Jamie Ding won his 31st consecutive Jeopardy! game on April 24, 2026, taking home $33,002 for the day.
Ding, a bureaucrat and law student from Lawrenceville, New Jersey, now has total winnings of $882,605 and sits one win behind James Holzhauer’s 32-game streak on the leaderboard.
The numbers underline the run: 31 straight victories and nearly $900,000 in prize money. On Friday’s game Ding missed the Final Jeopardy clue in the category The Literary Year, a clue that read, “In 1954, on the 50th anniversary of this day, a group went to a Martello tower before going on a bender.” He had wagered $198 and answered incorrectly.
Zach Pollock, a retired logistics executive from Media, Pennsylvania, answered Final Jeopardy correctly after wagering $1,000 and finished the episode with $7,600. Nicco Martinez, an accountant originally from Columbus, Ohio, finished third with $400.
Ding said he never set out to compile a long run and that pursuing dozens of wins wasn’t the plan; he has also said it’s been amazing that his streak actually happened. After his 30th victory he appeared live on a morning television program to talk about the run.
Context matters: Jeopardy! has been on the air for more than 60 years, with its modern incarnation beginning in 1984, and the show’s current host was on hand for Ding’s latest victory. Ding’s streak ranks among the longest in the program’s modern history and sits immediately behind Holzhauer’s record-setting 32 games.
The loss on Final Jeopardy is the story’s tension. After a near-perfect run through earlier clues, a small wager and a wrong response trimmed Ding’s day’s bankroll and left him exposed. It highlighted a recurring friction throughout any long streak: it only takes one miss, on even a modest wager, to tighten the leaderboard.
That tightening was visible in the final totals. Ding’s $33,002 win pushed his cumulative haul to $882,605. Pollock’s correct Final Jeopardy response and $1,000 wager moved him to $7,600 for the day, and Martinez’s game ended with $400 in third.
What happens next is straightforward and immediate. Ding is scheduled to return on Monday, April 27, 2026, to attempt win number 32 and a tie with Holzhauer’s record. The show now presents a clear test: can Ding translate momentum into another win, or will the vulnerability exposed on Friday allow a challenger to stop him?
For viewers who have followed the streak, the answer will arrive next week. The facts are simple—Ding remains the favorite by virtue of a 31-game run and nearly $883,000 in winnings, but Friday’s Final Jeopardy miss proved the margin for error is razor thin.
On Monday, the streak will either become history, matching the 32-game mark, or it will end—one way or the other, the run that captured attention will reach its decisive moment then.
