JEOPARDY! champ Ryan Long won his 16th straight game on Friday as fans spotted a “bizarre pattern” and something – or someone – else.
A “sexy” new player also scored points with dozens of wide-eyed viewers.
Mayim, 46, is hosting Jeopardy! for the fourth week in a row, returning after alum Ken Jennings’ prior three weeks at the helm and announcement he’d be out for “months.”
The permanent hosting slot is still on the board and will be decided by the end of Season 38 in July 2022.
Tonight, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania rideshare driver Ryan drove to his 16th win, already the ninth-longest streak on the show ever – with another $20K and $299K total.
But tonight, dozens of fans also took a pit stop to lust over a new contestant.
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‘WHO IS: THAT?’
Over at the right podium, Wyatt Yankus – a Washington DC policy analyst – swept the looks category with fans.
Clad in a blue suit, he may not have won – but they simply could not stop saying online that he was attractive.
“Ummm hello Wyatt #Jeopardy,” one Twitter user penned.
Another predicted, “So, methinks #Wyatt will be the next guy subjected to several thirst tweets #jeopardy.”
During the Q&A round, Wyatt shared his personal life.
“We got married about six months ago, my husband is originally from Canada – I’m originally from New York so we wanted somewhere symbolic of that US-Canada connection.
“It was a blast, a couple of hours before the wedding we left our families behind and went to an indoor waterpark, riding slides just the two of us, and got dressed up for the wedding.”
Indeed, another wash of lustful tweets arrived.
“I love it when the hot guy on Jeopardy is gay. Hot. Nerdy. Gay. Ohhh yes,” one fan wildly wrote after Wyatt came out on syndicated TV.
“Haha ladies. Wyatt’s taken #jeopardy,” wrote another.
“Wyatt fulfilled his dream by saying the words ‘My Husband’ on Jeopardy,” tweeted one more.
Taking a detour to enjoy an interesting first-timer is a Jeopardy! fixture; last week a contestant went Twitter viral for their Sasquatch shirt.
Both Wyatt and returning champ Ryan got Final Jeopardy correct tonight responding “Telegraph” – as fans also called in a shocking pattern.
WILD PATTERN
Ryan is now seven games shy of Canadian tutor Mattea Roach’s 23-game tear that ended when she lost by $1 earlier this month.
Mattea, Ryan, and Amy Schneider, Matt Amodio – all from this stunning season – will compete in the Tournament of Champions in November.
But one Twitter claimed the Uber driver will ride through another week of gameplay.
“Remember: every #Jeopardy champion who has reached 14 wins has gotten to at least 19,” they wrote.
Ryan is three games behind the two players who are tied for eighth-longest Jeopardy! run in history with 19 games each – indeed, once a player hits 14 games it seems they do keep going.
According to Daily Box Scores, Ryan has an 88% accuracy rating so far, a total of 26 correct responses tonight with 2 incorrect.
But unfortunately, it was a rough one if not in the looks department.
There were a massive 14 Triple Stumpers tonight, which means no contestant knew the answer – a huge figure given there are 61 clues per game.
Middle podium’s Lucia buzzed in correctly – or at all – once in regular Jeopardy!, as a fan tweeted, “#Jeopardy Did you fire all the game writers? This stinks.”
RYAN GOES ‘LONG!’
Regardless, Ryan’s big personality, pop culture category sweeps and humbly hilarious yet earnest Q&A stories have thrilled fans who may not have expected another streak so soon.
Last night, he spoke about his son and brought Mayim near tears.
“He wants to come to California, he wants to go to the theme parks – the best thing is, I have time to do these things with him now.
“I don’t have to, you know, work and say ‘I can’t do it,’ now we can just go wherever we want,” silence filling the purple-blue stage.
Mayim, who has two boys with her ex-husband, fanned her flushed face and replied, “That is wonderful, gave me chills. Alright… back to the game.”
During his first Q&A three weeks ago, the beloved contestant – who simply looks down at his score and shakes his head in bewilderment when he wins – pumped out an Arnold Schwarzenegger impression.
Since then, he has shared he was a bouncer in Philly – where he was chased by a raccoon – picked peas on a Mennonite farm, and grew up on Alex Trebek with his mom.
Tonight after the game when asked about his weekend plans, he shared he was going home to “soak in the tub,” and that his son doesn’t know about his run yet.
But behind his sometimes foggy specs (which he left at home his first week) and great go, the 39-year-old has made it clear his near-$300K will change his life.
He told The Philadelphia Inquirer that his father died before the start of his senior year of high school, which he “barely” graduated from.
In January 2021, he was hospitalized for several weeks after contracting COVID-19 – and could no longer work his public bus driving job.
He began driving for various rideshare drivers to provide for his eight-year-old boy Nathan, who made his bead necklace that peaks out of his two dress shirts, all he could afford.
He was living paycheck-to-paycheck for more than a year before flying to Culver City.
“If this opportunity hadn’t come up, I don’t know what I was going to do long-term,” he told the outlet.
Mayim has been a front-seat passenger for his streak which began on May 20th.
She has made some Q&A jokes that raised eyebrows, an off-color joke about marijuana last week, and also seemed to misunderstand the legacy of the band Queen – but has also grown on plenty of fans despite Ken’s closer alignment to the show.
Ken and Mayim began filling in for the legendary Alex after his tragic 2020 passing and a fleet of Season 37 celebrity guest hosts, including now-disgraced Mike Richards.
The fact that the hosting slot is still undecided has been a huge point of discussion, as the late Alex had hosted since 1984.
As another fan tweeted recently, “I actually like both Ken and Mayim, so that’s that, at least for me,” though one more replied that the 74-game and Greatest of All Time winner, given his resume, is still a “better fit for the show” between them.
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“I’m handing the keys back to the talented actor-producer-writer-director (!) Mayim Bialik for a few months,” Ken surprisingly tweeted, in early May the same day Mattea lost, “We are lucky to have her! I’ll be back before the end of the season.”
Ryan Long will be back next week for game 17, The Celeb Report has covered his entire run so far.
