Bethesda Resident Tries to Unseat Reigning ‘Jeopardy!’ Champ

Spoiler alert: if you have not watched Wednesday night’s episode of Jeopardy! and plan to, do not read on.

Bethesda resident Jack Hodges had a great opportunity Wednesday night. He and another contestant were up against reigning Jeopardy! champ Jonathan Fisher who had won seven straight games.

Fisher got out to an early lead and held on to win for the eighth consecutive time. Hodges correctly answered the final Jeopardy clue but was too far behind Fisher who also got it right. Hodges finished in second which automatically pays $2000.

Last week, Fisher unseated Matt Amodeo on Oct. 11 after he had won 38 games in a row, the second most ever on the popular quiz show and over $1.5 million.

Hodges, a hotel loyalty analyst in Washington, D.C. who is originally from Texas, lives in Bethesda.  He was a National Merit Scholar in high school, attended the University of Houston where he was an honors student then earned his Master’s from Houston all by the age of 22.

During his introduction on the show, Hodges revealed to host Mayim Bialik that he didn’t make his high school’s quiz bowl team the first time around but that after watching a lot of Jeopardy! episodes became co-captain the next year.

Wednesday night’s episode aired on Hodges’ birthday.

About Joe Yasharoff

Joe Yasharoff is MCM's Director of Content and Operations. He is also an adjunct journalism professor at the University of Maryland. Previously, Joe was the Managing Editor at NBC Sports Washington and Executive Sports Producer at FOX5 (WTTG-TV). He hosts the MoCo's Most Famous podcast for MCM.

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