By Collin Cunningham
(MEDINA, Ohio) Cleveland-area native Matt Amodio has succeeded in becoming the fourth-highest earner of all time on "Jeopardy!," having won $446,000 as of his most recent Monday night appearance.
The Ohio State University graduate grew up in Medina and is currently studying to get his Ph.D. in computer science at Yale University, according to Spectrum News. During his current 14-game winning streak, he has described himself to active game show host and Fox Sports announcer Joe Buck as a "history nerd."
Newsweek reports that Amodio recently talked in an interview about his answering style, which has raised some criticism from "J!" fans. The rules of "Jeopardy!" stipulate that each answer provided by contestants must also take the form of a question — for example, the correct answer for the clue "He was the 16th President of the United States" would be "Who is Abraham Lincoln?"
Amodio, however, has been able to buck this tradition by instead starting each answer with "What is?" even if the subject is a human, and to him, it's not a loophole but a strategy.
"I have a strategy where I form all of my questions with a 'what's' at the beginning, then I can focus on the rest of the clue," he said. "Other people have been very upset about me being robotic instead of forming a question differently each time.
"I was glad that 'Jeopardy!' said this was perfectly within the rules. I've watched 'Jeopardy!' every day of my life, so I knew it was OK."
The running champ compared his trivia show tactics to his computer science studies.
"That's the kind of thing we do in computer science all the time," Amodio explained. "You have a section of your program and it does 'A' or it does 'B' and it has to decide which.
Per 10TV, Amodio was also able to air out his feelings about the 2016 World Series that pitted the Cleveland Indians against the Chicago Cubs during his conversation with Buck on Monday.
"You were there with me when Rajai Davis hit a game-tying home run and I was so happy, but unfortunately you were also there with me a couple of innings later when it all ended," Amodio said in reference to a game that Buck had commentated.
Fans will have to wait and see if Amodio continues his victory run when the next episode of "Jeopardy!" airs tonight at 7:30 p.m.