This photo provided by Jeopardy Productions Inc. shows “Jeopardy!” contestant Matt Amodio during a taping of the popular game show. Amodio’s historic run on “Jeopardy!” ended on Monday’s show, leaving the Yale doctoral student with 38 wins and more than $1.5 million in prize money. (Jeopardy Productions Inc. via AP) AP

Yale student ends 38-win run on Jeopardy with $1.5 million in earnings

Christopher Hutton October 12, 05:21 PMOctober 12, 05:24 PM

A computer science student from Yale ended his record-breaking 38-game run on Jeopardy with a total payout of approximately $1.5 million dollars.

Amodio joined Jeopardy on July 21, dethroning traffic engineer Josh Saak from a three-day winning streak. Amodio would make a name for himself through his several successive victories. In over 38 appearances, Amodio earned $1,518,601 in winnings. His streak ended after he finally lost Monday, finishing in third place.

“Everybody’s so smart and so competent that this could happen any game,” Amodio said in a statement after the show. “And this time, it did.”

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Jonathan Fisher, an actor from Coral Gables, Florida, came in first place on the Monday episode and ended Amodio’s streak. The final category for the game was “Countries of the World,” and the clue was: “Nazi Germany annexed this nation & divided it into regions of The Alps & The Danube; The Allies later divided it into four sectors.”

Both Fisher and Stephens correctly answered, “What is Austria?” while Amodio incorrectly responded, “What is Poland?”

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Amodio broke several records during his career on Jeopardy. The artificial intelligence student now has the second-longest run on the show to date, behind only contestant Ken Jennings’s 74-win run.

Amodio is also the third-highest earner in the show’s history — his winnings are surpassed only by contestants James Holzhauer ($2,462,216) and Jennings ($2,520,700).

The game show has struggled to find a permanent host since the death of Alex Trebek in November 2020. The show has had several temporary hosts, including Anderson Cooper, Mehmet Oz, and LeVar Burton. The program recently announced that Jennings would split hosting duties with Mayim Bialik until the end of 2021.

© 2021 Washington Examiner

Originally appeared at Washington Examiner

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