Mattea Roach has made it 20 in a row on “Jeopardy!”
The winner of Monday night’s contest, a 23-year-old Toronto tutor, is one of the show’s youngest champions to crack the all-time top 10 “Jeopardy!” winning streaks.
The Final Jeopardy! category for Roach and the contestants Monday night was theater. The question: “In November 1864, John Wilkes Booth and his brother were fittingly part of this Shakespeare play.”
Roach was the only one to get it right. She wagered $601 and won with the answer, “What is Julius Caesar?”
Key moments
Becky Benninghoff, an organist from Woodbridge, Va., and Adam Ilgin, a ferry boat deckhand from Lewis, Del., joined Roach on Monday night.
Despite choosing the first category, Roach reached the first commercial break in last place after failing to answer a category of questions about college football.
Roach tied the top contestant quickly after contestant introductions before doubling her score with the first “Daily Double.”
By the end of the first round Roach had a lead of $2,800. Halfway through “Double Jeopardy!” Roach had more than double the score of Ilgin in second place. By “Final Jeopardy!” Roach had a score of $16,200 — still almost double Ilgin’s score.
Roach’s winning stats
Her cumulative winnings now total $476,985 (US) as of her 20th game Monday. Roach plays again Tuesday.
Roach has an accuracy rate of about 92 per cent, according to “Jeopardy!” daily scores.
Roach is the show’s most successful Canadian player ever. On Monday, Roach tied with Julia Collins for the fifth longest winning streak in “Jeopardy!” history. Collins is a supply chain professional from Wilmette, Ill., who won 20 games in a row in 2014.
She has responded to more than 500 clues, an average of roughly 28 correct responses per game, says “Jeopardy!”
Roach is eligible to qualify for the show’s “Tournament of Champions,” facing off against the most successful players in “Jeopardy!” including 38-game champ Matt Amodio and 40-game winner Amy Schneider.
Personal life and queer representation
Roach lives in Toronto and is a graduate from the University of Toronto. She works as a tutor and was raised in Halifax, NS
The “Jeopardy!” champ says the only reason she may be able to afford a home in Canada’s sky-high housing market is due to her winnings from her on the game show
Some American networks have seemingly latched on to Roach’s sexual orientation, referring to her as the “lesbian tutor” on the popular TV show. People online were quick to jump to Roach’s defense of her, something she says she was grateful for.
Roach says she’s happy to be part of a recent influx of LGBTQ contestants, albeit adding that the US network tweets about her were clumsy. “I think it is relevant to my ‘Jeopardy!’ run, not because it has anything to do with my ability to play the game but because I think it’s part of a larger story regarding queer and trans contestants on this season.”
The list includes Schneider, who had a 40-game winning streak, and said in a series of tweets last year that she was proud to be a queer, transgender woman and wanted people to know, but that the fact represented just a small portion of her identity.
Read More
‘Jeopardy!’ champ Mattea Roach says buying a home in Canada in her 20s only realistic because of game show windfall
‘Jeopardy!’ champ Mattea Roach on the TV quiz show’s queer representation
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