“Jeopardy!” has a new rising star.
Yale PhD student Matt Amodio, 30, is now the quiz show’s second winningest contestant — notching his 33rd consecutive victory on Friday and eclipsing James Holzhauer’s streak.
Amodio hauled in $55,400, bringing his winnings to $1,267,801. He still trailed Holzhauer’s total winning by more than $1 million, however, due to his generally more conservative play in the “Double Jeopardy” and “Final Jeopardy” rounds.
“I have the chance to remind everybody how much better than me @James_Holzhauer is in literally every way,” Amodio tweeted before the pre-taped contest aired.
“It would be an honor to be unfavorably compared to a person I admire so much!”
The trivia whiz would have to win 42 more games to beat Ken Jennings’ 74 game blitz in 2004.
Jennings was set to host the show in tandem with actress Mayim Bialik after Mike Richards was forced out of the gig, and his executive producer role, following the revelation of sexist comments he once made on a podcast.
“Jeopardy!” had invited a slew of high-profile guests to moderate the program following the death of iconic host Alex Trebek.