Jamie Ding’s 31-game winning streak on Jeopardy! came to an end on Monday night, in part due to him slipping up on a question about a shape.
Ding’s string of victories ended abruptly on April 27 after he fell behind international chess master Greg Shahade in the first round and never made up the ground.
Shahade then significantly increased his lead by correctly answering all three Daily Double clues, earning a runaway advantage heading into the final round. In the last clue, host Ken Jennings gave the hint: “Home to private residences and hotels, the manmade archipelago seen here in Dubai is built in the shape of one of these.”
Ding answered “palm leaf” instead of the correct “palm tree,” losing $400 and leaving him with $16,000 to Shahade’s $32,600 before Final Jeopardy. Shahade also got the answer, meaning Ding failed to cut into the deficit.
The Final Jeopardy clue was: “Of South Africa’s 12 official languages, these two are alphabetically first and last.” Ding, Shahade, and third-place contestant Katrine Puckett all gave the correct answer: Afrikaans and Zulu.
Shahade bet $400, leaving him with a final score of $33,000. Ding bet $3,010 and finished with $19,010, while Puckett finished in third place with $4,990 after betting $1,990.
Ding then left a farewell note reading “TTFN” [ta-ta for now] on his Final Jeopardy response.
Ding’s 31-game streak, which saw him take home $882,605, puts him in fifth place on the show’s all-time list for consecutive wins and total winnings.
His streak is also the longest since Amy Schneider’s 40-game run in 2022, the second-longest in the show’s history.
Host Ken Jennings’ 74-game run in 2004, which earned him more than $2.5 million, remains the longest streak in Jeopardy! history.
Speaking to People, Ding said he was satisfied with how his run ended.
“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,” Ding said.
“It almost makes me feel better about the thing because there wasn’t really one clue or whatever that everything hinged on.”
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Ding added: “Greg played great and beat me to the buzzer several times. He got the first Daily Double and I was like, ‘OK.’ Then he got the second one. Then he got the third one, and I felt like things were pretty grim.
“On the other hand, it was only the very last clue that I got wrong that made it a runaway on his part. I didn’t really give up until it was mathematically impossible to win.”
Ding will return to compete in Jeopardy!’s next Tournament of Champions.
