Matt Amodio’s reign as Jeopardy! champion has come to an end. After winning 38 games of America’s most controversial quiz show, the competitor who many fans consider “annoying” for frequently saying “what’s” instead of “what is”—Jeopardy! fans are truly on another level—finally lost tonight. He finishes up behind Ken Jennings with the second-most wins in Jeopardy! history.
New champion Jonathan Fisher put the kibosh on the so-called “Amodio rodeo,” besting Amodio and statistical research specialist Jessica Stephens, who came in second. Fisher took home $29,200, a paltry number to Amodio’s collective $1,518,601, but, hey, it’s his first night.
Amodio still had a long way to go to catch up to the all-time Jeopardy champion, Ken Jennings, whose 74-game winning steak remains intact. And despite winning more games than professional sports gambler James Holzhauer, Amodio remains behind Jennings and Holzhauer in terms of the most money won in non-tournament regular play. Jennings won $2,520,700 and Holzhauer went home with $2,462,216. Still, despite going home, Amodio was in good spirits—probably because of the whole $1.5 million thing.
“Everybody’s so smart and so competent that this could happen any game,” said Amodio. “And this time it did.”
“I always wanted to be a Jeopardy! champion, and I accomplished that. l know going into every bar trivia game that I play that I’m going to come in with a little intimidation factor. But also, I just like the badge that it represents. As somebody who prioritizes knowledge and knowing things, this is really a good one to have following me everywhere.”
The good news for people who don’t watch Jeopardy! is that they hopefully won’t have to hear about the game as much anymore. Hopefully, with the streak over and the host debacle kind of cleared up—or at least everyone got sick of it enough to let it die down—maybe the world can take a break from “potent potables” for a minute. Well, until the Tournament Of Champions, that is.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that Amodio won $2,462,216. He actually won $1,518,601. We regret the error.