In the history of “Jeopardy,” just three contestants have ever won $1 million in non-tournament play — Ken Jennings, James Holzhauer and now, Matt Amodio.
The Medina native has won 28 games in a row, and in doing so, has outlasted a number of guest hosts and even the brief run of now fired host Mike Richards. He is also third in most consecutive games won.
On Friday, Amodio reached the $1 million mark, and now has $1,004,001 in winnings.
Although he is third in non-tournament winnings, he ranks fourth in total winnings behind Brad Rutter, Jennings and Holzhauer, according to the show’s Hall of Fame. Rutter appeared on “Jeopardy!” when the game show retired contestants after five wins. Rutter has made the vast majority of his winnings in tournament play.
Amodio is four wins behind Holzhauer for second for most wins, but is more than $1 million behind catching Holzhauer in winnings. Holzhauer has all 10 of Jeopardy’s highest single-game winnings.
By joining the Jeopardy’s Millionaire Club, he joins a list reserved for the greats of the game show. Jennings, Holzhauer and Rutter competed in the Greatest of All Time Tournament in January 2020 which pitted the three champions against each other in prime time.
During his run, Amodio described himself as a “history nerd.” He is currently a Ph.D. student at Yale University in Connecticut.
That history knowledge paid off on Friday in Final Jeopardy. Amodio correctly answered this question: “Saying he ignored warnings of enemy vessels, the British Admiralty sought to blame William Turner, this ship’s last captain in 1915.”
The answer was Lusitania.
