‘Jeopardy!’ Regains Syndication’s Top Spot Solo Thanks to Matt Amodio’s Winning Streak

Matt Amodio’s “Jeopardy!” winning streak, which ended Monday night, powered the Sony quiz show to the top spot in syndication by itself for the first time since mid-April. For the week ending Oct. 3, “Jeopardy!” scored a 5.5 rating.

Amodio, a Ph.D. student, surpassed James Holzhauer for the second-most consecutive wins with his 33rd on Friday, Oct. 1. His streak would end at 38 last night. Ken Jennings is still the all-time record holder with 74 straight victories, or more than double his closest competitor.

The week was also the second for fill-in host Mayim Bialik, who is alternating with Jennings behind the podium for the reminder of this year. The 5.5 rating was up 2% from the Bialik’s first week back.

“Family Feud,” which was tied with “Jeopardy!” last week for the lead, dipped 2% to a 5.3 rating.

“Wheel of Fortune” and “Judge Judy” (which is not even producing new episodes anymore with Sheindlin readying her new IMDb TV daytime show) and were third and fourth respectively.

“Dr. Phil” was the highest-rated talk show.

Jonathan Fisher, an actor originally from Coral Gables, Florida, claimed victory after a competitive match. He won by only a small margin, finishing with a score of $29,200 over Jessica Stephens, a statistical research specialist from Nashville, Tennessee who had the lead at various points in the game but landed in second place with $28,799. Amodio came in third with $5,600.

Amodio hails from New Haven, Connecticut, where he attends Yale University as a graduate student in the computer science department. He currently studies neural networks. He will return for the next Tournament of Champions.

“I always wanted to be a “Jeopardy!” champion, and I accomplished that,” Amodio said. “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.”