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Two years ago, a “Jeopardy!” contestant James Holzhauer captured the imaginations of game show fans who watched every night to see his lightning-fast buzzer reflexes and risky bets.
Holzhauer’s 32-game run put his face (with his trademark strained smile) all over the “Jeopardy!” Hall of fame. But on Friday, another candidate, Matt Amodio, got a doctorate. A student at Yale, won his 33rd game, breaking Holzhauer’s streak and taking his No. 2 spot in the record books for most games won in a row. The top spot is held by Ken Jennings, who won 74 games and eventually became a consultant producer on the show.
Amodio’s victory took him to $ 1.27 million in total winnings, and he still has a long way to go to beat Holzhauer’s $ 2.46 million. With such an extraordinary total, Holzhauer was set in his 33rd episode to surpass Jennings’ record of $ 2.52 million earned in the regular season, but he was beaten by Emma Boettcher, a librarian who has writes his master’s thesis on “Jeopardy!”
The fanfare around Amodio – some on social media are calling it the “Amodio Rodeo” – is perhaps a relief for those behind the game show, who are struggling to find a replacement for host Alex Trebek. beloved passed away last year. The show’s former executive producer Mike Richards was announced as the new host and then quickly stepped down after The Ringer reported offensive comments he made on a podcast he created ago. several years. Actress Mayim Bialik and Jennings will host episodes until the end of the year.
“Danger!” superfans also rejoice in the shift from behind-the-scenes drama to what’s actually happening on stage.
Andy Saunders, who runs The Jeopardy! Fan, said that Amodio and Holzhauer have similar approaches to the game: in the first round, they both start by tackling all the $ 1,000 clues, then try to find the Daily Double, to double their winnings. and take a significant lead over other competitors. . Where the two diverge, Saunders said, is in the next round, where Holzhauer tended to inflate his score by betting large sums on the Daily Double indices.
“Where James could bet $ 13,000 or $ 14,000, Matt is betting $ 5,000 or $ 6,000,” he said in an interview. “And that’s pretty much the difference in their scores.”
Saunders believes Holzhauer’s aggressive strategy comes from a higher level of confidence that he’s going to give the right answer. Based on Saunders stats, Holzhauer tended to get three or four more correct answers than Amodio in each episode, providing a more solid foundation for that confidence. The drive to bet big could also come from Holzhauer’s experience as a sports bettor, where he felt comfortable putting large sums of money on games.
This difference in strategy makes it unlikely that Amodio, who is studying computer science, will start beating Holzhauer in the one-game payout category, which Holzhauer completely dominates.
However, if Amodio maintains his dominance, he has a chance to beat Jennings’ 74-game streak since 2004 and set an all-time regular-season winning record.
Amodio tends to be humble about comparisons to the “Jeopardy!” all-stars, saying in a press release that it was “surreal” to be alongside Jennings in the Hall of Fame and, on Twitter, writing that Holzhauer is better than him “in every way.”
Amodio’s star turn, just two years after Holzhauer rose to fame, raised the question: “Jeopardy!” getting easier, or are the players just getting better?
Saunders, who tracks the results of each game, thinks it’s just the players getting better. He said he doesn’t see any substantial changes in the content of the clues but, instead, believes that the competitors have taken note of Holzhauer’s winning strategy and are taking advantage of a large internet archive of the past “Jeopardy! ” clues to prepare.
As for Jennings’ record, Amodio has yet to double his streak, then win nine more games, to beat him.
“Let’s look at this in another month,” Saunders said. “So maybe Ken should start to worry.”
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