Winning streak ends as Canada’s Mattea Roach loses 24th game of ‘Jeopardy’ by a single dollar


Mattea Roach, a 23-year-old Toronto tutor, lost her 23-game “Jeopardy!” streak by a single dollar, in a stunning upset Friday night.

The Canadian lost her record-breaking streak to an American-themed Final Jeopardy!, despite pulling ahead in the early game.

The Final Jeopardy! clue for Roach and the contestants Friday was: These two mayors gave their names to a facility built on the site of an old race track owned by Coca-Cola magnate Asa Candler.

Roach lost $3,601 and the game with her answer: “Who are Churchill and Downs?”

The correct answer, provided by her rival, was “Who are Hartsfield and Jackson?”

Key moments: Friday’s show saw Roach face off against Betsy Hobbs, a senior operations manager from Thornton, Illinois, and Maurer, a digital marketing manager from Peachtree Corners, Georgia.

Roach broke ahead of the pack going into the first commercial break with $5,200; Maurer, her closest opponent, had $1,800, while Hobbs slipped into the red with-$1,800.

Roach had only extended her lead by the end of Double Jeopardy!, accumulating $19,200 in winnings. Maurer was second, having secured $11,400 after nailing a tense religion-themed daily double, and Hobbs had $7,400.

However, the American-themed Final Jeopardy would be Roach’s Achilles heel. “Idk,” she wrote after her answer from her.

Maurer got the answer correct and just barely pulled ahead with a final $15,600.

Roach’s winning stats: roach’s cumulative winnings totaled more than $560,000 (US), as of her 24th game.

As of Friday, she’s won the fifth largest sum of money during a regular Jeopardy! season in history.

Roach is the show’s most successful Canadian player.

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 support Roach, something she says she was grateful for.

Roach says she’s happy to be part of a recent influx of LGBTQ contestants, although she noted 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 Amy 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 pople to know, but that the fact represented just a small portion of her identity. Schneider had one of the longest winning streaks on the show.

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