Jamie Ding is the kind of contestant who makes it look almost unfair—like the clock runs, but he already knows where it’s going.
On Tuesday, April 14, the New Jersey “Jeopardy!” champ racked up his 23rd straight win, pulling in $16,400 to bring his season total to $644,000. With that streak, Ding has moved into a tie for fifth place on the all-time consecutive wins list with Mattea Roach, who won 23 games back in 2022. At the same time, he’s still in sixth place on the regular-season money list, behind fellow New Jerseyan Cris Pannullo, an Ocean City native who won $748,286 while winning 21 games in 2022, according to Jeopardy.com. Ding’s run also nudged him up to 13th on the all-time money list (including tournaments), according to TheJeopardyFan.com.
The storyline has been similar for weeks: he’s locked in early, then Final Jeopardy just confirms it. On Tuesday’s show, Ding went up against Iain Carpenter, a healthcare IT specialist originally from Mahomet, Illinois, and Stephanie Rice-Hoffner, a former car wash tech manager originally from New York City. Once again, he had a cushion heading into the last round—$18,400 to Carpenter’s $5,400. Rice-Hoffner ended up eliminated with -$800.
Final Jeopardy, though, still found a way to be tense for viewers. The clue read: “’Stop Fuming and Fretting’ & ‘I Don’t Believe in Defeat’ are Chapters 6 & 8 of this book.” No one in the match gave the correct response—“What is ‘The Power of Positive Thinking?’” Ding was the one hit for the miss, losing $2,000. It didn’t matter much in the standings, but it’s one of those moments that makes you blink, because you realize even the best players can still reach for the wrong answer at the worst time.
What makes Ding’s run especially noticeable is how it lines up across categories. He secured a spot in the season-ending Tournament of Champions, and Governor Mikie Sherrill didn’t exactly keep it quiet. “Let’s hear it for @njhousing’s very own Jamie Ding!” Sherrill tweeted on Tuesday. “Last night, he secured the title of the New Jersey player with the most wins in Jeopardy history. Keep on making New Jersey proud!” Sen. Andy Kim also shared congratulations during his run. And on April 1, Sen. Cory Booker tweeted: “Jamie Ding! Making New Jersey proud! This Lawrenceville resident spends his days helping fund affordable housing across the Garden State, then goes on national TV and dominates. The man answers trivia on @Jeopardy and houses people for a living. New Jersey does not miss. Keep buzzing, Jamie.”
The background is almost as interesting as the scoreboard. Ding works for the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency, and he’s originally from the Detroit area, graduating from Grosse Pointe North High School in 2009 before finishing at Princeton University in 2013. He even told his alma mater that being on the show is “phenomenal.” In a small, strangely specific detail, he and his sister run an Instagram account where they review General Tsos chicken at restaurants called: @attorneygeneraltsos—something Ding has brought up on the show. On the March 17 show, he set the mark for highest Coryat score with $42,400, topping the record of $39,200 achieved by now “Jeopardy!” host Ken Jennings on June 10, 2004. On the April 1 show, Ding tied Jennings at $39,200 Coryat. Coryat, named after a former contestant, is the sum of the natural value of any clues without Daily Doubles or Final Jeopardy.
And just like that, the streak keeps stacking. Behind him, the all-time consecutive wins list still reads like a highlight reel—Ken Jennings at 74 games, Amy Schneider at 40, Matt Amodio at 38, James Holzhauer at 32—while Ding sits at 23 right now. For a minute, you can almost hear the tiny TV-room sounds when a buzzer hits—like a crisp tap under the chatter—and you think, okay, maybe he’s human after all. But then he wins again. Still, you can’t shake the feeling the next streak milestone is going to land sooner than anyone expects.
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