After a 23-game winning streak that has secured her place in the “Jeopardy!” Hall of Fame, Mattea Roach’s time on the show came to an end Friday — and it all came down to a dollar.
Roach, a 23-year-old tutor who lives in Toronto, Canada, had a substantial lead heading into the final round of her 24th “Jeopardy!” game, according to a “Jeopardy!” news release sent to the Deseret News.
Roach — the youngest super champion in “Jeopardy!” history — had $19,200 entering the Final Jeopardy round, while Danielle Maurer, a digital marketing manager from Georgia, had $11,400, and Betsy Hobbs, a senior operations manager from Illinois, had $7,400, according to the Jeopardy! Fan archives.
And then it was time for the Final Jeopardy clue, which fell under the category “USA”: “These two mayors gave their names to a facility built on the site of an old racetrack owned by Coca-Cola magnate Asa Candler.”
Only Maurer came up with the response host Ken Jennings was looking for: “Who are William Hartsfield and Maynard Jackson?”
With her $4,200 wager, Maurer claimed the victory with a total of $15,600 — beating 23-time champion Roach, who wagered $3,601, by one dollar.
“It feels still kind of like a dream,” Roach told “Jeopardy!” according to the news release. “I really came down here hoping to maybe win one game and so I still can’t believe it. You know, it’s strange, obviously I didn’t come through in the last one, but I still feel so happy and so lucky to have had this experience.”
With Roach’s run, 3 of the 5 longest winning streaks in “Jeopardy!” history have happened during the show’s current season — although Ken Jennings’ legendary 74-game winning streak from 2004 remains untouched, according to the Deseret News.
Roach amassed $560,983 over 23 wins, placing fifth in the “Jeopardy!” Hall of Fame for most consecutive wins and highest winnings in regular season play, the Deseret News reported. She places behind Jennings, James Holzhauer, Amy Schneider and Matt Amodio in both of those categories.
“When I think of the caliber of those four players, I really don’t feel like I deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as them to be honest,” Roach said in a statement shared in the news release. “And there’s a noticeable financial gap between my money and theirs, but it’s an amazing accomplishment. Like, I can’t believe it. It’s such a huge honor that I am being spoken of in relation to people like Ken, James, Matt, Amy. It’s, wow. There’s no words.”
Roach will return to “Jeopardy!” for the Tournament of Champions this fall, where she will compete alongside other recent super champions, including Schneider and Amodio.