Jeopardy Champ Matt Amodio Calls Out Successor For Getting A Free Pass
Matt Amodio calls foul on how his replacement in the champ's seat is being coddled on Jeopardy!
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Former record-breaking Jeopardy! champion Matt Amodio jokingly called out his successor Jonathan Fisher and the show in general for giving Fisher a “free pass” when it came to one of the show’s most difficult segments for returning champions. On Oct. 11, 2021, Matt Amodio’s longtime Jeopardy! winning streak came to an end at the hands of Jonathan Fisher, an actor originally from Coral Gables, Fla., who ultimately won $29,200 to the second longest-winning streak champion’s $5,600. After 39 games and a total winning cache of $1,518,601, America now has a new champion to keep its eyes on.
While Matt Amodio has, by all accounts, been gracious in defeat, he couldn’t help but call the show and the new champ out last week over a part of Jeopardy! that he’s now willing to admit he struggled with. Matt Amodio took to Twitter to gripe at Jeopardy! saying it simply “gives” Jonathan Fisher a free pass when it came to coming up with an anecdote. For those unfamiliar, following the game show’s first commercial break, host Mayim Bialik, who is currently filling in as the show seeks a permanent replacement for the late Alex Trebek, asks contestants questions about themselves. For 39 games, Matt Amodio came up with a personal anecdote to share with the country, even admitting some of them were stinkers.
Jonathan Fisher, however, was not asked for a personal anecdote. Instead, he was questioned about the fact that he now qualifies for the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions where it’s possible he’ll face Matt Amodio once again. It seems that the former record-breaking champion took issue with the fact that he was forced to come up with almost 40 different anecdotes about himself while Fisher just got to springboard off his clout and say some boilerplate nonsense about what an honor it was to dethrone the champion.
One user even went as far as to ask Matt Amodio whether or not he had to resort to making up stories about himself in order to fill that many weeks’ worth of episodes. After all, Vulture recently reported that the only person to have won more games than Amodio, longtime Jeopardy! G.O.A.T. Ken Jennings, admitted that he started to fib about his anecdotes before his 74 game winning streak was finished in 2004.
Fortunately, Matt Amodio declared in no uncertain terms that he did not resort to lying about himself — although he admitted he came quite close. Meanwhile, Jonathan Fisher needs all the help he can get when it comes to anecdotes as he too is on a bit of a winning streak of his own.
On Friday, he made history on Friday when he won his 10th consecutive game, marking the first time in Jeopardy! history that two back-to-back champions have won 10 games or more in a row. If this winning streak continues, he may have to start brainstorming anecdotes of his own in order to match Matt Amodio’s seemingly bottomless well of stories or, dare he dream, Ken Jennings’?
