‘Jeopardy!’ Star Matt Amodio Breaks His Silence After Being Shamed for ‘Annoying’ Habit

Selena Barrientos
·2 min read
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‘Jeopardy!’ Star Matt Amodio Breaks His Silence After Being Shamed for ‘Annoying’ Habit

Jeopardy! champion Matt Amodio would like to say something to those who are criticizing him on the show.

Currently on an impressive eight game winning streak, the 30-year-old Jeopardy! star has heard about what some online viewers have dubbed his “annoying” habit on the quiz show. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the computer science Ph.D student from New Haven, Connecticut acknowledged that some fans have a problem with him answering “what is” for every subject, even if the correct answer is a person. While Matt didn’t get super into it, he wanted to make one thing clear: He isn’t trying to upset anybody on purpose.

“I don’t necessarily want to say too much about that,” he told the outlet. “I guess I just want to say that I hope nobody’s offended by it. I do hear some people say that it's disrespectful to the game, and I would counter that if there was a Jeopardy fan club ranking, I think I would have a strong case to be number one Jeopardy fan. I live and breathe the show, I love every aspect of it, and so I’m definitely not doing it out of any disrespect or undermining of the show.”

After his latest episode aired on Friday evening, which was guest hosted by Reading Rainbow star LeVar Burton, Matt wrapped up his second week on the longtime game show with a cheeky nudge to his critics.

“If you would enjoy watching a #jeopardy game with 100% less me, a reminder: check your local listings for some awesome weekend re-runs!” he wrote.

Jeopardy! traditions and rules aside, the Yale scholar has officially qualified for Jeopardy!’s Tournament of Champions next season. In the annual two-week event, Matt will go up against an elite group of contestants to compete for the grand prize of $250,000. When asked by EW if he was looking forward to it, he shared that he has mixed feelings about it.

“I am, with a combination of anticipation and dread,” Matt told the magazine. “Because my competitors have been extremely smart, but on the other hand, in the Tournament of Champions, you’ve filtered it so that you only get people who have won at least five games of Jeopardy!. That’s going to be a more competitive stage than I’m prepared for mentally. So I’m quite worried about that. Hopefully I’ll do well, but I’ll be shaking in my boots a little bit.”

Luckily, he has plenty of time to prepare for the 2022 ToC. Until then, we’ll just keep tuning in to see how far he gets this season.

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