Matthew Benjamin Amodio (born December 4, 1990) is an American game show contestant, computer scientist and mathematician who held a 38-game winning streak on the game show Jeopardy!.
Amodio won $1,518,601 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 8th-highest-earning contestant of all time. His run on the show has been called the "Amodio Rodeo".
Early life and education Amodio is a native of Medina County, Ohio. He has three older brothers. His mother, Bonnie (née Solowitch) is an English professor. His father, James, is an attorney. Amodio has Italian ancestry on his father's side of the family and Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry on his mother's side of the family.
Amodio attended Medina High School where he graduated as valedictorian of the class of 2009; he was also a National Merit Scholar. Amodio graduated from 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.
Amodio subsequently earned a Master's of Science (MS) degree in artificial intelligence from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 2017 and, during his Jeopardy! appearances, was studying computer science at Yale University from which he graduated with a PhD in the spring of 2022.
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 39, Amodio qualified as the second 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.Morrison, Heather (October 12, 2021). New England's Matt Amodio lost 'Jeopardy' after 38-game winning streak; became third person to ever win more than $1 million on show. MassLive.com. Retrieved October 16, 2021. At the time of his Jeopardy! appearance, he was a PhD student in computer science at Yale University.
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. Amodio and Amy Schneider were relegated in the 2024 Jeopardy! Masters tournament, sending both into the 2025 Jeopardy! Invitational Tournament in February, which Amodio won to earn a slot in the 2025 version of Jeopardy! Masters.
Production 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); he 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 Boettcher, 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 2021 Game no. Air date Host Final score Cumulative winnings Notes 1 Robin Roberts $40,400 2 $41,000 $81,400 3 $20,000 $101,400 First game in which he failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. 4 LeVar Burton $122,400 Contestant Patrick Pearce scored the lowest ever (non-adjusted) score of -$7,400. 5 $147,800 6 $47,000 $194,800 7 $74,000 $268,800 8 $22,400 $291,200 Second game in which he failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. 9 David Faber $19,200 $310,400 Third game in which Amodio failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. 10 $52,000 $362,400 11 $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 $26,000 $394,600His lowest single day total runaway game with a correct Final Jeopardy! response. 13 $35,600 $430,200 14 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 $35,000 $475,600 16 $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 $547,600 Reached third-place on all-time Jeopardy! regular play winnings list 18 $574,801 Season 37 finale of Jeopardy!. Amodio was in a "lock-tie" situation headed to Final Jeopardy!, which since season 31 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 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 $36,200 $678,801 21 $61,200 $740,001 Passed Julia Collins for third-longest winning streak in regular play. 22 $35,400 $775,401 23 $50,400 $825,801 24 Mayim Bialik $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 $36,200 $893,201 26 $36,200 $929,401 27 $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 $48,800 $1,004,001 Became third Jeopardy! contestant to win $1 million in regular gameplay winnings 29 $33,000 $1,037,001 30 $70,400 $1,107,401 31 $50,600 $1,158,001 32 $54,400 $1,212,401 33 $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 $83,000 $1,350,801Highest single game score ever achieved by a contestant other than Holzhauer. 13th highest overall. 35 $50,000 $1,400,801 36 $16,600 $1,417,401 Ninth game in which he failed to give a correct response in Final Jeopardy! round. 37 $50,400 $1,467,801 38 $50,800 $1,518,601 Last episode with Mike Richards as executive producer. 39 $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
References
External links J! Archive, Matt Amodio; A Ph.D. student from New Haven, Connecticut
Notes