When Eric Ahasic brought down “Jeopardy!” champion Ryan Long after 16 wins, he became what is known as a “giant killer” in “Jeopardy!” speak.
Now, on a current winning streak of six games, Ahasic has also been dubbed the show’s next “potential super champion.”
At the start of Monday’s game, host Mayim Bialik shared some of Ahasic’s accomplishments with viewers — including his average of 24 correct responses per game, and the fact that four of his five games have been runaways, meaning he couldn’t be caught by his fellow contestants, reported Minnesota’s Pioneer Press.
“These are the performance stats of a potential super champion,” Bialik said.
Who is ‘Jeopardy!’ champion Eric Ahasic?
Ahasic, a meteorologist from Minnesota, has been trying to get on “Jeopardy!” for 16 years — ever since he was in high school, MPR News reported. He was initially nervous when he learned he would be going up against Long, a 16-game champ. But those nerves dissipated once it was game time.
“Honestly, when you’re in the game, it just goes so fast you don’t really have time to be nervous,” he told MPR News after his first win. “Although I will say, the final ‘Jeopardy!’ question at the end where you wager your money and write it on the prompter there, my hand was shaking. And I have pretty bad handwriting to begin with so I hope it didn’t look even worse than it normally does with my hand shaking trying to write that final answer down, which I was lucky enough to get right.
“I credit Wikipedia for that one,” he continued, referencing the final question about Greek mythology. “It was a random word I read on Wikipedia one time. Then when Mayim, the host, said I was right I fist-pumped — it was an outburst of emotions. I’ve been trying to do this for 16 years. Just getting on the show is amazing, right? Win or lose, that’s awesome, but to be able to call yourself a ‘Jeopardy!’ champion, that was a lot of emotion coming out there at the end. That was really fun to watch.”
Now, with six wins to his name, Ahasic has accrued $160,601, according to “Jeopardy!” archives on TheJeopardyFan.com. He’ll go for his seventh win Tuesday night.
“I think that anyone who comes on this show, you hope you can win one (game),” Ahasic told “Jeopardy!” after his fifth win. “Then, if I can win one, I can win two. If I can win two, I can win three and just keep riding the wave as long as possible.”