WASHINGTON — It had to end eventually, but D.C. paralegal Matt Jackson’s reign on Jeopardy ended Wednesday night, after a 13-game winning streak.
Jackson is the fourth highest-earning champion in the TV game show’s history, amassing a grand total of $411,612.
In Final Jeopardy, the clue was “For its 50th anniversary in 2012, the roof of this landmark was temporarily repainted its original color, Galaxy Gold.”
Jackson answer: The Kennedy Center
Host Alan Trebek delivered the bad news: “The correct response: ‘What is the Space Needle in Seattle?'”
Jackson lost to Michael Baker, of New York City.
Jackson plans to donate 10 percent of his winnings to charities. He is scheduled to return for the Tournament of Champions, airing Nov. 9 through 20.
In a statement published in Variety, Jackson says the experience was “pretty hard to wrap my mind around.”
“A returning champion finds out pretty quickly that ‘Jeopardy!’ is actually, under the surface, an endurance contest,” he said in the statement. “A whole week’s worth of episodes gets taped in a day, with maybe 10 minutes of rest between each episode, though there is a slightly longer lunch break.”
“A huge part of staying alive as a contestant comes down to whether you can stay alert, and a lot of people tire out quickly while the studio lights are on and adrenaline is high. I tried to pay close attention to whether I was getting hungry or fatigued or dehydrated, and made sure to correct that with a small snack between shows, or some jumping jacks, or whatever I needed.”
