Mattea Roach clinches 19th Jeopardy! victory, as Canadian champ's winning streak continues
Win sees Roach move up the ladder of the show's most successful contestants
Canadian Jeopardy! champ Mattea Roach won a 19th game on Friday, moving her another step higher on the ladder of the show's most successful contestants.
Friday's game saw Roach, a 23-year-old Toronto-based tutor, facing off against Julian Glander, an animator from Pittsburgh, Pa., as well as Terri Huggins, an associate director of admissions from New York.
Roach was trailing Glander at the end of the first round, but she nailed the first four questions in Double Jeopardy and took back the lead.
As usual, the game saw Roach once again proving her wide range of knowledge, answering questions about pop culture, the atmosphere, U.S. geography and more.
Heading into Final Jeopardy, Roach had earned $17,000 US, putting her ahead of Glander at $11,000 US and Huggins at $800 US.
Roach was the only contestant to answer the final question correctly. She walked away with $22,001 US in cash winnings.
That pushed her total winnings to $460,184 US during her ongoing 19-game winning streak. That's the sixth biggest haul in the show's regular-season history.
It also came to light during Friday's game that Roach — who in addition to her ties to Toronto, has also lived in Halifax, Calgary and Moncton, N.B. — has played a fair bit of Trivial Pursuit over the years.
Roach told Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings that she has faced off against her dad in Trivial Pursuit matches — but has had to contend with questions written for a mid-1980s version of the board game that is older than she is.
Only 5 players have won more games
Friday's win means Roach has now matched the past 19-game win streaks of David Madden and Jason Zuffranieri, putting the players in a three-way tie for the sixth-most consecutive wins in Jeopardy! history.
According to stats listed on the Jeopardy! website, Roach still trails Julia Collins (20 games), James Holzhauer (32 games), Matt Amodio (38 games), Amy Schneider (40 games) and Jennings, the player-turned-host (74 games).
No Canadian has ever won more Jeopardy! games than Roach and with her latest win, she continues to set the bar ever higher for those from this side of the border who follow her onto the show in future.
No matter what happens in Roach's next Jeopardy! match, she'll be part of the show's tournament of champions, set to air in the fall.
With files from The Canadian Press