'Jeopardy!' Champion May Be Planting Seeds to Host Game Show Himself
Jeopardy! champion Matt Amodio is already adjusting to his post-Jeopardy! life, but it might not be the last time we see him. Amodio, who won an incredible 38 games to start the 2021-2022 season and pocketed over $1 million, has an upcoming gig that could lead to him becoming the next Ken Jennings. This week, Amodio will host a charity game for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, he revealed in a new essay for Newsweek.
Game Theory host Matthew "MatPat" Patrick invited the Yale PhD student to join the Game Theory $1,000,000 Challenge for St. Jude on Nov. 30. The two went to the same high school in Medina, Ohio, Amodio wrote. He will be hosting, MCing and reading questions for a trivia round. "It's a surreal experience because I see there are people at the event who are really famous and have millions of followers on social media, and then there's me, Matt," Amodio wrote. "But it feels good to imagine that my name belongs on that list."
Amodio didn't mention wanting to host Jeopardy! himself, but he did write about how much he respects Jennings. In fact, he said his biggest regret was losing before Jennings' latest round of hosting began. "I'm holding out hope that whether it's on the Jeopardy! stage or somewhere else, at some point our paths will cross. And the harder that path is, the more winds and turns it has, the sweeter the endpoint will be," Amodio wrote for Newsweek. "Although I have, at times, been concerned that my excessive fandom is sending the wrong message!"
It is likely that we will see Amodio back on Jeopardy! before the season is over anyway, since he could be asked back for the Tournament of Champions. Amodio admitted he will be nervous about the tournament, since it will be filmed months after he competed. He is also eager to play Jonathan Fisher, the Florida actor who beat him in an October episode. "I have visualized beating Jonathan in multiple ways, that includes some replay of the game I lost and some future play in Tournament of Champions. I'm sorry, Jonathan," Amodio wrote.
Amodio finished his impressive Jeopardy! run in October with over $1.5 million in winnings. At the time, former The Big Bang Theory star Mayim Bialik was hosting. Amodio's championship run also included episodes hosted by disgraced former executive producer Mike Richards. Richards hosted the first five episodes of the season, since they were filmed just before Richards stepped down as permanent host on Aug. 20 and days before Sony fired him as executive producer.
In a September Washington Post interview, Amodio said he didn't mind the behind-the-scenes drama stealing the spotlight from his record run. "I'm an introverted person; I've never experienced even moderate amounts of attention, much less this much attention," Amodio said at the time. "I'm actually kind of surprised I've enjoyed it."
Jeopardy! now has another long-running champion, Amy Schneider, whom Amodio has been rooting for on Twitter. "She's so smart and fun to watch. I'm in awe. And, our Ohio connection is a good one to have. I definitely feel an understanding of a person if they share my Ohio roots," Amodio wrote. "I really want her to do well, all the way up until the point we're in a Tournament of Champions game together!"