CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Matt Amodio’s historic run on Jeopardy came to an end on Monday night after 38 straight wins and $1.5 million in winnings.
The man to dethroned Amodio is actually from South Florida.
“Winning the game was just beyond anything that I expected doing,” said new Jeopardy champion Jonathan Fisher.
Fisher told Local 10 news he had low expectations as after all, he was going up against Amodio and his amazing winning streak.
That didn’t stop the 30-year-old actor from Coral Gables from dethroning the former champ.
“I’m feeling really good,” he said. “Honestly, the hardest thing to do is to keep it under wraps for so long.”
Fisher and his partner of 11 years, Anna Miles, currently live in Southern California. A trained actor now working on a traveling Shakespeare show, it’s experience he says that helped him.
“I was pretty calm,” he said. “I think a lot of people say being on the stage with the lights and the camera on and all of that pressure, it’s hard, and I didn’t really feel that.”
Before heading for the west coast, Fisher was a kid growing up in the Gables where his proud parents Jon and Jan still live.
Fisher went to St. Stephens Episcopal Day School and Ransom Everglades, both in nearby Coconut Grove.
Each school has been bragging about their brainy alum online.
“I’ve been watching the show for years and only recently, maybe back to 2018 or so, I thought, ‘Oh, I could be on the show, I could audition for it.’”
The pandemic set things back a bit, but finally he got his shot, making it to Final Jeopardy.
“Luckily I knew part of the clue mentioned the Danube River, and I had been to Austria back in 2001 when I was with the Miami Children’s Chorus,” he explained. “So, I remember being in the country on the bus and driving past the Danube River, so I thought okay well that’s as close as I’m going to get, so I put Austria.”
The win ensures he’ll play another day, but could our local champ be the next Ken Jennings or Matt Amodio?
“All I can say is I’m definitely going to be on tonight, and beyond that I can’t say,” he said.