Medina Jeopardy champ tries to extend win streak
It was another record-shattering week for the “Jeopardy” champ from Medina.
Matt Amodio cruised to easy victories for the most part — aside from a brief scare on Thursday night’s show.
Some bold Double Jeopardy moves in the first round proved costly, and for the first time Amodio found himself in negative territory heading into the final round of categories.
He quickly rallied and tallied up points at a feverous clip for the easy win.
With Friday’s win, Amodio has now won 23 straight games and amassed an astonishing $825,801 in winnings.
He is now in third place all-time for number of consecutive games won in regular season play, and holds the same spot in the leaderboard from prize winnings in non-tournament play.
It was also a week during which Akron played a role in the game.
Amodio talked to host Mike Richards about checking an item off his bucket list when the Akron Rubberducks invited him on Aug. 4 — during the show’s summer break — to throw out the first pitch at a minor league baseball game.
He even correctly answered Akron’s favorite rockers The Black Keys from a clue that mentioned Dan Auerbach.
Amodio has racked some fairly impressive statistics by answering more than 700 questions correctly while missing on less than 100 and has about a 53 percent chance of beating his two opponents on the buzzer.
And the 2009 Medina High School valedictorian has correctly answered the Final Jeopardy question 17 out of 23 times.
The Cool Beans Cafe on Medina’s Square has adopted a special menu for the hometown brainy hero.
Among the eight items is Caffeine for $1200, which is a cup of hazelnut redeye coffee, and the #Matt Amodio is a honey and lavender Medina Square cup of cold brew coffee.
The Ohio State graduate is pursuing his doctorate in artificial intelligence at Yale.
The show airs at 7:30 p.m. on weekdays on WOIO (Channel 19) in Northeast Ohio.
Craig Webb can be reached at cwebb@thebeaconjournal.com.