Jeopardy! Champ Jamie Ding's 31-Game Winning Streak Comes to an End: Here's What He Says About Losing (Exclusive)
Jeopardy! Champ Jamie Ding's 31-Game Winning Streak Comes to an End: Here's What He Says About Losing (Exclusive)
Gillian TellingMon, April 27, 2026 at 11:45 PM UTC
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Jamie Ding on Jeopardy!Credit: Jeopardy Productions, Inc. -
Jamie Ding's 31-game winning streak finally came to an end on April 27
He still remains the 5th-winningest contestant in the show's history, but missed besting 2019 champion James Holzhauer by one game
He says that he's sad his run is over, but is at least glad it was a runaway
Jamie Ding's winning streak on Jeopardy! has come to an end.
After 31 straight games and winning $882,605 in prize money, the New Jersey native and Princeton grad was bested by Greg Shahade on the Monday, April 27, episode. While Ding says he's sad his run is over, he also says he's happy it ended in the way it did.
"I think my last game is unusual, because I was a super champ, but I also lost in a runaway, which I feel like is the first time that ever happened," he tells PEOPLE of Shahade beating him by 13,990 points.
"It almost makes me feel better about the thing because there wasn't really one clue or whatever that everything hinged on," Ding continues. He says that's why he opted to write a farewell note, that said "TTFN," (ta ta for now) on his final jeopardy answer
Jamie Ding on Jeopardy!Credit: Jeopardy!
"It being a runaway means that I got to write a goodbye message instead of nothing at all," he says. "I wouldn't have done that if there had even been a chance of me coming out with the victory."
Of course, the trivia wiz wishes he could have kept the streak going — he just missed besting James Holzhauer's streak, who won 32 consecutive games in 2019.
"Part of me is not OK and thinks that it would've been nice to go for more games. But on the other hand, it could have ended much earlier than it did," Ding, 33, says. "There were several people who were really strong and played well, and had a couple of things broken differently, I would have been done for weeks ago. So I'm both upset and pleased. Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened kind of thing."
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Despite the streak ending, Ding says he's just pleased he had a chance to bring so many people together, and loved hearing how families were gathering around the TV together each night to root for him.
"I kept hearing how it was bringing people together, and I love that very much. I've heard people say, 'It's nice to have something positive on TV!'" he says.
According to Jeopardy!'s official Leaderboard of Legends, Ding is still ranked at No. 5 in both consecutive games won and highest all-time winnings in regular-season play.
The only contestants to win more consecutive games than Ding are James Holzhauer in 2019 (32 games), Matt Amodio in 2021 (38 games), Amy Schneider in 2022 (40 games) and Jennings — who secured 74 wins in a row back in 2004.
Ding adds that "as an immigrant and a person of color, I was able to become part of the history of an American institution."
"Jeopardy! really is an institution and America's turning 250 years old and the federal government is going after immigrants in a way unlike anything that we've seen in the recent past," he says. "So I hope that immigrants can be seen in a positive light too."
on People
Source: “AOL Sports”
