Key Points
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Jamie Ding’s historic Jeopardy winning streak has been snapped.
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The 33-year-old, self-described “bureaucrat and law student” won 31 consecutive games, leaving him one shy of 2019 contestant James Holzhauer.
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Ding walks away with $882,605 in total winnings, placing him fifth in regular-season winnings on the all-time leaderboard.
Jamie Ding played a fierce game, but his historic Jeopardy winning streak ends here.
The 33-year-old, self-described “bureaucrat and law student” finally lost on Monday’s episode, leaving him with 31 consecutive wins. That places him at No. 5 on the Leaderboard of Legends‘ ranking of contestants who’ve won the most consecutive games. It also leave him just one game short of tying James Holzhauer, the pro sports gambler who won 32 games in a row in 2019, and also holds the record for single-game winnings, having amassed $131,127 in one night.
Ding walks away with $882,605 in loot, putting him in fifth place in terms of all-time regular-season winnings behind 2022 champ Amy Schneider. He’ll also be back for the next Tournament of Champions.
James Holzhauer on ‘Jeopardy’
Credit: ABC/Christopher Willard
Ding has charmed Jeopardy viewers far and wide with the sincere yet often silly personal facts he’s shared with host Ken Jennings every episode since his March 13 debut.
Fans have especially glommed on to his love of the color orange, which he revealed in an early episode, and has referenced in each since by donning the color. “I insist on wearing orange everywhere, so I think that might make it easier,” he recently old PEOPLE, noting that he’s now attained a level of fame such that “strangers will come up for a selfie and I like it. It’s fun.”
When asked what he plans to do with his winnings, Ding revealed, “There are some causes I would like to support… some organizations could really use the money because the federal government is making so many cuts and things are getting so expensive and it’s a tough time out there for so many people.”
A New Jersey resident and the child of Chinese immigrants, Ding added, “I haven’t committed to anything definitive yet, but it’s tough out there for immigrants. I’ve always wanted to be doing good things for others and now I’ll have significantly more power to do that.”
However impressive his run was, Ding could have played for days, weeks, and months longer, and kept winning, and never even touched Jennings’ record.
The official replacement of the beloved Alex Trebek following his death in 2020 at the age of 80, Jennings garnered international notoriety for his unstoppable winning streak back in 2004. The former software engineer won 74 consecutive games, stretching from June 2 to Nov. 30.
He’s followed in the consecutive-win rankings by Schneider, who won 40 games in 2022, and Matt Amodio, who won 38 games in 2021.
Jennings also holds the record for highest winnings from regular-season gameplay, with $2,520,700, but he’s second in all-time winnings (including tournaments) to Brad Rutter, whose collective earnings total $4,938,436.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly