,000 | $194,800 | ||
| 7 | July 29 | $74,000 | $268,800 | ||
| 8 | July 30 | $22,400 | $291,200 | Second game in which he failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. | |
| 9 | August 2 | David Faber | $19,200 | $310,400 | Third game in which Amodio failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. |
| 10 | August 3 | $52,000 | $362,400 | ||
| 11 | August 4 | $6,200 | $368,600 | Fourth game in which he failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. Broke record for most winnings lost on Final Jeopardy! in regular play ($37,000). His lowest winning single day total. | |
| 12 | August 5 | $26,000 | $394,600 | His lowest single day total runaway game with a correct Final Jeopardy! response. | |
| 13 | August 6 | $35,600 | $430,200 | ||
| 14 | August 9 | Joe Buck | $10,400 | $440,600 | Fifth game in which Amodio failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. Amodio crossed out the correct response in Final. |
| 15 | August 10 | $35,000 | $475,600 | ||
| 16 | August 11 | $29,600 | $505,200 | Sixth game in which he failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. Crossed out the correct response in Final. | |
| 17 | August 12 | $42,400* | $547,600 | Reached third-place on all-time Jeopardy! regular play winnings list | |
| 18 | August 13 | $27,201* | $574,801 | Season 37 finale of Jeopardy!. Amodio was in a "lock-tie" situation headed to Final Jeopardy!, which since season 34 rule change meant he had to wager as least $1 to prevent a tie-breaker, win or lose. Amodio's run went on a month-long hiatus following the end of the season. | |
| 19 | September 13 | Mike Richards | $67,800 | $642,601 | Season 38 premiere of Jeopardy!. Mike Richards had been named permanent host days before taping, but left after this taping day. |
| 20 | September 14 | $36,200 | $678,801 | ||
| 21 | September 15 | $61,200 | $740,001 | Passed Julia Collins for third-longest winning streak in regular play. | |
| 22 | September 16 | $35,400 | $775,401 | ||
| 23 | September 17 | $50,400 | $825,801 | ||
| 24 | September 20 | Mayim Bialik | $31,200* | $857,001 | Seventh game in which Amodio failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. The only game in which a contestant (Tracy Pitzel) had an opportunity to end Amodio's streak by correctly answering Final Jeopardy!, which she failed to do. |
| 25 | September 21 | $36,200 | $893,201 | ||
| 26 | September 22 | $36,200 | $929,401 | ||
| 27 | September 23 | $25,800 | $955,201 | Eighth game in which he failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. Crossed out the correct response in Final. | |
| 28 | September 24 | $48,800 | $1,004,001 | Became third Jeopardy! contestant to win $1 million in regular gameplay winnings | |
| 29 | September 27 | $33,000 | $1,037,001 | ||
| 30 | September 28 | $70,400 | $1,107,401 | ||
| 31 | September 29 | $50,600 | $1,158,001 | ||
| 32 | September 30 | $54,400 | $1,212,401 | ||
| 33 | October 1 | $55,400 | $1,267,801 | Moved into #10 on American game show winnings list. Passed James Holzhauer for second-longest winning streak in regular play. | |
| 34 | October 4 | $83,000 | $1,350,801 | Highest single game score ever achieved by a contestant other than Holzhauer. 13th highest overall. | |
| 35 | October 5 | $50,000 | $1,400,801 | ||
| 36 | October 6 | $16,600 | $1,417,401 | Ninth game in which he failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. | |
| 37 | October 7 | $50,400 | $1,467,801 | ||
| 38 | October 8 | $50,800 | $1,518,601 | Last episode with Mike Richards as executive producer. | |
| 39 | October 11 | $5,600‡ | $1,519,601 | Defeated by challenger Jonathan Fisher, who finished the game with $29,200. At the end of the first round, Amodio had $9,800; Fisher had $4,000; and challenger Jessica Stephens had $2,400. At the end of Double Jeopardy!, Fisher was in the lead with $14,600; Stephens was in second place with $14,400; and Amodio was in third with $10,600. This was the first time that Amodio trailed going into Final Jeopardy! round. Amodio gave the wrong response and finished third. He was awarded $1,000. This was the 10th game in which he failed to give a correct response in the Final Jeopardy! round. First episode with Michael Davies as executive producer. | |