Matt Amodio

Matthew Amodio
Born	Matthew Benjamin Amodio (1990-12-04) December 4, 1990 Medina, Ohio, U.S.
Education	Ohio State University (BS, MS) University of Wisconsin–Madison (MS) Yale University (PhD)
Known for	38-game Jeopardy! winning streak

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 10th-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.
* Yellow background denotes game which was not a runaway (lead going into Final Jeopardy! round could not guarantee a win).
‡ Red background denotes game in which Amodio is defeated.

See also

• List of notable Jeopardy! contestants
• Strategies and skills of Jeopardy! champions

External links

• J! Archive, Matt Amodio; A Ph.D. student from New Haven, Connecticut
• Matt Amodio at IMDb
• Twitter account

Notes