Jeopardy! has a new champion on a hot streak. Matt Amodio, a PhD student from Yale, is on a ten-day winning streak, with a playstyle that has so far rewarded his risky moves.
However, he tends to answer questions in a way that's much shorter and less grammatically correct than a lot of fans would prefer.
The new winner makes a habit out of starting every question with "What..." or "What's...".
This includes when it's a person like "What's Grohl?" instead of the grammatically correct "Who is Dave Grohl?"
And it's driving fans crazy.
Many fans so detest Amodio's answer style, they assume it has to be against the rules. After all, a quiz show that tests your mental abilities would surely consider your ability to follow the rules of English, right?
No such luck.
The official Jeopardy! Twitter account shared a post on the rules of the show.
According to the official rules, the answer needs only be "phrased in the form of a question."
This leaves a lot open to interpretation. The article shared even gives the example of using the British rock band "The Who?" as a complete and valid answer.
The revelation didn't please everyone.
But this can work both ways. While a quick and snappy question can help move the game along, it's also possible to ask a very specific question as your answer.
Since you need only phrase the answer as a question, you could ask something ridiculous like:
"Who could have known that it was James A. Garfield?"
However, producers do not recommend this. While it can be funny, it eats up show time since you're taking more time for each question, not to mention it takes more mental power to come up with these types of answers.
To that end, the very short answers Amodio gives means he's allowing more Jeopardy! to be played and saving his brain power for the difficult stuff.
It's a good, and more importantly, valid strategy.
With his tenth win, Matt Amodio has raked in a total of $362,400 in winnings. This makes him the 8th-highest winning champion so far. He'll also be going to the Tournament of Champions since he's won more than five games.
