From one Jeopardy! great to another. Jamie Ding told producer Sarah Whitcomb-Foss how Ken Jennings inspired his 26-game streak.
On the latest episode of The Winner’s Circle on Jeopardy!‘s substack, Whtimcomb-Foss talked with Ding, who has won $732,000 so far, about his streak. After Jennings spoke out about how he would love to be there when Ding, or someone, breaks his streak, the contestant is getting candid about the G.O.A.T.’s inspiration.
About winning 26 games, Ding said he was “still amazed, still astonished. How many words can you think of for astonished? Astounded. That’s half a deck of cards,” he said. Ding is in the top five contestants to win consecutive games behind Kennings, Amy Schneider, Matt Amodio, and James Holzhauer. “It’s all happened so fast.”
Whitcomb-Foss asked if he had a Jeopardy! idol that he looked up to or admired, or someone’s gameplay he wanted to emulate. “It’s probably really Ken. He really broke through to the consciousness in a way that no one has or probably ever will,” Ding said.
“When I started preparing for my specific run, I really admired what James [Holzhauer] did with the big bets, kind of like the three-point revolution in basketball. So, what James was doing was very similar, and I liked that.” Ding has gone all in on a lot of Daily Doubles and final questions wagers.
The executive producer said that there is no “one way to become a Jeopardy! great.” “In a lot of ways, you emulate Ken’s play. You’re kind of just slow and steady, a lot of runaways, similar in that way,” Whitcomb-Foss said. “But, yet sometimes you make these big Holzhauerian bets.”
“I have enough confidence in my ability to win, to know most questions, and get in on the buzzer pretty consistently that I don’t feel like I need to be as audacious, even though it’s pretty fun,” Ding said.
Even though the game show contestant is confident in his ability, Ding shared that he did study for his streak, but hasn’t been able to do that as intensely since he is a law student and holds down a full-time job as a bureaucrat for New Jersey. “How do you attribute that you’re still able to be so successful?” Whitcomb-Foss asked.
“I still do a lot of trivia, OQL, Learned League, so there’s a study diet of not particularly structured studying, but still, reinforcement of knowledge. I also ask my sister for help on things that she’s much better at than me like TV, contemporary fiction, and I guess paying attention to things and having a really sticky memory,” Ding said. His sister, Jessie, has been at every taping of the game, along with their parents.
Ding shared that his stamina is holding up better than he expected after multiple five-game day tapings. Can his stamina hold out the whole week, where he could make it to 30 games? Tune in to find out.
Jeopardy!, weekdays, check local listings, stream next day on Hulu and Peacock
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
