'Jeopardy!' champion officially becomes third-highest winner in the history of the show

Jeopardy! champion Matt Amodio has done it yet again, winning his 17th straight game on Thursday. With his latest triumph, Amodio now only trails the two winners who are synonymous with Jeopardy! dominance.

“You are now No. 3 on the all-time list with regard to earnings in the regular season, behind only Ken Jennings and James Holzhauer,” guest host Joe Buck said at the end of the show. “Let that sink in.”

Amodio officially passed Jason Zuffranieri on the list, who earned his money with a 19-game win streak back in 2019.

After Thursday, Amodio is now chasing two guys who both have well over $2 million in earnings, starting with Holzhauer who has exactly $1,914,616 more than Amodio.

Elsewhere in the Jeopardy! Hall of Fame, Amodio is coming up on Matt Jackon, who holds the No. 6 spot in the all-time winnings category, with $611,612. And Amodio is just two games from tying Zuffranieri and David Madden for fourth all-time in consecutive games won, with 19.

Viewers seemed to enjoy Amodio’s big night, taking to Twitter with plenty of praise. It was made especially interesting for fans because, as Buck pointed out during the show, for the first time in more than 10 games it wasn’t a runaway heading into Final Jeopardy. That’s because Amodio’s fellow competitor, Ruth Reichard, trailed by only $9,400. Unfortunately for Reichard, she got the question wrong and Amodio got it right, but it was enough drama to get viewers excited.

Buck, who wraps up his weeklong stint as host on Friday, took a moment at the top of the show to recognize Amodio’s run as well, and he did it by referencing Alex Trebek’s book, The Answer Is.

“One of the many things he learned when he was standing on this side is that this side is for the host. These are the stars of Jeopardy!,” Buck said. “And we have some star on display here, for the past two-plus weeks.”

Jeopardy! airs weeknights, check your local listings.

Check out what viewers were saying about Matt Amodio when he first started winning:

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