He was called ruthless, a villain, and a genius for how he won. Now, ‘Jeopardy!’ champ Scott Riccardi reveals the secret behind his controversial run—and why he regrets nothing.
‘Jeopardy!’ Champ Scott Riccardi Speaks Out About His Amazing Winning Run
Jeopardy/YouTube
Few people could believe the kind of run champion Scott Riccardi was having on Jeopardy!, least of all Riccardi himself, who remained in sheer disbelief over his streak.
In his appearance on Jeopardy!’s Winners Circle, Riccardi reflected on his experience with a mix of awe and humor.
“I gotta say, I’m in complete disbelief. Almost every single game there were points where I was like, ‘Okay, it’s probably just over now. I don’t think I’m going to be able to have the stamina to keep going, and I don’t know what happened,’” joked Riccardi to Winners Circle host and producer Sarah Foss.
During the interview, Riccardi discussed the thinking behind his bold wagering strategy, which helped him accumulate his impressive total winnings.
“Incredibly, you haven’t had that many runaways in your run, but it seems like that has also allowed you to make big wagers to win, and therefore, you’re looking at over $180,000 that you’ve earned,” Foss pointed out.
“Yeah, in a way, I’m grateful. Whenever I’ve had a lead most of the time in Final Jeopardy, it’s been by barely anything, and they happen to be one that I knew because then when you get that, you just have to wager a ton,” explained Riccardi. “The last game I was in second, and I was like, ‘This is really hard, I feel like I might be okay because I don’t know if anyone is going to get this.’ And the wagering just worked out.”
“It’s Jeopardy! We don’t call it that for nothing,” joked Foss.
The 26-year-old then shared how his Jeopardy! journey began.
“I’ve just been extremely lucky where I managed to make it through every part of the process on my first try. I know [for] a lot of people… It’s years and years. So I can’t believe it all just worked out.”
“That first day, I hoped to just win one game. It’s hard enough to do that!,” continued Riccardi. “And immediately, we kind of get into rehearsals, and I see Jason [Singer], and immediately, I’m like, ‘I don’t want to play him.’ Like, he’s really good. And he’s beating me really badly on getting in rehearsal. It was a tough Final Jeopardy, that was just tough enough for not everyone to know it, but it worked out!,” said the champ, smiling.
He was of course refering to the Final Jeopardy round in which Singer lost to the clue: “Lord of the Flies inspired this series as did the 1994 film Heavenly Creatures, which starred one of the show’s actresses.” Singer missed the answer, which was Yellowjackets, allowing Riccardi to move in and take the win.
“So now you get to keep playing, but you also know you will be back no matter what for the Tournament of Champions. Have you been watching the field growing? What are you thinking about [in] that level of competition?” asked Foss.
“I’m definitely intimidated. I know some of these multi-day champions probably come from Quiz Bowl backgrounds, and I only did that type of thing in high school. And usually I couldn’t go to the meets because it was the same time as concerts or like, rehearsals. And I didn’t do it at all in college. So I’m worried I’m going to run into these people who will have all this stuff kind of built in, or like, if they are a little older, they’ll have more just built-in, lived-in knowledge, which could be really tricky,” Riccardi confessed.
“Liam Starnes, he’s only 20, so it’s going to be really cool to see all these young champions going head-to-head.”
Jeopardy!, Weeknights, check local listings
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